Troubles in Tirol
An update from other volunteers on serious issues affecting Ukrainian refugees in the west of Austria. Note: this is not my firsthand experience, nevertheless, I feel it is important to share.
These past few days have been a blur of answering text messages, addressing new envelopes, sending out Hofer cards, and hand delivering cards to residents of various dorms around Vienna. I also met Natasha, Pasha and Dasha for a coffee today, which was lovely. They came in to Vienna to do a bit of shopping and exploring, but wanted to get back to their town by 5pm when the Red Cross gives out groceries, so as not to miss out. I invited them for coffee and cake at Aida, and it was like pulling teeth to get them to order anything. Even when I explained a hundred times that it was my treat. This was the best I could do. They also arrived with gifts for me for no reason. That is what it is like with Ukrainians. You are trying to help them, and they arrive with a bottle of wine and loaf of fresh bread and explain that you must accept it. After coffee and these small bites (Natasha refused; she kept swearing she does not have a sweet tooth!), I walked them all to H&M, where they were going to choose a winter jacket for Pasha, thanks to a gift card one of my readers had kindly gifted them. That is how many Ukrainians are surviving right now in Austria — solely on the kindness and generosity of strangers.
So, Tirol. On Friday evening I was happy the week was winding down and then a voice message pops in from Valentina, a volunteer in Tirol, a Ukrainian who emigrated to Austria decades ago, and now, as a pensioner, is helping hundreds of refugees. I take a deep breath, and I start to play it.
What I would like to do today is highlight general problems that affect most refugees in Tirol. There was also a horrible situation yesterday during which an Austrian host evicted a Ukrainian family throwing their belongings off the balcony, the police were called — it was awful and ugly, but also hopefully a one-off. For more on this particular situation, read Albina who is helping on the ground in Tirol.
I listened to Valentina’s message with the horrible feeling when you know you just heard something the world needs to know and now suddenly it has become your job to translate and put it out there. I try to paraphrase. Valentina is talking about residents of a monastery in Zams to which I sent seven Hofer cards earlier this week, per her request.
“The grandma sent a photo with the Hofer card. I think they are going hungry there. She wrote that she only bought a jar of honey. She is trying to save money, she is so afraid that by Christmas she will have no money left. She talks about eating bread with honey. My goodness, Tanja, my nerves cannot handle this. Instead of helping our kids get an education we are spending our time looking for money. Someone wrote me he would give a Klimabonus, but then he didn’t answer anymore. People are closing their hearts. I really worry about the kids in the Hotel Europa. They said no school places for those kids. The kids are falling behind. They will simply send a teacher to the hotel to “teach them German”. But the kids need school! They are losing time here. There is no integration, no school, no development. The fourth move since July. Even an adult cannot handle that. I am worried. There are empty apartments in Innsbruck. We cannot understand why they aren’t giving them to refugees. They are empty for two or three months. They say they are for ‘refugees’ but for who? I cannot understand what is happening. Why is everything hidden. Why can’t we help our poor grandmothers and grandfathers. They have forgotten what meat and fish taste like, vegetables, fruit. If you saw what they feed them there…these are people, these are kids. This is so hard for me. I am running out of pills to take for stress. My heart cannot handle this. Now I will go pray. We need God’s help. You must tell the people what is happening or we will not be able to handle this. I kiss you and pray for you and your family.”
The comments below are from a Ukrainian refugee to whom I sent a Hofer card this week:
“Good evening, we have been waiting two months for housing. We live in the Hotel Europa, the kids don’t go to school, it is unrealistic to survive on €52 per month, thank you.”
I reached out to Valentina for specific feedback on Tirol and the problems there. I translate word for word:
“Structural discrimination! Children and young people with disabilities, refugees from Ukraine, are often marginalised, and there is also structural discrimination. They have access to basic serves, but not to Tirol’s services for people with disabilities. This means they are seen first and foremost as refugees, and not as children and young people with disabilities. As a result, they cannot be supported in compliance with the UN convention on the rights of persons with limited mobility: therapy, educational support, and structures based on their needs, designed for kids and young people with limited mobility. These programs are not financed. Even the standards for economic survival for kids and young people are reduced. This is structural discrimination against those least able to defend themselves: handicapped young people with a language barrier are simply stripped of the ability to exercise their human rights.”
Valentina also outlined for me the primary issues, as she sees them, after months of working non-stop as a volunteer helping Ukrainian refugees in Tirol.
“1. Lack of social housing.
2. The €330 subsidy when a family rents an apartment privately is not paid out.
3. The only jobs are those with very low barrier to entry — cleaning, dishwashing. There is no option for refugees to work in their professions, as they need to have their qualifications approved here.
4. Free public train transport is only until the end of October. What then? Why hasn’t this been extended to other modes of public transport?
5. It is impossible to survive when you receive €12.50 per month towards clothing.
6. It is impossible to eat properly when a child receives €145 per month — that is €4.80 per day.
7. There is bureaucracy everywhere, really long waits for Familienbeihilfe. Only 5% of families received these payments so far.
8. Lack of a Ukrainian language translator in TSD Kufstein and other cities.
9. If you lost your job, TSD threatens there will be no social housing.
10. There is no cultural program for Ukrainians — no one of the Ukrainian performers who travel around EU visits Tirol. Ukrainians are not invited to Tirol cultural events.
11. The state does not support private landlords offering housing to Ukrainians.
12. Very low salaries paid to Ukrainians who are hired.
13. Very low ceiling for losing social payments: any earnings over €110 per adult and €80 per child.
14. No financial support for utility bills for Ukrainians.
15. Impossible for Ukrainians to qualify for affordable social housing at the local level.
16. At work there is no support, rather discrimination and degradation.
17. Ukrainians are required to pay a security deposit of 2-3 months rent otherwise they cannot rent housing.
18. There is little housing near jobs.
19. There are no educational programs for adults to retrain and requalify in professions.
20. The Red Cross mostly offers food products past their expiry dates.
21. The food in organized housing (camps) where refugees are fed is problematic for diabetics and sick people, and also for young children.
22. Two transport tickets for the entire group of refugees in a camp is insufficient.
23. A very small amount of money, €40, which is given each month as pocket money. You cannot use that money to go to the hairdresser, buy non-food items, medicine, etc. It isn’t enough.
24. Pensioners and those with disabilities are having a particularly tough time.
25. There is a problem with access to free health care and availability of translators, for example, to see a gynaecologist, optician, orthodontist, psychologist. There are waits of half a year for an appointment.
26. Lack of food for cats and dogs, lack of money for vaccinations and medicine.
27. Food price inflation does not match the social payments, there is no money left to pay for transportation.
28. Many landlords refuse to rent when they hear the potential tenants are refugees from Ukraine.
29. Lack of translators
30. Lack of warm clothes for winter
31. Social services do not offer housing.
32. (Some) schools do not take Ukrainian kids.
33. Some cannot qualify for social payments if they cannot get a Meldezettel.
34. There is a lack of appliances and furniture for housing.
35. Red Cross second-hand clothing costs money.
36. Unbearable, disrespectful treatment of refugees by social workers and teachers in schools.
37. Due to a lack of money, many cannot pay for school supplies.
38. When social workers make a housing assignment, they do not take into consideration the addresses/locations of language classes, schools and kindergartens.
(note by Tanja: I was contacted by a mom of two in Tirol recently whose children now have to wake up at 5am in order to get to school on time after the family was moved with no regard to the school address vs new housing location in a group home)
39. Many refugees are housed far away, three changes of train or bus from the TSD offices, where they have to report to, rather than the local administration.
40. A lack of internet chats in the Ukrainian language by government structures and social services.
This is all without today’s incident with Julia (described here). Her belongings were thrown, yes. But after Julia showed her ID that she is a journalist, the landlord calmed down a bit. The child was shaking. Albina will tell you about that. I cannot do everything myself. Good night, my dear.
Tanyusha, good morning. No, that was in the Imst monastery. There they cook for themselves. Some people steal from the fridge. In the evening they bought milk and eggs, and by the morning, they are gone. Many families also try and save money by not buying products like meat and fish. There are a lot of messages that families do not have enough money to eat properly. Do we know when the Familienbeihilfe will finally arrive? My last translations at doctors’ offices show that the refugees have low haemoglobin, both adults and kids are suffering from headaches, dizziness. This is all from an insufficient diet.”
Austria. 2022. No words. A disgrace.
Very briefly. In other news.
Thank you — I was overwhelmed with messages to help directly Viktoriia, the single mom of three from Kherson who is being treated in Vienna for stage four breast cancer. She is very grateful for the support. They will be moving this week. A local car and driver for 19 or 20 October to help with moving personal items would still be most welcome.
Sasha and his wife and two sons are still trying to raise money for flights to Edmonton, Canada, now that the whole family has visas. Please contact me for his email if you would like to help the family directly. I have seen the dorm where they are living in Vienna this week, and it is amongst the worst I have seen. After the hell they went through living in a cold cellar in Mariupol, would be wonderful if we could help them raise the €3,000 for flights to begin their new lives in Canada where a host family is waiting for them.
I was contacted today by Konstantin, a young man in a walker who arrived from Donbas with his girlfriend from Mariupol. I met them a few days ago and gave them a Hofer card. They said they had decided to go to Ireland. A tweet, a few hours later, they have tickets for Wednesday. Thank you thank you thank you.
I have delivered dozens of Hofer cards this week which is AMAZING. Thank you so much. Unfortunately, my inbox keeps exploding, and even thought I try to prioritise the neediest cases, it is really hard not knowing where funding for the next 62 cards and counting will come from. I delivered four this morning, including to a woman who just had a stroke and cannot leave the dorm — her neighbour collected for both of them. I am still receiving messages from all over the country. The financial struggles are very real and have not been alleviated for many, many refugees. And yes, new people are still arriving.
Messages like this warm my heart and give me the energy to keep going. They give me hope, they remind me what all this texting back and forth leads to.
I want to keep helping, I feel strong enough to keep helping, but I cannot do it without funding. PayPal or donate supermarket gift cards/Klimabonus/Edenred vouchers for my immediate pile, Cards for Ukraine for our much longer waiting list. I always tell the Ukrainian the waiting list is very long, the money all comes from private donors, we never know how long you are going to have to wait. We just take it one day at a time.
Thank you. In closing — Tirol is a symbol. A symbol of wilful state failure. It is a political choice not to provide adequate housing or funding to refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine. And it is not just Tirol. I highlight the west of the country because I am in direct conversations with two volunteers there, but we will hear similar stories across Austria. The mathematics of existence do not add up. Full stop. And the most vulnerable, the handicapped, pensioners, mothers with multiple children — they fall through the cracks first. It is a choice to let this happen on our collective watch.