Martin Nanninga left last Monday with a bus from Drenthe Tours to the Hungarian capital Budapest to receive Ukrainian refugees. This afternoon he arrived back in Gasselternijveenschemond with 37 refugees, who are housed with seventeen host families. According to Nanninga, it was a journey that will not soon be forgotten, partly because not everything went according to plan.
“We were going to pick up fifty people, we went there with that thought in mind,” says Nanninga. But that plan soon fell apart, so the bus was not completely full. Nanninga says that this was partly due to the hectic situation in Budapest. “It’s the fear of upheaval. The refugees have to leave their father behind and mothers and children run around hopelessly with no idea where they are going.” According to Nanninga, it is difficult to imagine this if you have not seen it with your own eyes.
He himself also offers shelter to one of the refugee families. “We have a chalet behind our house where you can stay temporarily. We still have a complete house under our roof. If my daughter moves, they can move in.”
‘It’s heartwarming’
According to mayor Hiemstra of the municipality of Aa en Hunze, the 37 refugees in Gasselternijveenschemond are not the first refugees to be received by private individuals. Yet Hiemstra had never experienced the way in which these refugees reached his municipality.
“It is the first time for us that such a large group arrives at the same time,” says Hiemstra. The war in Ukraine will also mean that more refugees will have to be accommodated in the near future. “It is heartwarming that so many people collect money through campaigns and are willing to help people at home,” said Hiemstra.
Conscious choice for the Netherlands
“My friends, children and I have fled to the Netherlands because we are afraid for our lives,” explains Oksana Filipova. She is one of the 37 refugees who arrived in Drenthe this afternoon.
“I have been on the run with my children since March 11,” she explains. Filipova has specifically chosen for a temporary stay in the Netherlands because there are many volunteers in Budapest who have helped her to get to the Netherlands.