After years of policies against the entry of immigrants across their borders, European nations such as Poland, Romania and Moldova have opened their doors and are creating strategies to receive thousands of refugees from the war in Ukraine.
The UN refugee agency estimates the number of people who have already managed to leave the country at more than 368,000. Poland alone received approximately 50,000 people last Saturday alone.
In the border town of Dorohusk, one of the country’s main links with the Ukrainian capital Kiev, refugees arrive in buses, vans, cars, motorcycles and even on foot.
“I live in a village in western Ukraine. When I heard the air raid sirens go off, I packed my bags and left. It took me about five minutes to get some things and gather the kids,” said a Ukrainian who declined to reveal her name.
Driving the family car with her husband and two children, Mila (who did not give her last name) arrived in tears at the Polish border. On the dashboard of the Mercedes, it was possible to see several passports of Ukrainian and Spanish nationality.
“We are too tired, we waited too long to make it through. Now we just want to have dinner and get some rest,” said the woman, before helping herself to soup offered by Polish volunteers.
The report found that on the Ukrainian side of the border, women and children are a priority, but few men are being allowed to cross. Local authorities are telling them to stay and fight for their country.
Ukraine and Russia have been at war since last Thursday, when Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized the bombing of the capital and other cities.
In 2021, Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko encouraged thousands of refugees from the Middle East and Africa to try to cross the Polish border into the European Union. The attempt was to use them as a weapon to destabilize the bloc’s nations. Polish troops were sent to keep them out and a stalemate lasted for weeks.
This time the story is totally different. The Polish government set up reception centers and mobilized the border guard to help the Ukrainian war refugees enter. All trains in Poland are operating free of charge to take refugees to different cities and to other European Union countries.
“We are very saddened by what is happening. I know many Ukrainians and they are suffering,” said Polish Malgorzata Grzechula.
Poles living on the borders are forming a support network for Ukrainians, even offering their homes to welcome them.
On the border of Dorohusk, Wojciech Pędziński was one of the first volunteers to arrive spontaneously. He bought 500 euros in food and set up a booth to make donations meters across the border, in Polish territory.
“We came here because we need to help these people. And we buy a lot of food. When I came here, I met many people like me who want to help Ukrainians,” she said. “We set up food here in this area, we started with something like this here and after an hour we had three meters of food. And we are trying to help these people.”
Polish soup, bread, sweets and water were served at the stall. Looking very tired, most refugees stopped to receive help.
Moldovan President Maia Sandu said the country’s borders are open for humanitarian reasons.
Hungary, which has always been against immigration, has also opened its doors. Greece, which had also been resisting immigration, promised to open its borders.
But the operation to evacuate Ukraine’s refugees is not easy. The UN said it will invest US$ 20 million in immediate aid.
On the Ukrainian side, several computer crashes are delaying refugees from leaving the borders. Queues can be over 15 hours long. An express train carrying refugees from Lviv to Poland ran into trouble this Sunday (27) and was out of operation.
The day before, the train had stopped for nine hours in the middle of the journey. Many people decided to walk along the road, carrying suitcases and carrying children in the freezing cold.
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