Mapperley family Michelina and Richard Primrose arranged to host a family fleeing Ukraine were frustrated by the lack of support by Ryanair at Krakow Airport in Poland.
Azamat and Venera Muminova with their two year old daughter were seeking safe haven with a British family, but were turned away from the flight because they couldn’t print out their boarding pass in advance.
Venera Muminova’s house was destroyed by Russian shells several weeks ago and they made the hazardous journey to Poland. Despite the arrangements being handled through the Home Office scheme, it seemed that the budget airline was ‘making a bad situation worse by putting a barrier of red tape in their way.’
Michelina spoke to Mapperley People whilst trying to rearrange the flight.
We paid tickets for today with Ryanair, but they wouldn’t let them on the flight because they hadn’t checked in online, as they had not understood and didn’t have the funds to pay at that time . They rang us and they said they were now 5 minutes late and wouldn’t let us pay to do it!! So now had to pay for another set of tickets and making them wait another 8 hours for the flight. The family are in tears, like they haven’t been through enough! The family keep apologising, and I’m trying to reassure them it’s ok. They are a young couple with a two year old who has been in hospital suffering with dehydration. So angry at Ryanair the customer services in Poland is so poor and I can’t speak to customer services until 9!!
Michelina Primrose – Tues 12th April 6.01am
Two days later and things have worked out for Venera and her husband. They are now in Nottingham and are settling in with the Primrose family in Mapperley.
Venera has even managed to write this in thanks to everyone that helped them.
Good morning, Great Britain! I want to tell you dear Britons from all over our country THANK YOU! You are just incredibly amazing people, we have seen it in person! Me and my family arrived in Britain last night. Our sponsors met us at the airport and now we are together!!!
Now I want to express special thanks to our dear Richard and Michelina and all the rest of the family. I am very glad that fate brought us together with them, they are very amazing people. I will not stop thanking them, they did everything and even more for us. By the time of our arrival, a lot has changed, our internal state has changed, this family brings us to our senses, morally and materially too In the house where we all live warmly and comfortably, incredible energy, the photos that I will add are all prepared for us by our dear Primrose family. There was an unpleasant situation at the airport in Poland, everything was decided by our friends, and thank you very much, I take my hat off to you, you are incredible.
When everything is over in Ukraine, we will be very happy to see every Briton in our country, we will definitely invite our dear Primrose family to visit us, and welcome them with love!
I wish everyone a peaceful sky above their heads! Take care of yourself !🇺🇦🇬🇧❤️👏 — with Michelina Primrose.
Venera Muminova 14th April 2022
