COLUMBUS – Governor Mike DeWine has called a summit of service organizations next week to ensure Ohio is prepared to take in refugees from Ukraine if the need arises.
DeWine on Tuesday instructed the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services to convene a summit in northeast Ohio of various service organizations, such as resettlement agencies, faith-based organizations and charities, who could play a role in the relocation of Ukrainian families, DeWine said.
“Like many Ohioans, I am disgusted by the senseless aggression of the Russian military and want to support Ukrainian families being driven out of their country. While we do not yet know what role Ohio will play in helping these families, I want us to be prepared when the time does come,” he said in a release from his office.
U.N. officials say 2 million people have fled Ukraine in the two weeks since Russia’s invasion, creating Europe’s worst refugee crisis since World War II.
The meeting, scheduled for March 17, is intended to help the organizations better understand their possible role in refugee resettlement, and to assess what the needs of the refugees may be.
Refugee programs are federally run but DeWine says the ODJFS Refugee Services Program works with local resettlement agencies to provide the federal government with information on capacity. It also oversees programs operated through nine resettlement agencies and other non-profit groups located throughout Ohio that help refugees achieve economic self-sufficiency and social adjustment following their arrival in the U.S.
Since 2018, more than 500 Ukrainians have been resettled in Ohio, mostly in Cleveland, DeWine said.
A humanitarian crisis was unfolding in Mariupol and Tuesday brought no relief to the encircled city of 430,000 people.
An attempt to evacuate civilians and deliver badly needed food, water and medicine through a designated safe corridor failed, with Ukrainian officials saying Russian soldiers had fired on the convoy before it reached the city.
Congressional leaders have reached a bipartisan deal to provide $13.6 billion to help Ukraine fend off its invasion by Russia and assist European allies coping with the refugee crisis.