Society

Refugee family traveling for a decade given shelter after being found under Warsaw bridge

  (Photo: Straz Miejska)
City Guards came across the family of seven during a routine morning patrol. (Photo: Straz Miejska)
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A homeless refugee family that spent over a decade wandering around Europe has been found sleeping under a bridge in the Polish capital Warsaw.

City Guards came across the exhausted family of seven at the end of July during a routine morning patrol of the city’s Port Praski area.

Documents revealed that the five children aged between 5 and 18, along with their 49-year-old dad and 46-year-old mom were from Chechnya, had Russian citizenship, and had been sleeping rough across Europe, including France, Germany, and Holland, for “a dozen or so years.”

Details of the case have now been made public, with Senior Inspector Justyna Faltynowska, who found the family, saying: “I will never forget the sight of two adults and children under the bridge.

“We could not let them stay here.”

Posting on its website, a City Guard official said: “The father of the family, who speaks Polish, explained that they were most afraid of deportation to Russia.

“Both he and his wife are citizens of the Russian Federation, from where he would probably be sent to the front [in Ukraine].”

The website continued: “Despite the complicated legal situation of the refugees, the guards insisted on providing them with a roof over their heads.

“This was possible thanks to cooperation with street workers and the kindness of institutions that help people in difficult situations.

“The man found shelter in a shelter, while the woman and her children moved into a Warsaw Crisis Intervention Center [where they will stay] for three months.

“This is the time needed to complete formalities related to legalizing the family's stay in Poland, which will allow the adults to legally take up employment and organize education for their children.”
Source: strazmiejska
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