Will depart with 15-tons of basic necessities, to land in Moldova
A humanitarian flight with 170 Ukrainian refugees arrives in Lisbon today and, a few hours after landing will depart again for Moldova with 15-tons of basic necessities, including heaters and generators.
This humanitarian flight comes under the initiative “Check-In Hope”, the result of a partnership between Portugal-based organization Ukrainian Refugees UAPT and the company Leroy Merlin.
In a joint statement, the promoters said that among the 170 new refugees are women and children – including babies – as well as pets.
For Ukrainian Refigees UAPT, which provides support to refugees from the war in Ukraine, this flight has “an even more relevant meaning by the fact that it is the last humanitarian flight made and that it takes place days before Christmas”.
A few hours after landing in Portugal, the plane will leave for Moldova with 15-tons of basic necessities to be transported by humanitarian trucks to Kyiv, where they will be distributed among the population according to identified needs.
The refugees arriving in today will be housed in the Lisbon region. UAPT will be responsible for accommodation, while integration into the labour market will be the responsibility of Leroy Merlin.
The most recent update by immigration and borders service (SEF) shows that since Russian invaded Ukraine on 24 February, Portugal has granted 56,141 temporary protection permits to Ukrainian citizens and foreigners living in Ukraine, 32,874 of which to women.
SEF reports that the highest number of temporary protection permits granted continues to be registered in Lisbon (12,194), Cascais (3,487), Porto (2,856), Sintra (1,900) and Albufeira (1,384).
Minors represent around 25% of the total number of incoming Ukrainians to Portugal.
The war in Ukraine has caused at least 6.5 million internally displaced persons and more than 7.8 million refugees in European countries.
The United Nations classifies this refugee crisis as the worst in Europe since the Second World War (1939-1945).
At the moment, 17.7 million Ukrainians need humanitarian assistance and 9.3 million need food and shelter.
The UN has reported 6,755 civilians killed and 10,607 injured since the start of the war, stressing that these figures are almost certainly “far below the real ones”.
LUSA
