Police give help to desperate Ukrainians
Officers aid refugees who have been displaced by the Russian invasion of their country
NATIONAL Police officers showed their humanitarian side by helping desperate Ukrainian refugees in two incidents, in Benidorm and Alicante.
On March 27, an officer in Benidorm walking home after his shift at 22.20 came across a 12-year-old Ukrainian girl lying on the pavement by a busy road, explained a spokesman for the force.
Once he had gained her trust, she admitted she intended to throw herself in front of the speeding traffic, and said she would have done so if the officer had not stepped in.
She told him this was because she had been depressed for months and was going through family disputes but eventually agreed to accompany him to the health centre and then her home, as long as he went with her, which he did until she was safe with her legal guardians.
Then on April 9 at about 02.30, a patrol in Alicante city saw a pushchair on the sand on El Postiguet beach, so went to check if anyone was in it.
They found a three-yearold boy in the pushchair, who was accompanied by his brother, aged seven and their parents, all of them Ukrainian.
The family were trying to sleep but shivering from cold so the two officers lent the children their jackets while the parents explained they
had no money to pay for somewhere to sleep.
The officers called headquarters and explained they could not leave the family in the street so if a solution could not be found they would pay for lodgings out of their own pockets.
In the end, the police headquarters managed to arrange a room for the family in a local guesthouse where they could stay for a few days until another solution could be found, according to the spokesman for the force.