Emmaüs mobilized a hundred people on three sites, Ile-de-France. They translate and accompany the Ukrainians in their different steps.
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This cheap hotel, in the eastern suburbs of Paris, has already, since the 24th of February, the start of the war, seen more than 3,500 refugees arrived from Ukraine by the East and conveyed train station here in because. They will spend at least one night, sometimes more if they are waiting for a visa, in one of the 70 rooms totaling 220 beds. A whole floor is reserved for them.
The cottage is rather comfortable and adapted to the most fragile of arrivals, the elderly or disabled, women with young children, but it is only one step before leaving to the country of their choice, often Spain, In particular Barcelona, where the Ukrainian community is important, Portugal, for the same reason, the United Kingdom, or even Canada. Those who wish to stay in France, half of them, will soon be taken care of in another structure, by the association France Earth of Asylum.
“We never know who, when and how many people arrive, explains Bruno Morel, Managing Director of Emmaus Solidarity, who manages the site. And they are sometimes the controllers, in the trains, which, having spotted people Traveling with a free ticket, send us a message to specify the needs. We had to tinker, improvise and adapt. We have, for example, been surprised by the number of animals, cats, dogs and even a parrot – them as exiled, because it’s true that they are part of the family – which led us to tackle a partnership with the spa. We also searched doctors, for the many sick, exhausted, especially children, And, above all, we needed interpreters, “he says.
” The feeling of being useful “
Emmaus has mobilized a hundred volunteers who relax every night, on three sites, in Ile-de-France, to welcome and translate, and who remain in permanent contact with each other thanks to a Whatsapp loop. .
“As soon as they arrived, after an exhausting journey of four to seven days, we read fatigue, the hebage on their face,” says Marie-Laure Layus, 56, a constitutional lawyer, who learned the Russian to the school and had recently decided to take courses “in this language whom she likes”. “And it’s the school that came into contact with Emmaus.”
M me Layus devotes at least three evenings per week at the hotel reception, but much more, in reality, because we must also accompany the families in their approaches, for example to the services of urgency of hospitals, pharmacy, consulates or station: “The contact is brief, but very intense. I remember a very dignified couple, over 80 years old, with, for any baggage, a Backpack, visibly happy to be understood in their language. Or a young woman with her two children, very worried about not being able to rally England thanks to free tickets she could not get: I accompanied her At the North Station and the wait was long, but when we brought the tickets, we fell into his arms, crying with joy. I feel helpful, to make concretely Access to law and, in passing, I progresses in Russian and improves my accent! “
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