In Medyka or Dorohusk, not a border town between Poland and Ukraine, there is not a woman who does not cross the border with a boy or a girl by the hand. There is no grandmother who does not try to calm her grandchild or granddaughter. These are scenes that have been repeating themselves incessantly for a month. From this green gate come hundreds of thousands of minors fleeing the war, accompanied by the Polish military. According to UNICEF, more than every second child left Ukraine. A situation “never seen before admits spokesman James Elder almost impossible to deal with”.
Children, like women, are the saddest and most dramatic face of the Russian invasion. They are the middle families where the father or older brother stayed to fight. At the border, they arrive wrapped to protect themselves from the cold. The little ones are in the pram, the bigger ones don’t get out of their mother’s hands. They have fear in their eyes and arriving in another country makes them uncomfortable. They and their mothers are looked after by hundreds of volunteers who take turns at the border every day. In the strip of land that separates the border from the departure area, the buses give away toys and cuddly toys, but also the coveted chocolate eggs. And there’s no shortage of jugglers or street performers trying to wrest a smile from the little ones.
According to UNICEF, since the war began on February 24, 4.3 million children (out of a total of 7.5 million) have fled their homes in Ukraine. More than 1.8 million of them have become refugees, while another 2.5 million have been displaced within their bombravaged countries. “We left Kyiv 20 hours ago explains a woman while stroking her child now we are looking for a city to stay in”. On the road to the border, a couple is standing by their car, they are Poles and are waiting for their Ukrainian relatives, mother and daughter. “They called us and said they were on their way they say . A few more minutes and they should be here.” That of minors at the border is a very sensitive issue that attracts the attention of numerous associations and organizations protecting their rights. “Children often arrive at the border without papers, often alone.
There the control is not very effective and the drivers of the vehicles somehow become protectors of these children, explains Ernesto Caffo, the president of Telefono Azzurro, which campaigned for the rights of the child together with the Intergroup of the European Parliament, part of a trip to the PolishUkrainian border: “Children fleeing the war in Ukraine UNICEF warns are at risk of becoming victims of human trafficking. The war is leading to a massive wave of refugees, conditions that are leading to a significant increase in human trafficking.
“There is a great desire to do well concludes Caffo but there is no real coordination. We need to understand how to deal with the problem in an organic way, dealing with experiences in episodes similar to that of Hurricane Katrina in The United States.”