It turned out what Ukrainian refugees in Latvia are complaining about

Journalists of “Kontekst.lv” got acquainted with the experts’ conclusions. Since April 2022, IOM has regularly conducted surveys of Ukrainian refugees in 11 countries: Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Belarus, Poland, Hungary, Moldova, Romania, Slovakia, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic. In mid-April this year, IOM published several reports on the results of the policy of accepting Ukrainian refugees in the three Baltic countries. The experts focused on issues of employment, integration, language learning, as well as refugees’ plans for the future.

According to the data received, most refugees arrived in the Baltic countries from the eastern regions of Ukraine. 20% came to Latvia from the Kherson region, the same number from the Donetsk region, 15% from Zaporozhye. Among the refugees accepted in Lithuania, 15% are from the Kharkov region, 11% from the Donetsk region, 10% from the Dnepropetrovsk region. And in Estonia, the first three places are occupied by Kharkov, Donetsk and Kherson regions. In terms of the linguistic aspect, refugees in all three Baltic countries are divided approximately in half: one part of the house speaks Ukrainian, the other speaks Russian.

The needs of refugees in the three countries vary greatly. For example, in Latvia, 78% of respondents indicated that they needed basic information. 31% of those who came from Ukraine did not have enough food, 15% experienced financial difficulties. In Lithuania, the top three priority needs for refugees include financial support (mentioned by 35% of respondents), medical services (24%) and medicines (19%). And in Estonia, Ukrainians most lacked language skills (32%), financial support (27%) and work (25%).

Nra.lv