King Felipe VI and Letiziabeside the princess of Asturias Y the infant sofiahave visited this Saturday a reception center for Ukrainians in Pozuelo de Alarcón (Madrid), where they have heard the stories of some families who have come here fleeing the war in their country.
During the visit, which lasted just over an hour and a half, the king and queen and their daughters toured the center’s facilities together with the Minister for Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, José Luis Escrivá, other members of the Ministry and officials from Accem, the NGO in charge of managing the device.
At the end of the tour, they sat down at the tables located in one of the center’s patios, next to a stall of the NGO World Central Kitchen, which offers free food and drinks to the people there.
Specifically, the kings and their daughters have chatted at one of the tables for about fifteen minutes with two Ukrainian families who have told them about their previous experience in Ukraine, at the beginning of the invasion of their country by Russia, and how they later arrived in Spain.
Svitlana Korniienko, who has acted as an interpreter, has explained to the media that the king and the infanta Sofía have spoken with a 75-year-old woman and her daughter from Gostomel, a town in the kyiv region where they had to stay for several days in a shelter without electricity or food before traveling to Spain.
The king, who at one point in the conversation has come to comfort the woman, visibly moved, with gestures of affectionhas been interested in knowing how they felt at that time and how they were now.
In addition, he commented that they were very interested in visiting the center so that their daughters would be aware, through first-person testimonies, of the reality experienced by Ukrainian citizens who have had to flee from the war.
For its part, Letizia and Princess Leonor have spoken with another Ukrainian family sitting at the same table, which during the conversation many other people living in the center have approached, mainly children, some of whom have taken photos with the kings and their daughters.
At another point in the visit, before the table talk, a group of children approached the king and his daughters in the courtyard and Felipe VI asked them if they were okay and if they had been able to continue their studies in Spain. “I have told him that we are good friends, some have been here for a short time but we get along well“, One of the children in this group, who speaks Spanish without difficulty, having lived in Spain for years, told the media.
Although most of the children knew who Felipe VI was, one of them thought that as it was a relevant position it was the President of the Government, since there is no figure of the king in Ukraine.
The one from Pozuelo is one of the four Reception, Welcome and Referral Centers (CREADE) for Ukrainian refugees, under the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migrationand the one that first opened its doors.
On the one hand, this center attends to people who have arrived from Ukraine who already have family host networks and who only need documentation, and, on the other hand, to people without a home in Spain who remain in the facilities for several days until they are transferred to stable places. of the reception system of the Ministry. It has the capacity to provide documentation to around 500 people a day and has 400 emergency shelter places.
Since the launch of the center, on March 11, more than 10,000 people have been cared for in this placeof which some 2,000 have needed to be received until their final destination.
Spain has welcomed some 80,000 Ukrainians fleeing the warhalf of whom have already been granted temporary protection status, as recently reported by the Ukrainian ambassador to Spain.
This has been the second visit of the king and queen to care centers for Ukrainian refugeessince on March 23 they visited the Spanish Red Cross crisis cell in order to learn in detail about the reception device that manages the arrival of Ukrainians in Spain.
On this occasion, the Infanta Sofía and Princess Leonor have joined, who is on vacation in Spain until April 24 after having finished her classes on Thursday at the UWC Atlantic College in Wales (United Kingdom), where she is studying first year of high school.