Achi news desk-
Cruise ship Staff Captain Rakesh Prasad cannot forget the traumatic expressions on the faces of hundreds of Ukrainians who boarded Holland America’s Volendam in April 2022.
The 1,500 refugees, who had fled their homeland two months earlier after Russia’s invasion sparked an ongoing war there, boarded the ship with their meager possessions packed mostly in plastic bags. The ship they boarded in the Port of Rotterdam would be their home for the next six months.
“You looked at the kids, you could feel how scared they were, there was no happiness,” said Prasad, standing next to Volendam’s indoor pool after the ship docked at the Port of Montreal on Saturday.
The Volendam, now back to ferrying holiday passengers, was the first cruise ship of the 2024 season to arrive in the city. The port authority held a ceremony on board the ship to celebrate the occasion, with invited guests including diplomats from Ukraine and the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Meters from the pool area, towards the entrance to the dining hall, some of the Volendam crew members hung a large frame filled with drawings by refugee children living on the ship in 2022. The art is now an exhibition permanently on board.
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Looking around the ship’s wooden paneled interior, Eugene Czolij, Ukraine’s honorary consul in Montreal, pointed to the picture frame and said the refugees were “obviously being hosted in a very friendly manner.” He thanked the Dutch authorities for their help.
The refugees’ stay on board the Volendam turned the ship into a Ukrainian village.
“Families were handing out free haircuts, old women were taking care of the children,” Prasad said. “It became a community, and when it was time to leave, most wanted to stay.”
Volendam Captain Rens Van Eerten said the Netherlands had a long history of helping refugees flee violence, including during the Second World War when the country helped people escape the Nazis.
Shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, he said, the Dutch government approached the owner of the Volendam, Holland America, asking to hire a ship.
“We had one available,” he said. “We welcomed (the refugees) and looked after them and made sure they could have a relatively normal life at that time.”
But while the Netherlands was eager to help in April 2022, the honorary consul of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Montreal lamented what he described as a sense of “Ukraine fatigue” that has gripped some Western countries.
At the start of the war, Michael Polak said everyone was “gung-ho to help Ukraine fight Russian aggression.” But in the last six to 12 months, he said, “some of the allies have become a little reticent, questioning their commitments, not wanting to spend money.”
“But the fact is that this war continues and is far from being resolved,” he said.
US President Joe Biden approved sending Ukraine $1 billion in military aid on April 24, the first installment of a roughly $61 billion aid package. It also includes air defense capabilities, artillery rounds, armored vehicles and other weapons to protect Ukrainian forces that have seen morale sink as Russian President Vladimir Putin has made quick wins after wins.
Czolij said the US aid package was very useful, adding that he thought it would help Ukraine win the war. He said that the only people who have “fatigue” for Ukraine are those who do not understand that the country is not only defending its territorial integrity but “defending all of Europe.”
“If Ukraine, God forbid, loses this war,” he said, “we will witness the third world war.”
& copy 2024 The Canadian Press
