Today we visited the largest refugee transit center in Europe. Ukrainian refugees, which the kind-hearted Polish people call guests, are brought by bus from train stations to the Ptka Warsaw Expo Center, which has been transformed into a refugee city that can house 20,000 guests! Part of the Expo Center has even been turned into a field hospital! The average stay is 4 days, and while here, they complete all the paperwork, evaluation, and processing so that they can be transported by bus or air to one of 8 countries accepting refugees.
I have visited literally hundreds of refugee camps across the globe, but never have I seen a more organized, clean, orderly, and efficient refugee processing center than the Warsaw Expo center!
Volunteers from many countries serve alongside Polish staff, Polish volunteers, and the Polish military, welcoming thousands of refugees each day. Our team has been absolutely impressed with the response of Poland, who has accepted the vast majority of Ukrainian refugees.
Today we will head to the border town of Przemysl, where I will meet up with a small volunteer team from Global Care Force. Tomorrow this team will board a train for Kyiv, the thriving, though war-damaged, capitol of Ukraine.