“We were immediately overwhelmed by the amount of requests we got,” stated van Drunen, a former diplomat in the Netherlands who used to dwell in Kyiv and moved to Hungary in 2013.
Within days, others all through Irota additionally stepped up. The midwife supplied to assist pregnant Ukrainians and infants. The city’s solely dentist volunteered to deal with a refugee with toothache freed from cost, and the native church transformed cottages used for a youngsters’s camp into extra sleeping house for refugees.
“Everyone from Hungary has tried to help us. They are amazing people,” stated Natalia Adamenko, 44, who stayed in one of many church cottages when she first fled Kyiv earlier than transferring to a close-by city along with her daughter, Kseniia, 17. “I know the Hungarian government is not so loyal, but the actual people are different.”
Aid staff say that relying on volunteers to support refugees signifies that increasingly more Ukrainians will inevitably slip by the cracks as exhausted volunteers turn out to be stretched skinny because the struggle drags on.
“We’ve seen a lot of European solidarity towards Ukrainians, but the extent to which that solidarity will be maintained in the coming months is a big question,” stated Emily Venturi, who specializes in refugees and migration at Chatham House, a London-based suppose tank. “What’s going to happen if families hosting refugees reach a certain point where it’s not sustainable for them to do so anymore? Then what?”
Léderer shares these issues. “Unless the government and the state authorities get their act together very soon, we’re going to have very serious problems here,” he stated.
Already, not all refugees arriving in Hungary have been met with the identical support as these in Irota.
Yulia Sheikhova, 32, escaped Mariupol along with her husband and their youngsters, 3 and 12, proper earlier than their condo constructing was destroyed. She stated that her household discovered a hostel in Budapest by phrase of mouth. Finding meals has been more difficult.
Waiting in line at a volunteer-run donation tent, she stated she had gone to the humanitarian middle arrange by the federal government at Budapest’s BOK stadium searching for meals for her youngsters. But all she was supplied had been juice bins and apples. “Not actual meals,” she stated.
“My kids are afraid. They are hungry. They are tired,” Sheikhova stated.
Finding dependable shelter has additionally been a problem for some refugees.
Since leaving Kyiv, Natasha Dobzogozskaya, 39, and her 6-year-old twin daughters had been staying at The Hotel Hungaria in downtown Budapest whereas they waited for a visa to journey to London, the place they deliberate to dwell along with her cousin till it’s protected to return to Ukraine.