'Close to Ukrainians': Poland's many attitudes to refugees

Ukrainian refugees at the bus transit centre of the eastern Polish town of Przemysl on March 5. Photos: Nicolas Cleuet/Le Pictorium Agency/ ZUMA/dpa

Poland hasn't exactly been known as a country to welcome refugees with open arms. Under its national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party government, the EU member state has often opposed taking in migrants, for example when they were trapped in freezing temperatures at the Belarusian-Polish border.

But then Russia invaded Ukraine, sparking the "fastest growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War II", according to the United Nations.