Disruption on the line between Vevey and Puidoux

The Canton of Vaud welcomed between Wednesday and Thursday its first refugees in the emergency accommodation structure on the Beaulieu site in Lausanne, which can accommodate 200 people. A dozen migrants are already there, mostly women and children.

The health crisis is followed by the humanitarian crisis in hall 35 in Beaulieu. In less than a week, it was transformed from a vaccination and then testing center into a temporary accommodation center for refugees from Ukraine at war.

“We are facing a humanitarian emergency and the situation is extremely serious on the human level. It is an unprecedented crisis since the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968”, declared Thursday on the spot and in front of the press the adviser of State Philippe Leuba, the serious mine. The canton must be ready and it is ready, working hard, he added in substance.

Up to 6,000 refugees

The Minister of the Economy recalled the number of 60,000 refugees that Switzerland could welcome according to Federal Councilor Karin Keller-Sutter. The canton of Vaud could be led to welcome around 10%, or some 6,000 refugees, according to Mr. Leuba. The government expects up to 100 arrivals per day, so 700 per week. For 80%, it will be women and children, according to him.

The emergency structure makes it possible to offer accommodation and food 24 hours a day to people seeking protection arriving in the canton while finding them a reception and long-term accommodation solution. The people who will be housed there will therefore in principle only stay a few days on the Beaulieu site.

But no one will leave the Beaulieu site before being redirected to long-term reception places, said Mr. Leuba. Sites are also being organized under the leadership of the Vaudois Establishment for the Reception of Migrants (EVAM).

At least three households ready

Three homes are currently ready, including one in Ollon. The other two will soon be announced by the municipalities concerned, explained Mr. Leuba. All are overseen by EVAM. No placement will be made in underground PCi shelter, he assured.

Between ten and fifteen locations are currently on the radar, each with potentially between 400 and 500 beds, said Erich Dürst, director of EVAM. “We are also looking for solutions via free buildings, rooms or land with the possibility of building temporary”, he underlined.

The director of EVAM also noted that 300 people from Ukraine had registered, including 63 who already had the S permit and 38 who were already housed for a long period. But that is without counting all the refugees arriving on Vaud soil and who do not announce themselves, because they are welcomed, for example, by their family or by private individuals. Eventually, all will have to go through the Boudry federal center to be registered and obtain the S permit.

The Vaudois government has also asked the Swiss army for equipment and wants to ask the Federal Council for the possibility of making military cantonments available on Vaudois soil.

Space for children

In hall 35, the huge space is divided into two sectors: a refectory for eating and drinking and the sleeping area with around twenty boxes made up of eight to ten camping beds and as many chairs, each with a bedside lamp placed on it. .

The hall also has a corner for children with games, toys and a small television. Table tennis tables are also available. Further on, the sanitary facilities, with showers and WCs, as well as an infirmary. A small quiet corner for prayers has also been set up.

For now, the site has 200 beds but will be expanded. Ten civil protection workers (PCi) supervise the refugees during the day and five during the night. Eventually, this number will increase to ten people for every 100 refugees, according to the commander of the Vaud PCI Louis-Henri Delarageaz.

About thirty people from the PCi set up this center in a few days. The City of Lausanne was actively involved in the operation.

This article has been published automatically. Source: ats