Ombudsman: Orphans in Donbass Have Become Hostages

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The governments of the “DNR” and “LNR” prohibit the movement of children out of the region while forcing them into Russia.

According to a report by the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights “On the State of Observance and Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms in 2014,” there were 40 institutions for orphans, children deprived of parental care, and people with disabilities still operating in “hot spots” in the East. Some of these institutions are working in territory that is not controlled by Ukraine.

Institutions in separatist-controlled territories do not have stable telephone or electronic communications and there are problems with the supply of medicines and equipment. Food is supplied by humanitarian organizations and local residents.

Despite repeatedly receiving appeals since the beginning of the conflict, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has not taken a single step to organize the movement of children to a safe area. Evacuations take place spontaneously, without financial backing from the state and supported only by volunteers and local authorities in Donetsk and Luhansk.

“According to operational information from the zone of the antiterrorist operation, 128 residents of the Krasnodon Regional orphanage and boarding school, 85 of whom are children, remain there. Most of the residents of this institution are seriously ill and cannot move independently. 174 residents of the Rovenky regional orphanage have not been evacuated, including 20 children. In addition, continue to be on the treatment children in the two children’s tuberculosis rehabilitative centers in Alchevsk,” the Commissioner’s report states.

Because of the lack of a sustained evacuation effort, children in rebel-controlled territory have effectively become hostages. The heads of children’s institutions receive orders from the leadership of the self-proclaimed republics which forbid them from taking the children outside of the area. At the same time, separatists have repeatedly tried to forcibly remove children from Ukraine into Russia. One of these cases, as outlined in the report, occurred on June 12, 2014. Armed men without proper authorization documents illegally removed 16 children from Snizhe orphanage in Donetsk and moved them to Russia through the “Dolzhansky” checkpoint. The next day, the children were returned to Ukraine on a charter flight after high-level intervention from the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, the Ombudsman of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, and the Donetsk regional state administration.

Earlier, the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, Valeryia Lutkovska, addressed the Prime Minister with a request to protect the life and health of children in hazardous areas in the East of Ukraine. According to her, there is a threat to the life and health of children who are living in hazardous areas in close proximity to the area of the antiterrorist operation and are subjected to shelling.