videoWith two actions, Dutch police officers have delivered 100,000 kilos of relief supplies, medicines, night vision goggles, helmets and handcuffs to the border near Ukraine. They also take 31 refugees back with them. “It’s heart-warming.”
Koen Voskuil
Latest update:
05-03-22, 21:27
Irma Neijman is at a McDonalds in Poland to buy happy meals for the Ukrainian children who are traveling with their mothers to the Netherlands. “They all want to go home. “I don’t want to leave,” they say. They are still almost in the denial phase of what is happening in their homeland. Now they are going to a totally unknown but safe country.”
Police officer Neijman left the Netherlands on Thursday morning. Her colleagues Koen Simmers and Ramon Meijerink have launched a similar campaign. With a total of more than ten vehicles, including two trucks full of relief supplies, they went to Poland, from where the items were brought across the border into Ukraine. From the McDonalds, Neijman tells about her adventure. ,,It has been tropical days, we hardly slept. When we got there, we had to unload 100,000 kilos of goods. In fact, it is only now that the penny is falling how intense it is what we have seen.”
Night vision goggles and helmets
What started as a relief effort for animals in need quickly expanded into a humanitarian operation in which Neijman collected 100,000 kilos of aid supplies for Ukraine. At the same time, a huge fundraising campaign started at the police. After a call in a personal capacity, colleagues donated massively tactical goods that their colleagues in Ukraine can put to good use. Everything was collected in the trade union building in Baarn: night vision goggles, helmets and bulletproof vests that the police could do without, but also first aidkits, rescue blankets and defibrillators.
“The willingness was so great that we soon had to rent a shed to store all our belongings,” says Jan Struijs of the Dutch Police Association (NPB). “More and more was added: baby food, emergency rations, medicines. We have completely filled more than ten cars, including a truck.” On the way more police goods arrived from the German police.
We’ve taken a bureaucratic shortcut
The necessary phone calls had to be made to pass border controls and avoid bureaucracy. ,,But we have such a great network in Europe that every problem was solved immediately. Then there was an app or a phone call from a high-ranking Polish colleague, and then things could move on again. Without having to pay import duties anywhere,” says Struijs. Neijman also says: “We have found a bureaucratic shortcut.”
At a location that the unions do not disclose, all items have been unloaded in a shed. Many of the goods have already crossed the Ukrainian border. Back Neijman’s bus stopped at Warsaw, where Ukrainian refugees were staying at the train station. “The refugees lay there on the icy ground. The Poles do what they can for those people, but their capacity is at the max. In consultation with an aid organization, we took 31 refugees on our bus. They are mainly women and children, and two young men.”
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heartwarming
Union chairman Jan Struijs is overwhelmed by the two actions. “First of all I am very relieved that everyone is safe on the way back. But I am so very proud of these police officers and how they managed this in a super short time. It’s heart-warming. The Corps leadership has fully cooperated in this, as have German and Polish colleagues. We got help everywhere.”
Animal lover Irma Neijman adds that in addition to 31 refugees, her convoy also took 45 dogs to the Netherlands. “And one cat.” Then she has to hang up, because the happy meals for the children have to be paid for. ,,You can see the fear in their eyes, but they were already drawing along the way. It’s nice to see that they can slowly become children again.”
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