There was a scandal with help for Karabakh refugees: they are giving away torn socks

A resident of the Moscow region, Lilith organized a collection of aid for refugees from Armenia in her apartment.

— One gets the feeling that Muscovites are not immersed in the problems of Karabakh.

– You are not right. So many people write to me, I don’t have time to answer everyone! My apartment is all littered with bales. It’s good that we were given space in the shopping center. In addition to the Russians, Tajiks brought humanitarian aid, and there was one Azerbaijani. But 90 percent, of course, are Armenians who live in Moscow.

— What do people need?

— We collect warm things first. People left Artsakh in slippers, nightgowns, and dressing gowns. We need diapers and dry baby formula. There are many children among the refugees. Almost all families are large, with 5 to 9 children each. It is rare to find families with 2-3 children. It was officially announced that 120 thousand people lived in Karabakh, but most likely there were more than 150 thousand, because children under three years of age were not counted.

— How do you transport everything?

— I came to Sheremetyevo for two days, paid for my luggage, asked, and they took me. But yesterday they called me from one airline and said that they would accept up to a ton of humanitarian cargo for free. On Tuesday I am flying to Armenia with luggage.

— The main problem of refugees is housing?

— There is a catastrophic shortage of housing in Armenia. It seems that the government promised to take some measures, but so far there is no sign of much help. Families who have money buy housing, some can afford to rent an apartment, and the poor ask for help through social networks.

My friend in Yerevan hosted three families. A guy from Krasnodar called, he is ready to take four families. He promises to place everyone in a private house and give them work. People who can shelter people called from Mytishchi. If everything goes well, the Armenians will fly here, there is no way out.

Many Russian cities are collecting humanitarian aid for refugees from Karabakh. Volunteers from the Stavropol Territory complained that people were bringing torn, dirty things. “It’s a shame to give away torn socks, old jackets, worn-out pants, we are horrified,” one of the volunteers complained on social networks. – Keep this if you are used to wearing it! Humanitarian aid is not trash. Ashamed. People have no conscience.

Personal feminine hygiene products were also brought individually, and medications that were past their expiration dates were given away. We sort and waste time on this trash. We even hate to go through this. They collected huge bags of junk and threw it away. As a result, we suspended the collection of used items.”

Anahit helps refugees in Yerevan: “You can’t imagine how many people need housing. Many go to remote areas and settle in abandoned houses just to have a roof over their heads.”

— People complain that there is no free housing left in Yerevan. For renting an apartment they ask for 1500-2000 dollars, they take an advance payment 2-3 months in advance. It happened when the owners said: “We don’t take Artsakh people,” says volunteer Maria. — Hotel owners do not agree to host refugees. That’s why people travel away from the capital. But there are almost no free places left in the regions either.

Some families are forced to settle in abandoned houses, where they don’t even have anything to lie down on. If a family finds an apartment, it is usually empty, with nothing to sleep on. Nowadays it’s a big problem to buy mattresses or folding beds. One grandmother hosted 20 people in her house and spread clothes on the floor to make them softer.

The first Karabakh Armenians were received by the city of Goris. There hasn’t been a single free apartment left there for a long time, everything is occupied. They set up tents in Goris, but they were very cold. Those who have not found housing sleep in cars. The worst is for those who are forced to spend the night right on the street.

From the latest messages that I saw: a 98-year-old grandfather is looking for housing with his granddaughter who takes care of him; a family of three needs an apartment – a wheelchair user, a pensioner and a woman with bad legs.

13 children and two mothers were placed in an infectious diseases clinic, where there are two beds for 13 children. Three more adults and three children, one of whom is disabled, arrived in Yerevan, but rented out the promised apartment to others. They remained on the street.

Fraudsters have become more active. There were cases when scammers rented a house for two days, rented it out to residents of Artsakh, took an advance payment for several months in advance and disappeared. Therefore, migrants are now asked to check their property documents with their landlords when renting housing.

Now there are many advertisements asking people to take on this or that family as patronage, that is, to provide financial guardianship. Help people pay for housing, food, and clothing remotely for at least 2-3 months until they find a job.

The government promised to give people $250 for urgent needs, but is that really money?

— Are people ready to move to Russia?

— I saw many offers of help from the Russians. Refugees are ready to be accepted in Nizhny Novgorod, Vladikavkaz, they are invited to work in a sewing workshop in Pyatigorsk, and they are welcome in the Stavropol Territory, Vladimir and Saratov regions. An entrepreneur from the Leningrad region published an advertisement that he was waiting for people who could work in agriculture.

Residents of Artsakh, of course, are afraid to go to a foreign country with strangers. They are afraid that they will be deceived. But if there is no other choice, they will go. The hardest thing is for lonely grandparents who have nowhere to go and find it difficult to move. Who will take them?

Read the material “Churches, factories, abandoned cars”: what will Azerbaijan receive after the surrender of Karabakh”