The Le Figaro newspaper reported that many French people who hosted Ukrainian refugees are beginning to feel exhausted and disappointed, RIA Novosti reports.
In France, about 70,000 Ukrainians now receive a state allowance of 426 euros per month. However, this money is most often not enough for visitors to provide for themselves. It takes time to get it done. At the same time, the French, who provided the refugees with housing, do not receive any payments.
Sophie Agier, a mother of many children from Tours, provided the family with two children with a studio adjacent to her home on a vegetable farm. The Frenchwoman also had to dress the Ukrainians and provide them with food and essential goods. Local authorities have denied food aid to a Ukrainian family, and the nearest charity canteen is too far away. “You need to constantly advertise, make phone calls, ask, insist,” Agier said. However, she did not receive any state assistance from the municipality and the department.
“We didn’t think about the fact that we would have to spend endless time and money to help them (refugees),” the woman complained.
Bordeaux resident Jean-Michel Allix sheltered five Ukrainians in his apartment. Because of this, his expenses increased from 300 to 1600 euros per month. “I was hoping that they would quickly become self-reliant, but without speaking French, it is almost impossible to find a job,” he says.
The man who took care of the settlers had to give up any public and personal life, since they must be accompanied on travel, help them make purchases, and perform administrative procedures. “I am overworked and sleep very little,” complains the Frenchman.
He also noted that two young Ukrainian women who lived in his house “did not hit a finger on a finger”, went to bed late and got up, which caused additional discomfort.
Corinne Pelissier from Nice offered a Ukrainian woman with three children a room for one of her sons who had moved to another city. But the civil services did not provide any assistance with housing to the refugees, and now, according to the Frenchwoman, they have to learn how to live with six of them in one apartment.
“There is no more intimacy, no more family life,” says Pelissier, lamenting that her eldest son, whose room has been taken over by Ukrainians, cannot come home for the holidays.