Red tape slows delivery of Scottish donations to Ukraine

Groups across Scotland raising funds for Ukraine face logistical challenges to get the goods to those in need.

Organizers face red tape to get shipments through customs, and some are raising funds to pay for transportation costs.

Charities have called for cash donations so they can get people the right help quickly.

The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) in Scotland has raised more than £6million on the first day of its appeal in Ukraine.

Many groups that have been asking for essential supplies for people fleeing their homes in Ukraine since the Russian invasion last week have been so overwhelmed that they are no longer accepting donations.

Askay Goenka is helping organize a Glasgow fundraiser for refugees in Poland.

About eight 7.5-ton trucks were taken to the Mandir Hindu temple in the west end of the city before they had to ask people to stop donating.

He was moved to get involved after a Polish friend launched an appeal.

“Everyone wants to do something to help,” he said, adding that people were “shocked” and “touched.”

He said the “amazing” response to her first appeal had become “extremely difficult to handle.”

He said donations and volunteers had poured in from Oban and Fife following their call for support for Ukraine on social media.

They had to hire many helpers to meet the challenge of sorting through massive amounts of donations.

Brexit rules mean that every item transported from the UK through the EU must be accounted for.

Accomplice Debbie Stevenson said they initially had no idea how difficult it would be to deal with the bureaucracy of getting goods out of the UK.

“A bag of white t-shirts must say ‘100 white t-shirts.’ The code for this is different than a white sweatshirt,” she said. “This is where you get tied up. It’s not that easy to throw it in the van and drive off.”

The group are now trying to raise £15,000 to cover the cost of transporting the goods.

Other groups continue to collect essential items to be brought to Ukraine, including the Edinburgh Ukraine Club, which helped sort the donations with 30 volunteers on Friday morning.

Donations continued to “flow in” throughout the week.

Staff at Mossgiel Organic Farm in Ayrshire were quick to raise funds but after a lorryload of aid was seized in France they launched a petition urging Boris Johnson to make it easier for donations to be transported.

They wrote: “Because of Brexit laws, we are faced with an enormous amount of bureaucracy – documents, codes, etc. that we simply cannot wait days or weeks to organize.”

The first truck from the Mossgiel farm finally arrived in Poland on Thursday after French officials offered “massive help” with the papers. Two more trucks were due to cross the English Channel on Friday.

Farmer Bryce Cunningham said it took 200 phone calls to figure out how to get the donations across the English Channel.

“The bureaucracy was appalling,” he said. “Originally I had just been asked to fill up a couple of vans to meet a lorry in Glasgow on Sunday night.

“We’re a farm with a couple of delivery trucks and a couple of sheds to store things.”

When word got out that they were raising funds for a Polish charity, they were overwhelmed.

Mr Cunningham said: “When the lorry got to customs [in France] the paperwork was wrong – we hadn’t declared every single item. To the last toothbrush.”

He said they managed to sort through the paperwork for the next two shipments with the help of Ukrainian officials.

“The only reason we get something across is that we work with Ukrainians,” he added, noting that their deliveries are made by Ukrainian drivers in Ukrainian trucks.

They have stopped accepting donations and have urged people to donate to the Disasters Emergency Committee appeal.

Other charities have focused on using financial donations to provide essentials to refugees.

International charity Glasgow The Caring City thanked the public for £20,000 in donations after sending its second shipment of aid to the Ukraine-Polish border.

Partner companies like SoapWorks helped provide 30,000 self-heating meals, 10,000 liters of bottled water and 50,000 hygiene kits for an aid station in Ukraine.

Ukrainian Yuriy Kachak, who runs Deanston Bakery in Glasgow, told BBC radio there was a “phenomenal reaction” to his bake sale on Sunday.

All money raised will be donated to charities helping Ukrainians affected by the conflict.

Regional appeals have also been launched, including by Lord Provost’s Charitable Trust in Aberdeen.

The UK Government’s official advice is that it is better to donate cash through trusted charities and charities than through relief supplies, as it can be quickly transferred and used to buy essentials.

“Unsolicited donations in kind, while well intentioned, can hamper supply chains and delay more urgent life-saving assistance,” reads the GOV.UK website.

But it adds that organizations are collecting essentials and charities with experience responding to disasters are best placed to reach victims on the ground.

The Scottish Government has already pledged £4million to Ukraine, including medical supplies and a £500,000 donation to the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund’s Ukraine Appeal.

Extra £1.2million in NHS Scotland relief supplies, including ventilators, bandages and syringe pumps, will be flown from Stansted Airport to Poland on Sunday for onward transport to Ukraine.

Sciaf said the funds would “go directly into the hands of local humanitarian workers on the ground in Ukraine.”

More than £6million has been raised in Scotland since the DEC appeal launched on Thursday.

DEC charities and their partners in Ukraine and neighboring countries will use the money to “amplify their aid” to people fleeing the conflict and will help provide food, water, medical aid, shelter and trauma treatment.

Marie Hayes of the British Red Cross is leading the Scottish appeal. She said: “While wanting to collect clothing and other items for those in need is commendable, the things people give today may not be what people need tomorrow and aid workers say they don’t have much of can use what arrives.”

Financial support may be needed for years to come, she added.