RSS Feed
July 22nd, 2014 
David Schulberg 
Tens of thousands of Ukrainians forced from their homes by the internal armed conflict are receiving little protection and assistance from Ukrainian authorities, claims Human Rights Watch in a letter sent to President Petro Poroshenko.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has conducted research of its own, speaking to displaced
citizens in major central and western Ukrainian cities, such as
the capital Kiev, Kharkov, Lvov and Vinnitsa. HRW’s nine-day
probe also addressed local authorities, international
organizations and volunteers dealing with refugees.
The general picture is disappointing: most of the displaced
people interviewed had not heard of any government assistance
programs, and had received no assistance with accommodation,
food, clothing or access to social services from government
bodies or agencies.
Despite declared intentions, the Ukrainian government has failed
to help displaced people find sustainable housing and get access
to social services. Human Rights Watch insists that Kiev should
intensify its assistance to civilians evacuating from the
conflict areas in the east of the country.
“The Ukrainian government has had to cope with multiple,
profound crises in a short period of time,” maintained Yulia
Gorbunova, Europe and Central Asia researcher at Human Rights
Watch. “But as the number of people forced from their homes
in Ukraine grows, so also does the urgency of providing the help
they need.”
The latest data provided by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) office suggests that more than 87,500 people have been
internally displaced in Ukraine since March.
These statistics include 13,000 people, mostly Ukrainian
servicemen and members of their families, who chose to move to
Ukraine from the Crimean peninsula after Crimea voted in favor of
reunification with Russia.
Yet volunteer groups told HRW that many displaced people do not
officially register as such, so the final stats could be
significantly higher: trains going from cities like Lugansk and
Donetsk to the central and western regions of Ukraine are full of
people eager to escape the war.
According to stats from the UNHCR, the number of Ukrainian
refugees which nave fled to Russia has officially reached
110,000
people,while a report by the UN Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs says over 4.5 million civilians still remain
in the war zone.
Those who fled the military conflict zone in the east but
remained in the same region reported problems with medical care
and shortage of medicine.
After migration began to grow in the country over Crimea’s
succession and developments in eastern regions, the Ukrainian
government issued a number of decrees designed to create
mechanisms to respond to the needs of displaced citizens.
But the laws do not work properly in Ukraine due to the inertia
of bureaucracy at the local level, which simply shift the burden
of displaced citizens onto non-governmental organizations and
volunteer groups. Often civil servants just send needy people to
volunteers, blaming scarce funding and lack of detailed
instructions from officials at a higher level.
“Volunteers are doing the best they can to provide medicine,
food, and shelter for the displaced in Ukraine, but their energy
and resources won’t last forever,” Gorbunova said. “With
displaced people arriving in central and western Ukraine in large
numbers, the national government needs to urgently step up
efforts to assist them before this crisis worsens,” she
said.
HRW asked President Poroshenko to ensure that registration of
displaced citizens is functioning properly on all levels, and
provide essential financial and physical resources to provide
coordinated assistance to those uprooted from their homes.
Ukraine’s parliament has so far not adopted legislation
preventing discrimination against displaced citizens, such as the
introduction of a simplified residency registration procedure
that would enable people to receive pension, social and
disability payments in a new place of residence.
Source Article from http://rt.com/news/174644-ukraine-displaced-citizens-hrw/
HRW: Kiev did not provide adequate protection and help to internal refugees
http://rt.com/news/174644-ukraine-displaced-citizens-hrw/
http://rt.com/rss/news/
RT – News
RT : News
http://rt.com/static/img/RT_logo_250x250.png
Views: 0
Posted in 
