Princess Leonor visits Ukrainian refugee centre on college holidays

PRINCESS Leonor has spent her Easter holidays visiting a refugee centre attending to new arrivals from Ukraine – her first official Royal engagement of 2022 and her second since heading off to college abroad.

First heir to the throne and eldest of King Felipe VI's and Queen Letizia's two daughters, Leonor, 16, returned to Spain on Maundy Thursday, April 14, from Wales, where she is undertaking her sixth-form studies at UWC Atlantic, an exclusive exam-only centre for teens from all over the world, up to three-quarters of whom are on partial or full scholarships, and where the tough entrance tests are taken anonymously.

Leonor was still 15 when she embarked on her daunting but exciting adventure on August 30, the first day of term, flying out that same morning from Madrid airport alone and knowing that she would be living in a shared house with three other students she had never met before and who would, in accordance with the college's ethos, all be from different countries, cultures and native languages.

The teen princess confirmed before setting off that she would still be taking part in Royal engagements whenever she returned to Madrid for the holidays, since she has to start preparing at a very young age for her future rôle as Queen of Spain.

October half-term saw her present her namesake Princess of Asturias Awards – Spain's national answer to the Nobel Prizes – and her second official visit since moving to Wales was on Easter Saturday at the Reception, Welcome and Distribution Centre (CREADE) for refugees in Pozuelo de Alarcón.

An up-market commuter town a short drive from Madrid city, Pozuelo has long been a popular celebrity residence – footballers, screen artists and politicians live within its gated urbanisations – meaning it frequently tops the list of Spain's richest municipalities.

But this means it was the ideal location for a centre which has attended to around half the Ukrainian refugees arriving in Spain who did not already have family connections in the country – close to Madrid airport, and with the public funds and resources needed to offer all possible help to confused, frightened and traumatised incomers.

As at the end of March, the CREADE centre in Pozuelo de Alarcón had attended to 6,355 refugees from Ukraine, within 20 days of its opening.

This centre was the first of three so far to launch, with the one in Alicante following five days later – within the next fortnight, this east-coast hub had attended to 3,054 arrivals.

Barcelona's CREADE centre opened the following day, on March 17, and by the end of the month had helped out 2,525 Ukrainians.

Around 3,000 of the total have applied for asylum via the three centres.

According to Spain's government, the country has taken in around 110,000 Ukrainians, of whom 47,000 have had their asylum applications processed and all of whom will automatically have the right to remain in the country for between one and three years – a period which is likely to be extended if the conflict continues – and the same treatment will be given to everyone from Ukraine already in Spain, including those who were based there before the Russian invasion, since it is not safe for any of them to return to their home country for the foreseeable future.

At the CREADE centres, the refugees can apply for and receive a work permit and residence card within 24 hours.

During her visit to the CREADE in Pozuelo, HRH Leonor was accompanied by minister for Social Security and migrations, José Luis Escrivá, Secretary of State for migrations Jesús Perea, her parents, and her sister Sofía, who will turn 15 at the end of April.

The Royal family also met with the Spanish Catholic Association for Immigrants, and toured the Gerencia building where the CREADE centre carries out its work.

They got to see the classrooms where Ukrainians are being given Spanish lessons and taught about culture, law and society to help them find their feet in their new country.

Staff at the centre explained their daily duties to the Royals, and took them on a tour of the residential zone, known by those in charge as 'The Hotel', which has a playroom for children and a leisure lounge.

Finally, Leonor, her sister and parents greeted workers from the US-based charity World Central Kitchen – run by Spanish-born celebrity chef José Andrés – at their caravan in the patio.

World Central Kitchen, and José Andrés himself, are usually among the first to arrive on the front line whenever a natural or man-made disaster happens anywhere in the world, firing up the hobs and ovens to cook hot meals for those who need it.

More recently, this has included dishing up dinners to freezing, exhausted Ukrainians queuing to enter Poland on foot, and in the past led Andrés and his team to the Bahamas during Hurricane Dorian, Haïti following the earthquake, Beirut after the devastating explosion, Washington DC to feed government workers left unpaid for weeks following Donald Trump's shutdown, and has seen World Central Kitchen team up with the UK's Harry and Meghan, Duke and Duchess of Sussex, to launch a Covid relief centre in India.