There is quite some pressure on the market for preowned cars in Poland now, lots of cars being sent to Ukraine. The T4 caravelle with 9 seats is ideal, as it's quite big, relatively comfortable and can be driven on a regular driving license. It's a luck that JJ found such a car right in the neighbourhood virtually for free (other cars we could find was priced at 20 kPLN). However, we realized relatively quickly that the car would need some repair works before it would be safe to drive it to the border. There is also the administrative burden of getting the car reregistered and fixing insurance. So we drove to the border with an ordinary BMW to pick up refugees, arrived around midnight. It was eerie quiet at the Dorohusk border crossing - either there was nobody wanting to cross the border, or border crossing closed for some reason? We drove forther to Zosin, there was quite quiet there too. Then we got a call from Dorohusk, three refugees there wanting a lift to Lublin and accomodation for one night there. There was quite a lot of people in Dorohusk when we got back there - including quite many children, prams and chaos. Our three passengers (one mother and two daughters) had quite a lot of luggage, but we managed to squeeze everything into the car. I asked them for how long they had queued up at the other side of the border - I read in the media that in the beginning one could stand for several days. They had been standing there in ten minutes, so apparently there aren't long queues now. At least not in the nighttime.
I'm positively impressed with the reception the refugees get - although it may get rather chaotic when the refugees are coming too fast over the border. the organization could be a bit better. While we were driving towards the border, Karol was repeatedly trying to call to coordinators and even post on some moderated Facebook groups to make sure our trip wouldn't be in vain. Still we had to drive all the way to the border and physically speak with persons there, and they would write us down on a list since there were nobody waiting for transportation. They also gave us telephone numbers to coordinators at the Zosin border crossing, but again - no answers, we had to physically go all the way there to see if we could help with anything.
I also read in the news that ther are problems with sexual predators acting as volunteers and abusing the situation. There is a bit of security against such, if nothing else we had to present our IDs and got registered in Dorohusk before we were allowed to drive the refugees to Lublin.
I feel that we didn't do much today, still we arrived at home 5:44 in the morning (approx two minutes before sunrise according to Google).
Some photos from the day:
From the reception point right at the border by Zosin (they also have a nearby camp with big tents for people who doesn't have anywhere to go):
This is an eight-person room that was available in Lublin:
