Inmates serving a sentence in a pre-trial detention center in Warsaw Służewiec are working on the preparation and organization of the largest place in Europe to help refugees from Ukraine, which is being built at the PTAK Warsaw Expo exhibition center in Nadarzyn near Warsaw. They are supervised by officers of the Prison Service.
The spokeswoman, Lieutenant Agnieszka Tracz, informed that the fundraising campaign for Ukraine was started in custody immediately after the first reports of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. On Tuesday, March 8, a decision was made to send the convicts to work at the exhibition center in Nadarzyn. Inmates undertake the most necessary work to organize accommodation for refugees.
– The participation of convicts in the organization of the largest place in Europe to help refugees from Ukraine is also aimed at sensitizing prisoners to the needs of others. The participation of convicts is an act of empathy. The educational effect also consists of making convicts aware that by doing something selflessly in their free time, they can build great projects for people in need of support, who are in a difficult life situation – emphasizes the spokeswoman quoted in the portal polsatnews.pl.
The Humanitarian Aid Center PTAK is the largest place in Europe to help refugees from Ukraine. It is located in Ptak Warsaw Expo in Nadarzyn. It has an area of 150 thousand. sq m. and can accommodate 20 thousand people.
The center provides refugees with medical assistance, temporary accommodation, meals, basic hygiene items, as well as psychological assistance, among other things. So far 25 thousand refugees from Ukraine have passed through the center. This number is likely to increase in the near future, the center said.
There is a bus station on the premises of the center, which enables transportation to countries all over Europe. For the refugees staying in the center, trips to other aid centers and further accommodation are organized. The center provides refugees with, among others medical assistance, temporary accommodation, meals, basic hygiene items, as well as psychological assistance.
Arkadiusz Słomczyński