A Nigerian man who has recently arrived in Clare from Ukraine has highlighted the huge difficulties getting out of the country.
“We had to walk three hours before we got to the border between Ukraine and Poland. There were a lot of people there, I don’t know, maybe 20,000.
“The lines were so long and you had to keep on walking slowly for maybe 20 more hours, I was so tired I could sleep standing up,” he said this week.
It was a long wait in freezing temperatures.
“It was so cold that night. It was crazy, kids were crying, not because of the journey but because it was so cold. Guys were going to the forest to get sticks and try and burn them. It was around -4 degrees.”
He says that he misses his old life hugely.
“My life was good, very good, I have lost almost everything. I’d been living in Ukraine for about 17 years. I grew up there. Everything I knew was there, everything, all my friends. I lived there for longer than I lived in Nigeria.”
In Kyiv he met his 12-year-old daughter every week, but she is not here.
“I have a daughter, she’s with her Mum. They’re in Poland. A lot of Ukrainians wouldn’t like to come here because of the language. I’m checking in with them every day.
“The Polish language is closer to Ukrainian so I think they’d prefer to stay there but I’m trying to tell them it’s an opportunity for my daughter to learn English.”
He worries about the long term impact upon the girl.
“She has already seen the war and that will have affected her. All her friends, she doesn’t see them any more, everyone is scattered everywhere.”
He is still hopeful she will arrive into this country.
“I’m still trying to convince then, this is a beautiful place here.”
Owen Ryan has been a journalist with the Clare Champion since 2007, having previously worked with a number of other publications in Limerick, Cork and Galway. His first book will be published in December 2024.