Most Luhansk IDPs not receive any assistance from the state

The law on ensuring the rights and freedoms of the internally displaced persons was adopted by the Parliament of Ukraine a year ago. Meanwhile, the problems of the displaced persons have still not been resolved.

The issue was discussed by the experts, government officials and public activists at the meeting dedicated to the anniversary of adoption of the law, the Human Rights Information Center correspondent reports.

Oleksandra Dvoretska, the coordinator of the Charity Fund “Vostok-SOS” (East-SOS), reminded that most of the legal acts regulating the social field had not been passed yet. The activist wondered: what does the state do to integrate the IDPs into the new communities? So far, it seems that the government “hopes” that everybody will return home and the problem will be resolved by itself.

In addition, the experts pointed out that the IDPs often experienced discrimination. In particular, legal analyst of the All-Ukrainian Charity Fund “Right to Protection” Suleiman Mamutov noted that the displaced persons experienced constant discrimination based on place of residence. Restriction of freedom of movement, limited bank servicing and refusal of employment are among the key problems.

The IDPs are actually deprived of the chance to vote because of imperfections in the registration institute. Mykola Kozyrev, the head of the public committee for protection of the constitutional rights and freedoms of citizens (Luhansk), said that he had submitted the documents to register in Kyiv already twice, as he had been living in the capital for 17 months already and had no influence on development of the community in Luhansk. However, he got the refusal. “There is the constant substitution of concepts ‘place of residence’ and ‘place of stay’,” Kozyrev said.

According to Mykhailo Chaplyha, the representative of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, the government should have performed at least two tasks yesterday, “The comprehensive strategy for internally displaced persons has not yet been developed in Ukraine. Second, the government should change the approach to the IDPs and see their potential… So far, it seems that half a million people from Crimea and Donbas is the burden for the state.”

The strategy for reintegration and adaptation of the IDPs has been already elaborated and is pending approval. However, Serhiy Marushchenko, the head of the department for social protection of victims of emergency situations at the Social Policy Ministry of Ukraine, noted that it was imperfect and needed amendments. In addition, it is designed only for 2015-2016. “The issue of the IDPs may be included in the National Action Plan for Human Rights as one of the most realistic option,” Marushchenko said.

The activists highlighted that the state hardly dealt with those category of Ukrainian citizens. Tetiana Kyrylova, Head of the NGO “Public Initiative of Luhansk Region” said that the study of use of budgetary funds to meet the needs of the IDPs in Luhansk region had been conducted in late 2014 and early 2015. It turned out that 80% of the IDPs had not received any assistance from the state, and none of the thousands of tenders had been directed at solving their problems. Moreover, the issues of burden on schools, kindergartens, health care facilities due to increase in population have not been solved. The significant number of people has not been provided with free departure from the conflict zone.

According to Borys Zakharov, the human rights activist, the head of the advocacy department at the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, the abolition of the registration institute will settle the problem of voting in the elections for displaced persons and migrant workers, i.e. persons, who have moved to other regions of the country before the events in Crimea and Donbas, and now permanently live there.

As a reminder, over 1.5 million IDPs were registered in Ukraine as of today.