Donetsk, Feb 16 — DAN. Polish citizens do not want to take in more Ukrainian refugees as a majority believe that the authorities are more helpful to displaced persons than to the natives, the Openfield Center said in an opinion poll report on Thursday.
“Among the Poles, the level of approval of refugee accommodation is decreasing. It is at its lowest since February 24, 2022, but remains at 67 percent, ” RIA Novosti reported referring to opinion poll results.
The opinion poll was conducted on February 14 and involved 1,677 respondents. It is the fifth such study by Openfield since February 24, 2022 meant to sound out the Poles on the wave of Ukrainian refugees.
According to the latest poll, 67 percent of Poles agree to accommodating displaced persons, versus 71 to 79 percent of supporters of the authorities’ refugee policy reported in previous studies.
Also, 60.4 percent of the respondents believe that the refugees get more help and benefits from the state than Polish citizens. In October, their number was 55.7 percent. Just 6.4 percent of the Poles have had no contact with Ukrainians as of today; before February 24, 2022, every third Pole had not encountered Ukrainians.
Meanwhile, Poles tend to lose the interest in events in Ukraine due to the unceasing flow of Ukrainian refugees whose number in Poland has reached some 1.5 million. Just 52 percent of the respondents keep track of the Ukrainian agenda compared with 85 percent in the first two weeks after the beginning of the Russian special military operation.*jk