The first federal government charter flight carrying 350 Ukrainian refugees will land on Monday afternoon at Winnipeg’s James Richardson International Airport from Warsaw, Poland.
Winnipeg was selected based on a well -functioning reception model, including an airport welcome kiosk and the Manitoba Ukrainian Refugee Reception Center near the airport.said Manitoba Ukrainian Canadian Congress volunteer Nick Krawetz.
It’s a unique model in Canada, so we’re pretty willing to accept them, he explains. We’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time, since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke about charter flights on April 9th.
” On the one hand, I am happy that we are here to help the Ukrainians, but I am also sad that they were forced to leave their country. “
In subtraction, citizens will be divided into groups with thirty representatives of the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), who themselves will be accompanied by 16 Manitoba volunteers from the Ukrainian Canadian Congress.
There will be 24 other volunteers scattered around the airport.
The Winnipeg Airport Authority (AAW) has been impressive to us in terms of communications and logisticssaid volunteer Darya Omilchenko.
We are many of the volunteers with families in Ukraine, so all of this is very important for ushe continued.
Once the first reception phase is completed, each group of thirty people will leave the international arrivals section to walk onto the buses that will take them directly to the Manitoba reception center for Ukrainian refugees.
Here families will gather, if necessary.
” They will have immediate access to a host of support services, courtesy of the province’s Ukrainian community as well as the Manitoba government. “
The housing challenge
These 350 refugees are added to the 400 already in the territory since the start of the Russian invasion in February.
Some of the newcomers are expected by friends and family members, while others have no network in Manitoba. To this end, the province has established a partnership with the organization New Housing Journeywho, among other things, will attempt to provide apartments in Winnipeg to Ukrainian nationals.
The provincial government has previously announced $ 800,000 in direct humanitarian aid for Ukrainian refugees since the war began.
According to the UN Refugee Agency, nearly six million Ukrainians have fled their country since the Russian aggression began.
Two other planes will land in Canada shortly, the first in Montreal on May 29 and the second in Halifax on June 2.
There is information from Laïssa Pamou
Source: Radio-Canada
