‘Lost everything’: Ukrainians sail to new lives in Sweden .”We didn’t even have time to get our things,” says Ukrainian refugee Ludmila Nikiforova, one of hundreds fleeing the brutal conflict to Sweden on ferries from Poland every day.
Thousands of Ukrainians have arrived in the towns of Trelleborg, Ystad, Karlskrona and Nynäshamn by sea since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine three weeks ago.
Ludmila and her two daughters pull their suitcases into the ferry terminal after disembarking into the spring sunshine of Nynäshamn, a town an hour south of Stockholm.
Refugees from Ukraine wait for buses after arriving in Karlskrona harbour on ferries from Poland. Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT
There, together with 500 other passengers made up mostly of women and children, they are greeted by volunteers eager to give them basic necessities.
Nearby tables are stacked with water bottles, sandwiches, baby food and sanitary products. Even dog and cat food is available for those fleeing with pets.
Donated prams and buggies are lined up against a wall, and one table is covered with stuffed toys for children. Ludmila and her girls fled their home in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-biggest city, after Russia began shelling the city on February 28th.
“The bombing started, the air raid alarm went off. We quickly packed our bags to take the train,” Ludmila, who worked in a shoe factory, tells AFP.
As they headed for the train station they heard the sound of explosions in the distance, 20-year-old Anna and her 19-year-old sister Anastasia recall.
“But it was far from us and fortunately we were not hit,” says Anna, a programmer.
“At Kharkiv station there were a lot of people. And when we arrived in Lviv there were even more people. We arrived at three o’clock in the morning and we waited out in the street for a train to Poland,” she adds.
They had no plan for where to go after that.
In the end, they chose Sweden, a country once known for its generous refugee policy and which took in the highest number of asylum-seekers per capita in Europe during the 2015 migration crisis.
Shelter in Sweden
More than three million people have fled Ukraine since the start of the invasion, according to the UN migration agency IOM, with 1.8 million of them fleeing to Poland.
So far, ferry company Polferries has transported 5,600 Ukrainians free of charge from Poland to Nynashamn. Other ferry lines have transported thousands.
Sweden’s Migration Agency estimated earlier this week that at least 4,000 Ukrainian refugees were arriving in Sweden per day, with the real number likely much higher as not all were registered immediately on arrival.
Long queues have formed outside the Migration Agency’s offices around Sweden, with some asking people to turn around and come back another day.
Authorities are meanwhile scrambling to set up reception centres and accommodation for the tens of thousands expected.
The Migration Agency has drawn up planning scenarios to help it prepare for the arrival of anywhere between 27,000 and 212,000 Ukrainians between March and June.
That upper figure would top the record 163,000 asylum-seekers that Sweden — a country of 10 million people — took in during the 2015 migration crisis.
The country has since tightened its migration policy, citing the strain put on its immigration and integration systems.
Among other measures, it now grants only temporary residency permits. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Swedish government has stressed that EU countries need to do more this time around to share the burden.
For Ludmila, who has just taken her first breaths in Sweden, the future is up in the air. Her mind is still focused on the past and what she and her daughters have left behind.
“We lost our house, our jobs, our lives, what little we had there. You see, people build something, aspire to make or be something in life, but we lost everything.
Ukrainian refugees in Sweden forced to queue for days
Ukrainian asylum-seekers have been forced to wait for hours outside the Migration Agency’s offices in Sweden, but are still being turned away at the door each day due to
Alina Sydorenko, a Ukrainian woman in her 30s, who has fled Odessa in southern Ukraine, tried to register with the agency for four days in a row without success. “After an hour they said ‘there’s no point, you might as well go home’,” she said.
The EU’s temporary protection directive gives everyone seeking asylum in Sweden the possibility of receiving assistance with food and housing, and the right to work, but it requires applicants to register at the Migration Agency, which is easier said than done.
Although the agency have offices at multiple locations across the country, they are only open from 9am-3pm.
“The queue starts as early as two-three o’clock in the morning,” said Malin Aronsson, a volunteer and pastor at Centrumkyrkan church in Sundbyberg outside Stockholm, where the Migration Agency have an office. “That’s when people start seeking shelter in the church.”
One man, who wanted to be anonymous, said that people queuing have been sent home at lunchtime on at least one occasion, after staff closed the office in advance, when they realised they wouldn’t be able to process any more applications.
Despite the fact that the weather has been sunny in the Stockholm suburb, conditions are cold for those who have been forced to stand still for hours.
It’s also cold outside the agency’s office in Malmö, where Sydorenko has been trying to register. The first time she started queueing at 10am, but since then she’s started arriving before the office opens, in the hope that she’ll receive help before it closes.
“Today we arrived at 7am. It’s so cold, we stood here for five hours,” she said. “Tomorrow we’re going to try to get here at 5:30am”.
She thanked the volunteers who have been handing out food and warm socks to the people waiting in line.
The Migration Agency told the TT newswire in a written statement that the biggest challenge was “the fact that we have a limited amount of employees who can register applications”. “At the same time,” it said. “The need is huge and escalating”.
The agency told the newswire that they had registered 1,710 people last Monday, compared to an average of 30 people per day normally.
But according to prognoses, Sweden could be due to receive as many as 4,000 refugees per day, with the Migration Agency warning that there may be an even larger number of arrivals going unreported.
The Migration Agency is planning on hiring 500 new staff, Sveriges Radio Ekot reports.
In the office in Malmö, staff have begun prioritising the elderly, as well as children who arrive by themselves. This means that Sydorenko and others like her are constantly being moved to the back of the queue.
Even though Sydorenko says she understands why the agency is keeping her waiting, the bottleneck caused by the lack of manpower is causing her a lot of frustration.
“Many of the people coming here were forced to flee with nothing. They’ve travelled a long way and have no money with them. We want to work and live like we did before,” she told the newswire.
Despite her irritation, she still extended her thanks to the local office in Malmö, who she said were really taking their time to explain the situation to the people waiting in line. But, she added, there must be a simpler way to solve this issue.
“Shouldn’t you be able to register online?” she said.
