POLAND: Ukrainian Migrants Attacked For ‘Disrespecting’ Polish Women

Local residents have attacked Ukrainian migrants in the Polish county of Lodz, according to Poland’s news channel TVN24.

A group of Polish men stormed a dormitory house, occupied by about 120 Ukrainian labor migrants. Walls outside of the building were painted with offensive slogans, the least offensive of which is "Poland is for Poles," the source said.

Anti-migrant graffiti and ethnic slurs, however, aren't the worst thing that Ukrainian migrants have faced in Poland. On January 17, seven local residents broke into the dormitory and started beating Ukrainian migrants living there, the Polish TV channel reported.

The attackers were armed with batons and knuckledusters. As a result of violence, several people were hospitalized.

When Polish police arrested six men, they said the motive of their attack was the disrespectful behavior of Ukrainian migrants towards local women.
The men involved in the attack now face up to five years in prison on charges of ethnically-motivated hate crimes, TVN24 said.

According to Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo, the country has accepter over a million Ukrainian migrants over the past year. The number of Ukrainians has almost doubled over the past six months, as in May 2015, the think-tank Center for Eastern Studies (OSW) estimated there were around 400,000 migrants.