Malaga man charters bus to bring 47 refugees from Ukraine border

When Vicente Jiménez Ifergan saw photos of the Russian invasion of Ukraine he felt he had to do something. He has a close link with the country, as his son was born there, and his plan was to bring a family with whom he is friendly to safety in Malaga. However, he is now bringing 47 people: the number that will fit into a bus that he hired in Poland when he saw the situation at the border for himself.

“The logistics were very complicated,” says Jiménez Ifergan. “My first idea was to hire an 86-seater bus, but it would have had to have come from Romania and set off immediately”. He wanted to travel round several refugee camps first, “looking for people who wanted to come to Malaga”.

At the moment he is covering the costs himself and says he would be happy to do a second trip but would need the authorities to pay for it. He is hoping that local people will offer accommodation for the refugees when they arrive in the city.