Photo: Lukasz Gagulski / EFE
The Przemysl railway station, on the border with Ukraine, became one of the main points of entry into Poland for refugees Ukrainians fleeing the war and from where convoys are organized for delivery to other cities.
From the platforms and the adjacent streets the flow of people is incessant during the 24 hours, as Efe was able to verify in the early hours of this Saturday, and the majority of refugees from Ukraine are women, children and elderly people.
A device of about a hundred people, including national and municipal police, firefighters, members of the paramilitary militia and Ukrainian or Polish volunteers who are students of that language, receive the flood of people with thermoses of tea and baskets of sandwiches.
Upon arrival at the station, an imposing In a large building dating from of 1855, the support staff accompanies people to a registration table, in case they want to leave as soon as possible to a Polish city, and groups them according to the destination they choose.
Many people offer refugees free rides to major Polish cities in their own vehicles, as is the case of two Belarusian friends holding a sign that reads in Ukrainian: “To Krakow, room for three people”.
“We are volunteers, we don’t want anyone to pay us, we are here to help”, they explain to Efe.
The lights of the station remain on all night, even in the waiting room set up as a dormitory for women and children where some 80 folding loungers with blankets.
TO As the hours go by, the number of people increases and it is decided to take advantage of the first floor of the building, which houses the offices, to install more loungers for mothers with babies and pregnant women.
Throughout the early hours, social workers ceaselessly bring blankets, thermoses, juices and bowls of goulash and rolls to newcomers and the crowd that fills every corner of the station and the small improvised kitchen is not enough.
Despite of the emergency and stress environment, the organization is excellent, and when someone uses a loudspeaker to announce the departure of a car or claim drivers, such as the fourteen registered to travel to Krakow, there is a momentary silence and everyone pays attention.
They settle down turns to take advantage of the available plugs, since practically all the world uses their mobile phone to stay in touch with their loved ones or to share news.
According to what the fire brigadier of Rzeszów (provincial capital), Daniel Dryniak, told Efe, about 1 arrived at the Przemysl station on Thursday.500 people, but that number is visibly higher on Friday night.
Taisia, a woman from the Ukrainian city of Járkov (East), tells Efe that her husband is a municipal police officer and for this reason he could not accompany her to Poland; “They forced him to stay and fight, but he would have volunteered,” he says.
On the platforms there are groups of men who smoke and share information about the cities they come from (Kiev, Lviv, Kharkiv), even though at 2.00 in the early morning the temperature is several degrees below zero.
Tatiana, a Ukrainian mother of three children, explains to Efe that he travels with his two brothers and, when they offer him to go to the bedroom to rest, he prefers to stay with his own.
“No matter what happens, from now on we will always be together”, he affirms.
Shortly before 3.00 at dawn, the mayor of Przemysl, Wojciech Bakun, arrives, telling Efe that “it is impossible to know how much people have arrived or will arrive”, but he hopes “that more cities and more governments will show his love for these people”.
“In the last 72 hours I have not slept more than two or three”, he assures before continuing with the supervision of the assistive device.
With the lights of dawn the cries of babies in the makeshift bedrooms and a group of volunteers run through the halls with boxes full of stuffed animals.
The Polish government has shown its willingness to welcome all the refugees who arrive in Poland to escape the war and assured that “the labor market” in this country “can absorb a million Ukrainians” if necessary.
Warsaw has established eight reception points throughout its border with Ukraine and accepts anyone who arrives with an identification document, passport or work permit issued in Ukraine and to speed up the procedures it does not require vaccination certificates against covid-000.
In Poland More than a million Ukrainian nationals live there, and unofficial estimates put that number at about two million.
The UN believes that the war in Ukraine has already forced the displacement of some 100 .0000 people and in the future they could suffer the same fate between one and four million Ukrainians.
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