Ukraine, “Difficult to refrain from identifying with refugees”

50 days of war and more than 4 million people fled Ukraine, about 10% of the population. Never had a migratory flow of this size been seen in Europe since the Second World War. “For years I have seen people fleeing from conflicts and situations of acute and visible violence, but I am experiencing a different thing, a process of recognition of you in the other that makes you feel even more the effects of an armed conflict ». Valentina Brinis for years she has been dealing with asylum seekers and refugees, she was the coordinator of the legal desk of A Buon Legge Onlus and she is Advocacy Officer and project manager at the Spanish NGO Open Arms.

For the past few weeks she has been in Poland, a country that has welcomed at least two million refugees from Ukraine, mostly women. «The country has had to create places for long and short term reception. Even the short-term one is in very dignified places: cleanliness, attention to people and animals with food and water in addition to the veterinarian available. There are also fresh flowers in each of the centers I have visited ».

A completely different experience than the one he tells in Like waves of the sea. Logbook of a humanitarian experience, to be released on April 14 for Castelvecchi Editore. “It is a very different experience because I was struck by the centers with dignity and attention also to the aesthetic aspect that creates a welcoming atmosphere for people living in a situation of vulnerability”.

There are many women with young children. «It is difficult to refrain from identifying, a feeling that I have not had in other circumstances. Yes closeness, yes listening, yes exchange, not identification. The lifestyle is similar, we recognize ourselves in the clothing of the people, in the gestures, in the habits ».

Like waves of the sea, he tells instead, just like in a logbook, born from daily annotations at sea. «The sensations I felt, the emotions I experienced, I wrote everything down. The reflections born from the episodes I experienced led to look at other aspects of my work. Work like this has to constantly deal with the lives of others. We perceive it as a form of distant migration. Even the stories of women’s violence, repeated rape, family separations. These are situations that to us, Western women, with attention and assistance, appear very distant. There is compassion, sharing of pain, but not total identification “.