From Formentera to the Polish-Ukrainian border to help out for a week

From Formentera to the Polish-Ukrainian border to help out for a week
Alessandro Ramazzotti, a car rental worker in Formentera, recounts his experience on the Polish-Ukrainian border, where he is spending a week helping refugees and documenting the conflict with his camera.

Carmelo Convalia

Wednesday, March 16 2022, 8.37am

Alessandro Ramazzotti has been living on Formentera for eight years, working for a car rental company in La Savina. On his holidays he has decided to travel to Medyka, on the Polish-Ukrainian border, an area where thousands of Ukrainians are fleeing Putin’s war. Alessandro scheduled a week of his holidays to go to this line of conflict that marks a territory that lives between peace and war: “In principle I wanted to go to see if I could help, but the reality is that there is a lot of help from organisations” for Ukrainian refugees fleeing the war. In addition, he is dedicated to documenting the passage of refugees thanks to his passion for photography.

“The situation is strange, very strange, here (Medyka) there is an incredible queue of vans and cars trying to cross into Ukraine to bring people to this side,” he says. Alessandro arrived last Sunday in the area and saw that a lot of humanitarian aid has been deployed by different NGOs and the Polish population: “Most of the people crossing the Ukrainian border are women and children, a lot of children, there are no men, most of them don’t speak English, so communication is complicated”. He explains that the segment of the population that receives the most attention are the children: “They offer them toys, chocolate, candy, everything… even the mothers have to tell them to stop”. Yesterday Alessandro was able to mediate, as a translator, between two Ukrainian girls who spoke Spanish and a volunteer when they crossed the Ukrainian border: “They were trying to get to Krakow (Poland) to a friend’s house and this volunteer accompanied them to the bus, I just translated”. In his experience in the area, Alessandro notes that the bottleneck of people fleeing occurs at the Ukrainian border “where there is a significant backup of people, but it seems that in recent days it is being resolved, especially women and children who arrive here after days of travel, imagine in what conditions, they come with a suitcase or a bag, with nothing, they arrive and I have the impression that they do not even know where they are”.

What strikes me the most is that I am now just 200 meters from the Ukrainian border and on this side we are calm

decoration “What strikes me the most is that I am now just 200 meters from the Ukrainian border and on this side we are calm, there are even workers who are still doing construction work, but of course a few meters from the border there is war, it’s like…. very strange, I don’t know… just because you were born in Poland or Ukraine, in just 200 meters your life changes”, he explains. Regarding the atmosphere in the aid posts of international organizations that are deployed in Medyka, he says: “I have been in contact with a Spanish journalist and with another Italian, but I’m on my own, I’m staying in a private house that I’ll have to leave now because Ukrainians are arriving to be accommodated”. He points out that until he returns on Friday morning he will try to contact a Ukrainian family so that they can be hosted in Formentera: “There are people on the island who have suggested that I get information to host Ukrainians, I’m trying but it is very complicated here”, he regrets. For the full article, please visit Diario de Ibiza website here.