Maria and Mats Ekenstam live outside Alvesta and are good friends with David Lindqvist who is the CEO of a bus company that helps Ukrainian refugees get from Poland to Sweden.  

- When our friend David Lindqvist had not received so much help, we got a sharper wish from him.

With the help of social media, we emphasized that urgent help is needed.

10 hours later we had 140 beds.

This power with people who wanted to help was completely magical, says Mats Ekenstam, who together with his wife Maria started the search for housing for refugees. 

"Very disappointed with the municipality"

When a bus in the Polish capital Warsaw was filled with refugees, David Lindqvist contacted Växjö municipality in the hope of getting help to find accommodation in Växjö, but they never returned. 

- They first replied that they would solve it, but then nothing happened.

I think they handled it badly.

We must all be helped in such crisis situations, I think so I feel very disappointed in the municipality, says David Lindqvist, CEO of Flexbuss. 

The Swedish Migration Agency's responsibility 

But Växjö municipality believes that it is the Swedish Migration Board's responsibility to find housing for refugees.

They think they have done their job by being on site when the Ukrainian refugees came to Växjö to give them information. 

- If you bring refugees to Sweden and they need housing, you must contact the Swedish Migration Board, says Marcus Holmqvist, head of security at Växjö municipality to SVT.

Municipalities do different

But other municipalities make a different assessment: In Borgholm, the municipality itself is involved in the bus that now goes down to Warsaw to pick up Ukrainian refugees and the municipality will also arrange an evacuation accommodation.

Could you not do more even though you do not have to? 

- I think it is important that we follow the processes that exist in society.

It is about the people who come to Sweden to get the protection they need.

In the individual case, I do not want to go in and discuss whether we could have done more or less, says Marcus Holmqvist.

Late on Wednesday evening, a new bus with refugees from Ukraine will arrive in Växjö.

Now the municipality has changed and they will arrange housing for them.