When Carlo van Hout from Boekel saw the images of the war in Ukraine, he could no longer sit still. On Saturday, therefore, ten buses with refugees from Ukraine arrived in his hometown. “You really have to convince them to come because they’re so anxious.”
Previously Carlo, a carpenter in daily life, already drove up and down with three vans. Ten more arrived on Sunday. They are full of refugees from Ukraine who are stranded in Poland.
Carlo tells about his experiences. At the station in Kraków, for example, he encountered a group of refugees who did not want to go, because they were convinced that the war would be over in two weeks. “They’re sitting there in the station and they don’t want to go anywhere, they think they can go home in two weeks.” But the Kraków municipality wants them to leave, there are too many refugees in the city at the moment.
According to Carlo, the resignation prevails among the refugees who did want to come along. “Some just let it happen. I saw women and children standing in a square in amazement. They get in and you can put them where you want, they think everything is good.” It is clear to Carlo that not everyone has good intentions: “If you see what is happening there, that is inhumane. If I pick them up, they will at least end up well.” To select host families, Carlo is in contact with the municipality, which screens the families.
The refugees were welcomed on Saturday with croquette sandwiches at the town hall of Boekel. We could not ask any questions to the Ukrainians themselves. It was emotionally too heavy for them, says Carlo. “You get a lot of trauma this way. There are children with them. You don’t have to come near them, because they scream everything together. I saw a small child who was crying in his sleep.”
And Carlo doesn’t mind that either. “I don’t always keep it dry either. I don’t have to say a word, because then I go. It’s very emotional.” In the meantime, his normal work as a carpenter continues. “I also do carpentry, although it is hard. But not as hard as what these people have experienced.”