More than 10,000 refugees from Ukraine land at the main train station every day. Including many children. They were helped right from the start, helpers created a protected area in the basement. The KidsCorner was open 24 hours a day. But now the railways and the Senate have slowed down the project.
Initiator Tamara Cycman (37) to the BZ: “On March 23, a foundation took over the children’s corner, now it is closed at night. Children and families are asked out by the railway staff at midnight.”
Before, they could also come at night, play and paint for a few hours in peace on 50 square meters, and rest in the cots set up.
“Children were also safe here at night from human traffickers, who approached them everywhere,” explains a security helper. “And after all, the last night train from Poland doesn’t arrive until around 1 a.m..”
From now on it will be closed from midnight to 9 a.m., as the employees of the foundation commissioned by the Senate are not allowed to work that late. The railway argues that one should not stay overnight in the station, families with children can find shelter in the tent on Washingtonplatz or go to an emergency shelter.
The volunteers are pissed off. Tamara Cycman: “We demand that the children’s corner is open again around the clock, for the good of the children!”