by Giusi Fasano
The Mayor of Warsaw: “Thousands of us have done our utmost, but now we need the EU and the UN. Give us money, not the government”
“Just look them in the eyes, especially those coming from the easternmost part, they are lost. Because they come from the days of bombs and missiles, because many of them have lost family members, children, friends. But also because they are people who speak Russian, it is as if they were attacked by a family member. And do you know what else moved me a lot?”
Thing?
«Young people go to see who live and work here with us. 70,000 returned to Ukraine to fight».
Rafal Trzaskowski talks about “his” Ukrainian refugees and gets enthusiastic. He is the mayor of Warsaw, fifty years old, with a proEuropean vocation and a key man of the civic platform, against the populist right and the justice rights. Of more than two million refugees who have landed in Poland, more or less 450,000 have passed through his city and it is estimated that around 300,000 will remain indefinitely.
The latest news about the war in Ukraine
A few days ago she said: “We are at the limit”. And now? Has the limit been exceeded?
“It’s hard to say. What we do know for sure is that we’ve improvised a lot so far and instead we need an organized system, we absolutely need the European Union and the United Nations that are present here, with international institutions that handle this emergency cope better than us mayors. The wave of arrivals is far from over, we need people to help us with the admission and relocation system, my calls at 3 a.m. are no longer enough to ask someone: Can you get 100? Can you please 200 to take?”
Seen from the rest of Europe, Poland, which takes in two million refugees in 20 days, looks organized.
“We are doing what we can thanks to the efforts of thousands of people who have had little sleep and hard work for weeks, but we cannot continue like this or we will crash. These people need medical help, schooling, social services of all kinds, housing and work. We can’t do it alone. Not to mention the government dumps everything on the premises. For example: It was decided to give every refugee the Pesel, that is the identity code that allows access to the school and health systems. Good. The government told us: great, you do it all! And so for many other things ».
Who pays for all this?
“For now we are, but the government has promised us money and the European community has also promised us. I explained it to EU colleagues: do not give all the funds to the central government ».
And then to whom?
“In my opinion, they should give them directly to refugees, to NGOs and to those who work in this field, and they should have a direct line to local governments, because we are actually on the front lines. I believe the money will come eventually. I just hope that they don’t distribute them according to political criteria, as they always do.”
The biggest problem?
“At the moment there is a lack of psychologists. We don’t have enough and the language difference doesn’t help us. Traumatized, vulnerable, orphans, disabled, elderly people arrive. Psychological help is fundamental ».
A ceasefire is underway between the government and the opposition on the refugee issue. Will take time?
“There are many things to do and help people, I don’t have time to think about politics. Politics will return soon I’m afraid. Even if there is now this truce, we will not forget what they have done so far in terms of civil rights, justice and immigration ».
About immigration. Poland rejected Middle Eastern families who camped for weeks in the cold on the border with Belarus, but then took in two million Ukrainians…
«There entered the government of the madmen of law and justice…, pure politics. They always need an enemy: LGBT refugees, alleged uncontrolled migrations from the south. Even if I would always help everyone, it has to be said that the picture was not so clear back then: there were war refugees and war refugees were economic refugees. However, everything is clear with the Ukraine crisis. And then, apart from the cultural and linguistic similarities that count for people, we know something else this time: that Ukrainians are also fighting for our freedom, which is much clearer for Poles than for Spaniards or Italians.”
Give us good news.
“In the Warsaw hospitals alone, we took in 20 children born to Ukrainian refugees.”
March 19, 2022 (Modification March 20, 2022 | 07:52)
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