Ukraine’s Deputy Minister for Occupied Territories: Militants use prisoners as ‘labor army’ in occupied territories
The militants in the occupied territories of Donbas use the inmates of penitentiary facilities as the “labor army.”
Deputy Minister of Ukraine for Temporarily Occupied Territories Heorhiy Tuka said this at a press conference on September 13, LІGA.net news portal reports.
“The leaders of the so-called ‘DPR’ and ‘LPR’ use the so-called labor army consisting of convicts. We are talking about several thousand people. Nobody can confirm or refute exact number,” Tuka said.
He noted that militants systematically violated human rights in the occupied territories.
Tuka stressed that militants were using the prisoners as free labor force at the production of building materials, construction and wood processing works.
“According to the estimates of human rights activists, the total amount of works only in Luhansk region costs about USD 300,000-500,000 a month. These funds are paid not to the convicts, but to the leadership of the armed groups ruling the territory of certain areas f Donetsk and Luhansk regions now,” he said.
As a reminder, 23 convicts were transferred from the occupied territories of Donbas to other regions of Ukraine on July 21 thanks to the efforts of the Office of Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights. 110 prisoners, who want to serve their sentence in the government-controlled territory, were transferred from Donbas for a year.
