Red Cross 'astonished' by 12,000 accommodation offers for Ireland-bound Ukrainian refugees

A child amid the refugees fleeing the Ukraine war to arrive at the Medyka border crossing in Poland. More than 2,500 Ukrainians have arrived in Ireland since the Russian invasion of their country began just two weeks ago. Photo: Daniel Cole/AP/Shutterstock (12843204h) Poland - 10 Mar 2022

The Irish Red Cross has said it is “blown away” by the generosity of the public after close to 12,000 offers of accommodation to Ukrainian refugees were made to the charity.

Some 11,902 applications via the Red Cross’s register of pledges – offers of both shared and vacant accommodation - had been made as of Thursday morning, just six days since the project began. That is nearly double the 6,100 offers recorded on Tuesday night.

Some 75% of the pledges so far have been shared accommodation, mostly in cases where families or individuals have a room to spare. Cash donations to the charity for its Ukrainian drive meanwhile have reached €14 million, a figure described as “unbelievable” by a Red Cross spokesperson.

“The Irish Red Cross have been blown away by the generosity of the Irish people both from an accommodation pledge point of view and for donating money,” they said.

“They have been simply astonishing. 

We are asking those who have registered with us with offers of accommodation to bear with us and our contact team will be in touch over the coming weeks.

They said that the charity had received just 180 offers of accommodation last Friday.

“To put it in context it took a few months to reach 1,000 pledges during our Syrian refugee campaign a few years ago,” the spokesperson said, adding that more than 125 Irish companies have likewise now offered aid to the Ukraine crisis appeal “with more and more calling us every day to offer help”. 

“We are just so grateful for such a wonderful reaction from the Irish people so far,” they said. The largest proportion of individual accommodation pledges thus far are in Dublin, with 2,149 offers.

Cork meanwhile has seen 1,327 pledges, while fellow Munster counties Tipperary, Limerick, Clare, Kerry, and Waterford have seen 336, 322, 300, 275, and 203 offers respectively.

Galway, Meath, Kildare, and Wicklow are the counties with the most offers of accommodation after Dublin and Cork, with 2,130 pledges between them.

More than 2,500 Ukrainians have arrived in Ireland since the Russian invasion of their country began just two weeks ago, with Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney acknowledging in the Dáil on Thursday that potentially tens of thousands could arrive on Irish shores in the coming weeks. 

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New arrivals are being given short-term accommodation on arrival together with PPS numbers to ensure they can access welfare and employment.

The Red Cross accommodation portal can be accessed at registerofpledges.redcross.ie.

The charity said that it will take between two and three weeks for incoming Ukrainians to be matched with suitable accommodation offers following a three-step vetting process, with applicants currently having their registrations filtered by volunteers from various sources, including some from Web Summit and 3 Ireland.

The placements themselves are set to last between six and 12 months.