150 Ecuadorians have arrived in Poland in the last 24 hours, the Foreign Ministry said. In social networks, compatriots cry out for help. While the Government says that it cannot send aid missions.
We live in the middle of a war” were the words of the Foreign Minister, Juan Carlos Holguin, at the press conference this Saturday, February 26, 2022.
150 Ecuadorians have arrived in Poland in the last 24 hours and 558 students have been contacted personally, these are some of the figures handled by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
This contrasts with what has been seen on social networks. Where in dozens of videos of Ecuadorians claim the help of the Government. Many say that not even the Foreign Ministry telephones answer and others denounce mistreatment by officials when asking for help.
The Foreign Ministry itself accepts that there is no data on the entire migratory movement because many compatriots crossed the border by their own means, “this is a war, and in war information is scattered,” said Holguin.
There were several cases of extorted students at border posts. Soldiers kept their passports and handed them over after several hours in exchange for 50 dollars. The problem, Holguin emphasized, is that, in the morning hours, Ukraine unilaterally decided not to allow the departure of ukrainian men (who are considered reserve soldiers) and foreigners.
“Parents have every right to complain” said the Chancellor, but he called on join forces to recover all Ecuadorians trying to escape from the conflict.
However, while the entity announced on Twitter the schedules of the trains to evacuate, videos at the stations showed the number of people waiting to board a train, without the hope of being able to do so due to the demand.
At this time, 8 of us have taken a train from Kharkov to Kiev, in an attempt to get closer to the border with Poland.
Álex Zoto, Emerson, Jonathan, Haelly Salazar, Carolina Quiroz, Mabel Toapanta, Andrés Toapanta.https://t.co/eF0xwGa9Rx pic.twitter.com/FFRl1NpSFH
— Edison Montachana (@EDMontachana) February 26, 2022
The crossing points are full of people who want to leave Ukraine. There are places where more than four thousand people are crowded together. Within that messy tumult are students, who are 85% of all Ecuadorians living in the invaded country. This makes the wait to pass migration take many hours. For example, from Kharkiv there have been reports of 60 hours of lines to cross immigration posts.
In Ukraine there are more Ecuadorians than Brazilians. This motivated President Jair Bolsonaro to share actions to bring planes that make joint Humanitarian Flights, assured Foreign Minister Holguín. This will be finalized in the following weeks.
For now, military personnel who confirmed that this Monday, February 28, there will be a plane at the Warsaw airport. It will have Spanish or Polish plates. There will be capacity for 350 Ecuadorians. It will be the country’s first humanitarian flight.
They are contacting the youths by WhatsApp and thus achieve get your GPS location, with which they are putting together a mobility map.
Ecuador cannot send a diplomatic mission, was the Foreign Minister’s explanation to the question of whether there will be help for lodging and food for the Ecuadorians arriving in Poland, in many cases with no money or very little. This is part of international aid work like the Red Cross, he emphasized.
At the moment, there are emergency committees in Poland and Slovakia. “We are not going to leave any Ecuadorian alone” was the promise with which he began and with which he ended the press conference.
