Ukraine grants Russian activist Shelkovenkov refugee status

October 3, the State Migration Service of Ukraine gave refugee status to Russian activist Alexander Shelkovenkov, who had repeatedly participated in protest actions in Russia and had been put under the administrative arrest and received threats of criminal prosecution.

The Human Rights Information Centre learnt this from co-coordinator of the Without Borders human rights project Maksym Butkevych.

According to him, early May 2016, Shelkovenkov tried to cross the border of Ukraine to apply for asylum. However, without knowing the asylum application procedure, Alexander was denied entry by the employees of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine.

With the mediation of the EmigRussia project, Alexander appealed for help to the Without Borders project, representative of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights in Sumy region Iryna Bilyk, the Right to Protection human rights organization, and the representative of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union in Sumy region.

In course of consultations with the human rights defenders, Alexander acquainted with the asylum application procedure and successfully crossed the border of Ukraine on May 9. Ukrainian border guards took him to the State Migration Service department in Sumy town, where he filed the request for obtaining a refugee status in Ukraine. The representative of the Ukrainian Ombudsperson and local human rights activists monitored the process to ensure that the rights of Alexander were not violated.

Later, in Kyiv, Shelkovenkov received further advice from the Without Borders project and legal assistance from the Right to Protection human rights organization. The EmigRussia project jointly with the Memorial Russian human rights organization prepared a certificate proving numerous arrests of Shelkovenkov for participating in protest actions in Russia.

“We are very glad that we managed to help Alexander at the initial stage of his ‘refugee path’ with advice, explaining the asylum procedure in Ukraine, co-ordination with colleagues from other organizations, who we are very grateful for the excellent teamwork. The refugee status, which was granted to Alexander, is a completely correct decision of the State Migration Service of Ukraine, as his political views and persecution for these views is widely known. We are also glad that the decision was made in a relatively short time. However, it’s a pity that a speedy consideration of the Shelkovenkov’s request and its positive solution are exception rather than rule in the cases of Russian refugees in Ukraine. Lengthy consideration of asylum requests, unmotivated denials of refugee status or subsidiary protection, failure to comply with court decisions are much more commonplace practice. We can only hope that the decision in the case of Shelkovenkov will mark a beginning of a new trend on the Russian refugees in Ukraine. Although there is so far few grounds for such hopes,” Maksym Butkevych commented on granting Shelkovenkov refugee status.

As a reminder, September 2016, the Security Service of Ukraine forcibly deported from Ukraine Russian citizen Aminat Babayeva, who requested asylum in Ukraine.

In addition, this fall, Russian refugee Sergey Anisiforov received from the State Migration Service of Ukraine the third for the past two years denial of refugee status in Ukraine, despite the fact that his right to receive the asylum had been approved by the Ukrainian courts.