Members of the Ukrainian community residing in Tenerife seek help to welcome at least 170 compatriots who traveled to the island to spend a vacation days before the Russian invasion of Ukraine and now they cannot return to their country. Dmytro Shatruk, vice president of the Association of Ukrainians in the Canary Islands, has held meetings in recent hours with the delegate of the central government in the Islands, Anselmo Pestanarepresentatives of the Council of Tenerife and the mayor of Arona, José Julián Mena, to look for options to accommodate these families as their reservations in hotels, apartments and vacation tourism homes run out.
“The situation is very worrying.. They came to Tenerife to rest without knowing that war was going to break out and now they don’t know where to go», Shatruk explained, detailing that the majority are families with children who have left their relatives in Ukraine. According to the representative of the Ukrainian community in the Archipelago, “many do not have the financial means to extend their stay on the island much”, so “they look for shelters or any other place where they can be cared for”. Some Ukrainians on the island have offered to host them while they try to find a solution.
Those affected are beginning to run out of accommodation reservations and do not know where to go
Dmytro Shatruk is also part of the ukrainian association Oberig de Tenerife, who held a meeting with the mayor of Arona, José Julián Mena. The representatives of Oberig transferred to the Mayor of Aronero the housing problems that their fellow citizens are experiencing, who came to the Island as tourists and who, overnight, have become refugees, the southern City Council said in a statement. Similarly, the association is organizing to collect and send medicines and other necessities to their compatriots in Ukraine, for which they need logistical help.
Meeting in Arona
Mena conveyed the “total willingness” of the City Council to provide “all the help we can offer within our possibilities.” The mayor emphasizes “the need for the collaboration of the different institutions within their powers to be able to provide a solution to the housing situation of the Ukrainian men and women who are currently in Tenerife in a real limbo that, just nine days ago, it was unthinkable.” These tourists flew to the island days before February 24, just the day the Russian attacks on Ukrainian populations began.
Dmytro Shatruk calculates that there are more than 2,000 Ukrainians living in Tenerife. All share with the 170 tourists who have been trapped on the island the “enormous concern” about the devastating consequences of the Russian attacks, which according to some calculations have already caused the death of more than 2,000 civilians. “They no longer only face an immediate future full of uncertainty, but on top of that they are extremely worried about what may happen to their relatives and friends who are in Ukraine,” explained Dmytro Shatruk.
The country’s community on the island has also begun to contact social organizations in search of a way out, mainly the Red Cross. The vast majority of these tourists are in the last days of their stays in accommodation in the South. There are also some families in the North, mainly in Puerto de la Cruz. «In Ukraine, the excellence of the Canary Islands is well known for resting. Many Ukrainians come to spend the summer in Tenerife and other islands. They travel on their own », he explains.
The more than 2,000 Ukrainians who live in Tenerife try to bring family and friends to the island
In addition to these at least 170 tourists, members of the Ukrainian national judo team are also in Tenerife. They arrived on February 22, two days before the start of the Russian invasion, and in the coming days they will try to make a difficult return to Ukraine. Some are going to try to fly to Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, and from there try to access the Ukraine through Slovakia, Poland or Romania. The mayor of Arona was also with them, specifically at the Antonio Domínguez stadium, to express his solidarity.
While these Ukrainian tourists trapped on the island do not know how to leave or what to do, other citizens who are in Ukraine are trying to leave the country to join their families in Tenerife and flee the conflict. “We are doing everything possible to bring family and friends to the Island and to keep them safe. It is very complicated but there is no other remedy, “said the vice president of the Association of Ukrainians in the Canary Islands. In addition, at least seven men who lived on the island, according to Shatruk, have returned to Ukraine to join the resistance against the Russian invasion.
The Ukrainian judo team traveled to Tenerife to train only two days before the Russian invasion and now some of its members are going to try to fly back to the Czech Republic to go from there to their country through Poland, Slovakia or Romania. In the photo, José Julián Mena, mayor of Arona, during his visit to the members of the Ukrainian judo team in Antonio Domínguez state. |
