It’s been a year since the occupation of Crimea. And almost as much time has passed since the outbreak of war. The number of forced migrants will reach a million soon but their problems are just rolling up. Georgian experts and also the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Ukraine suggest solutions for some of them.
Unified electronic database
In Ukraine one of the most important problems of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) is the absence of a unified electronic record database of such citizens.
It is commonly known, that the public authorities have been talking about establishing the unified electronic database since March. Back then the Crimeans, who moved from the peninsula, were given a small piece of paper with a signature from the State Migration Service or the Department of Social Policy and Centers of Administrative Services also received a part of the competency since October 1. As of today, the certificate of temporary stay is possible to receive in the State Migration Service, the certificate for social benefit payments – in the Ministry of Social Policy but still there is no unified electronic database.
The experts note that today the situation reaches the point, where numbers of the IDPs mismatch in the UNICEF and the State Migration Service of Ukraine.
“If the information about the numbers in the UNICEF and the State Migration Service differs twofold, it is a disaster in principle,” the Georgian IDP and refugees expert, the head of the public organization “Consent” Yuliya Kharashvili noted.
The Georgian experts suggest to solve the problem of the internally displaced persons by means of creation of the mobile teams that would register and count the internally displaced persons as it was done during wars in Georgia.
“In our country a lot of mobile teams were created that were equipped by the UNICEF. 10 teams used to work at the same time, went to the regions, where the internally displaced persons were located and registered them locally. We still maintain hot line and database because the database is crucial for provision of humanitarian aid and everything else,” Yuliya Kharashvili said.
Pass control
The second problem appeared not so long ago, but at once restricted rights of Ukrainian citizens rather badly. Since January 12, the pass control has been introduced for entry and exit from the ATO zone, which actually started to work only since January 21, due to the insufficient consideration of its mechanisms. Now citizens can get to Donbass only after receiving a permit within the 10-day term. However, thus far, this procedure is too long, it doesn’t provide online application submission for the permit and it creates big waiting lines. The representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Ukraine Dmitry Plechko informed that today their administration is going to initiate establishment of possibility of online application submission and creation of three waiting lines for receiving the permit instead of one.
“The mechanism of the issuance of permits is not simple, because it is issued in 10 days, and it is shortened till 3 days for the international organizations. Yesterday we had a meeting with representatives of the Security Service of Ukraine to minimize the procedure of the permit issuance. For today the process is narrowed down to filling out the applications in the “first come first served” mode by an official. We want a possibility to post information about oneself online to be in Ukraine,” said Dmitry Plechko.
Sheltering
In Ukraine the problem of the sheltering of citizens is tightly connected with establishing the unified electronic database of the IDPs, because the authorities do not provide housing to the migrants to the full extent and they have to rent it on their own. The Georgian experts assert that their experience lead to the full integration of the internally displaced persons in the new territories. In 2008 in Georgia it was made a decision to give a possibility to privatize the temporary housing that had been provided for migrants for a symbolical price of 1 Lary.
Documentation for people under occupation
First of all, the problem of acquiring of Ukrainian documents concerns citizens of Crimea. Especially, it refers to the ones, who live on the occupied peninsula but keep considering themselves Ukrainians. Today the issue of Crimean border crossing for the 16 year old Crimeans to receiveу a passport on the territory of Ukraine and the issuance of certificates of birth for infants of the peninsula remains problematic.
“High school graduates can’t receive high school diplomas without a passport, at the same time they don’t have any possibility to leave Crimea without acquiring the Russian passport. The remote issuance of the passport or the issuance by attorney isn’t provided at the present moment,” the coordinator of the initiative VostokSOS Aleksandra Dvoretskaya said.
The Georgian experts suggested to solve such issues through non-governmental and international organizations.
“The reissuance was very problematic for us. It is because people, who live on the occupied territory, need documents from us. There can be exchange with documents on the level of non-governmental organizations, if there is any there. It is all possible to do on the level of international organizations,” Yuliya Kharashvili said.
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Today there are great challenges in front of the authorities as they have never faced the problem of the internally displaced persons. Of course, the list of problems can be extended and the editors don’t claim exclusiveness of the presented problems. However, first of all, it is necessary to solve the complicated ones, which concern the greatest number of people.
