Former Cayman detective sergeant joins refugee relief efforts for Ukraine

Driven by the pleas of his Ukrainian friends and their families for help, former RCIPS Detective Sergeant Peter Sugden has embarked on a mission to transport refugees fleeing the war-torn country.

Sugden, a former soldier and the head of security on a cruise ship, decided to enlist his friend and former army buddy Nick Goss on a humanitarian mission to rescue his cruise ship co-workers in Ukraine.

“I had friends in Ukraine who were possibly trapped, and a friend’s wife as well who was in Ukraine and her husband does the same job as me. He was on the ship so he was powerless to do anything. So I felt that people needed help,” he told the Cayman Compass Tuesday morning in a WhatsApp interview somewhere outside of Katowice, Poland, where he managed to get cell and internet service.

Over the weekend, Sugden packed up his minivan and left his home in the Isle of Man to make the 1,600-mile journey to Przemyśl, Poland, near the border crossing with Lviv, Ukraine, to take refugees on the seven-hour drive to the safety of the Czech Republic.

His friends, he said, are in a position where they don’t know whether they’re going to be able to stay in their homes, including his friend’s wife in Odessa, Ukraine.

“So the decision was to just take off and come and get them and if they’re in a position to be on the border of Poland, I’ll take as many [people] out of the country and take them to wherever they need to be in Europe where they’re safe,” Sugden said.

He admitted the mission started off as a polite gesture of asking if there was anything he could do to help.

What ensued, he said, is a mission he and his friend could be proud of.

“The overriding factor, [for] both me and Nick, we’ve both experienced a lot of conflict and war in the past. We’re not in a hurry to get engaged in any war at all. But we know that there are people who were in a hurry to get out. Maybe we can use our experience and our position to help them get out, get away from war, because we both know what it’s like and it’s not for anybody,” Sugden said.

He and Goss plan to take many people from the refugee camp at the Polish border to the Czech Republic capital Prague, a seven-hour, 500-mile journey.

Posting on his Facebook on Wednesday, Sugden said almost all of the refugees are women and children and “their lives are now whatever they can carry”.

“Every 15 minutes more arrive and file off buses and through the doors. The same hollow, frightened, confused expressions as I have seen on photographs from the second world war. Whether people choose to be involved or not, this war will reach everyone in some form,” he wrote.

He shared that Wednesday they took a man he referred to as Sergei and his family of 9 from the border to family in Korczowa, on the Ukraine/Poland border.

The family, he said, was on their way there from Kharkov after fleeing Russian bombardment with only what they could carry.

“On the way, we passed a convoy of ambulances coming from the border transferring injured. Dropping them off, Sergei via google translate said to us ‘I hope you live 100 years’,” Sugden shared.

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The Cayman connection

Sugden said it was while sharing his plan with his friend Travel Pros’s Fiona Brander that she put him in touch with their mutual friend Paul Kenwright at the Polish border, who was struggling with relief efforts and organising the transport of refugees.

He said he loaded up his van with various medical supplies which he personally purchased and first aid kits he was able to procure, picked up Goss and began the trek to Poland.

“We’ve also bought a quantity of pet food as well for dogs and cats because so often pets are being overlooked. Families are coming cross the border with their personal pets and maybe there’s suppliers to feed the families but nobody’s actually fed the pets as well,” he said.

Sugden said he is self-funded on the journey, but his friends have encouraged him to get donations for the fuel as it is expensive, so he has set up a PayPal link on his Facebook page for anyone willing to help.

He said he is not seeking donations and wants to be self-funded as long as he can.

However, he said the generosity and connections with the Cayman community have shone through.

“A great thank you to the Cayman Islands. They’ve always been good at stepping up to the plate, maybe that’s from Ivan because they’ve experienced similar sort of tragedies, but the support in the Cayman Islands has always been fantastic, as well as every other country that we’ve been we’ve found incredible support,” he said.

Sugden has been chronicling his journey on his Facebook page and providing regular updates.

On arriving at the Polish border with Ukraine, he described it as an “overwhelming” situation.

He hopes to transport at least 15 people per trip to Prague.

A life-altering journey

Sugden admitted it has not been an easy journey from Isle of Man to Poland and he’s had some hiccups along the way, but he’s firm in his resolve.

It’s little things like that in the countries where you don’t speak the language, you don’t know the people but suddenly everybody’s your brother’s keeper.” – Peter Sugden on the support he has been receiving.

He said when he landed in London from Isle of Man he encountered vehicle trouble and had to sleep in his van.

However, the auto company that came to assist him found out what he was doing and assisted with the cost.

Similarly, a friend of his also helped him with replacing parts on his van after that breakdown.

He said they had quite a scare in Belgium when they awoke to find their van missing.

Luckily, Sugden said they tracked it down at a police compound.

It had been impounded for overstaying the parking limit. After a hefty penny, he said, they got the vehicle back and were on the road again.

On Tuesday, Sugden and Goss arrived in Poland, but there they faced their biggest hurdle.

The men were not able to buy an electronic pass for motorway tolls as his Isle of Man licence plates were not recognised.

He said they popped into a nearby gas station for assistance and the guy there, he said, could not understand English.

However, he went online and showed him their issue.

The man, he said, made several calls and got them passes and plates to help them on their journey. He also put the plates on.

Sugden said these experiences have given him hope, not just for the success of his noble quest, but for humanity itself.

“It’s little things like that in the countries where you don’t speak the language, you don’t know the people, but suddenly everybody’s your brother’s keeper. It’s good in the way that when you start thinking that there’s no good left in the world, suddenly, it often hits you the world is still full of good people. They just don’t need to bow down and let them be overshadowed by the bad stuff,” he said.