Kirsty Mckenzie
ALMOST 60 Ukrainians will arrive in Andalucia today thanks to a scheme for refugees coordinated by a church in Huelva.
A bus carrying 58 refugees from war-torn Ukraine is expected to arrive in Sevilla at 8pm tonight.
Ukrainian priest Dmytro Savchuk, who runs an Orthodox church in Huelva and coordinate this trip, said: “The bus has about 60 seats, plus a driver and monitors, we believe that 58 Ukrainians can come.”
The bus will make three stops in Spain, first in Madrid before continuing on to Seville and then Huelva.
According to Father Savchuk, they are still requesting homes for the refugees in several cities and the number of people who will finally end up in Andalucia to take refuge from the Russian invasion is still uncertain.
The five day round trip to Poland and back to Huelva cost €8,500 and was entirely funded by donations to the church.
Father Savchuk added: “We have also sent funds to help provide medicines to the conflict zone and we have not ruled out organising more trips of this type in the future to bring more refugees to Andalucia.”
We previously reported that Spain is set to welcome more than 6,000 refugees who have fled Ukraine in the wake of the Russian invasion.
Authorities said they were setting up three large processing centres to speed up the intake of Ukrainian refugees when they arrive this week.
The Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Jose Luis Escriva, said the government is planning for the arrival of a ‘significant volume of refugees’ who will go through centres in Madrid, Barcelona and Alicante.
“Ukrainians have a protection framework throughout Europe and Spain that simplifies all paperwork, gives immediate access to work and all international protection aid from the moment they arrive,” he said.
He also insisted that Spanish authorities were working to provide transport ‘for all those who want to come’ in collaboration with the consular services of Romania, Poland, Hungary and Moldova.
Spain is also talking with the Ukrainian authorities to organise transport for children, some of whom are unaccompanied.
He said that the refugees may be put up in hotels for the first couple of days after their arrival, adding: “The central government is working with regional authorities to maximise resources,” Escriva said.
“We aim to make more than 6,000 places available initially but this will be flexible.”
Over 1.7 million refugees are estimated to have fled the Ukraine so far, according to the UN.
The bulk of these have crossed into neighbouring countries with around a million already arriving into Poland.
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