THE ROLE OF THE NATIONAL FIREFIGHTING AND RESCUE SYSTEM IN THE PROCESS OF COMBATING THE MIGRANT CRISIS IN POLAND IN THE FACE OF THE RUSSIAN-UKRAINIAN WAR IN 2022

Abstract

On February 24, 2022, the world faced a very different reality. The armed aggression of the RussianFederation affected not only the Ukrainian state, but also had a huge impact on the politics ofnumerous countries, especially those bordering with Ukraine, including Poland. The scale ofdestruction and the form of aggression expressed by Russia astounded not only the Ukrainianpart, but also other countries of the world. The consequences of the war proved to be horrific. Thetime since the armed assault has become Polands largest refugee crisis after the Second WorldWar and also the largest one in Europe. The aforementioned refugee crisis also bears the hallmarksof a migration crisis (and so it was assumed in the considerations) due to the record numberof refugees who arrived in Poland in the first days of the Russian-Ukrainian war. The challengePoland faced was not only the scale of the influx of people, but also the short time in which theinflux has occurred. The new situation required Poland to prepare a coherent action plan betweenpublic authorities, local governments, NGOs and citizens.The aim of this paper is to present the most important activities undertaken by the NationalFirefighting and Rescue System (NFRS) to help war refugees from Ukraine in 2022. The scale ofactions taken in the wake of the situation at that time was described on the example of the activityof the State Fire Service (SFS) and Volunteer Fire Brigades (VFB) participating in activities aimedat minimising the refugee crisis. In addition, thanks to the diagnostic survey carried out amongthe local community (residents of border towns), it was possible to diagnose the level of senseof security of those who, while providing help, experienced the effects of the military crisis inUkraine.Despite the fact that the presented conflict does not meet the formal prerequisites for armedconflict, as according to Article 1 of the Third Hague Convention of 1907, the initiation of armedaction must be supported by a prior formal act of war declaration, the paper assumes that thisarmed conflict will be called a war (Schindler, Toman, 1988). The conducted research focused on an analysis of reports and statements on the type, scope and sizeof tasks imposed on the National Firefighting and Rescue System units and the role of the fire servicein the process of combating the migrant crisis. Analyses were performed of activities carried out bythe National Firefighting and Rescue System units in the first seven months of the conflict, i.e. fromFebruary 24, 2022 to October 11, 2022. It should be added that the activities implemented by theguards have not been completed and on various levels are being continued until now.The paper makes use of the available literature and legal acts, and a special analysis was carriedout based on statistical data obtained from the National Headquarters of the State Fire Service ofPoland and the Border Guard Headquarters. The assessment of the role played by the NFRS in theprocess of combating the migration crisis in Poland, in the face of Russian-Ukrainian war in 2022,also made use of data obtained from a diagnostic survey of the target research group of 181 peoplewho are active witnesses of the actions taken, often shoulder to shoulder with SFS and VFB.The above methods allowed a detailed presentation of the range of activities of the selectedNational Firefighting and Rescue System units in combating the migration threat and showed thewide spectrum of their involvement, effectiveness, efficiency and rapidity. The results showed newresearch areas that would be worth paying more attention to in future research processes.