In the waiting room of the Refugee Reception Center (Creade) in Pozuelo de Alarcon, on the outskirts of Madrid, Hanna, 26, waits with her family on Friday, April 8, to collect the temporary protection certificate that she was given. was granted. Red jacket and long brown hair, the young woman, originally from the Dnipro region, left Ukraine on March 11, with her sister, her five-year-old nephew, her mother and her grandmother – both widows.
The decision was made when “Three bombs fell near our house”, she specifies to one of the translators present on the spot, recognizable by her white vest. Her husband and her sister’s ex-husband remained in Ukraine, like all men aged 18 to 60 likely to be mobilized. “We took several trains and once we got to the border, the volunteers helped us get to Spain, where my husband has family,” she adds. With more than 120,000 nationals, the Ukrainian community in Spain is the fourth largest in Europe.
The presence of this diaspora partly explains the influx of some 110,000 refugees who have arrived in Spain since the start of the war, according to government estimates – France has so far welcomed 45,300 Ukrainians. But that is not the only reason for these arrivals.
Despite the distance that separates the Iberian Peninsula from Ukraine, many Spanish associations and foundations, as well as a large number of individuals traveled to the Polish border throughout the month of March to bring back refugees, such as of the convoy organized by 68 Madrid taxi drivers who returned in mid-March with 135 people. Added to this are the initiatives of the Spanish government, which prides itself on having set up, in record time, comprehensive reception centers in Madrid, Barcelona, Alicante and Malaga.
Police, social assistance and emergency housing
Former training center for civil servants transformed into a vast complex for the care of refugees managed by the Spanish NGO Accem, the Creade thus brings together in one place the police, social assistance and emergency housing services.. What deliver in less than twenty-four hours the temporary protection that allows refugees to work and reside legally in the country. Nearly 60,000 refugees have already obtained it, which makes Spain the sixth country in Europe, behind, in particular Poland, the Czech Republic, and Germany, to have delivered the precious sesame. Thirty thousand more have made an appointment in the coming days. And more than 13,000 children are already in school.
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