Iryna’s Story: Twice Internally Displaced and Once a Refugee

Bucharest – “I have been displaced three times,” Iryna recalls. “Since 2014, we have fled the conflict in eastern Ukraine twice; then last year, we had to leave Ukraine entirely due to the full-scale war.”

In June 2014, Iryna and her then six-year-old daughter were forced to leave their home in Luhansk due to the start of the conflict in Donbas after the annexation of Crimea. Leaving her parents and wider family behind for the first time, Iryna fled with her daughter to Kharkiv.

In October 2014, after no contact with her family for four long months, Iryna decided to go home to find out what had happened in her absence. By this time, the initial fighting had calmed down to the point they could cross the frontline.

Upon her return, Iryna was thankful to find that her family was safe, but she was shocked by the situation. She knew she had to leave again, but it took almost three years before it was possible and safe enough for them to flee once more.

In 2017, Iryna and her daughter – at the time 9 years old – decided that the fighting was calm enough during the daytime to flee and find safety. Despite her family refusing to leave their property in Luhansk, Iryna took her daughter and fled.

After crossing the country, they finally arrived in Kyiv.

In Kyiv, Iryna found an apartment to rent, enrolled her daughter in school, and found a job. The capital city was their home for five years until 2022 when the full-scale war in Ukraine started.

In April 2022, with fighting at their door once more, the two decided once again to pack up the little they could carry and fled. Having heard of friends travelling to Romania, they embarked on their journey to Suceava, a city in northern Romania.

Once they crossed the border with Romania, they met volunteers who provided them with food and support. “I remember so clearly the volunteers at the train station who gave us delicious green tomatoes, chicken, and oats; it was simple, but it felt like the most delicious food I had ever tasted,” she says.

From Suceava, they then took the train to Bucharest. Once there, Iryna went to a multiservice centre run by various organizations together with the Government of Romania. There, she found out about the International Organization for Migration (IOM) from other refugees, through which she was able to secure short-term accommodation for her first month.

“They provided us with a lovely place to live for a month, through their Airbnb partnership,” she explains. “This gave me a chance to get back on my feet.”

Once she had shelter and her daughter started attending Romanian school, Iryna said she wanted to give something back and help other people fleeing Ukraine. Last summer, she started working with IOM at its Ukraine Information Centre in Bucharest. In 2023, she moved to a new role at the Call Centre for people from Ukraine, run by the Government of Romania with IOM and other UN agencies.

Iryna reflects on the life she left behind with great sadness. Her mother, who she had not seen she fled her home for the second time in 2017, recently passed away in Luhansk. “I love Ukraine, it is my country, but for now, Romania is our home; it’s where we have found safety,” she explains.

“Romania has given us a second – or even third – chance at life.”

IOM Romania’s inclusion work in 2023 is supported by the Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB) through the Migrant and Refugee Fund (MRF), the German Federal Foreign Office, the Government of Japan, the Government of the Republic of Korea, and the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM).

For more information on how to contact IOM Romania and access the inclusion programme, please visit our page.

If you are interested in donating to Ukraine relief efforts, please visit IOM's fundraising page.