Some 22,000 people have moved from Crimea to Ukraine since the peninsula was joined with Russia two years ago.
“There were 21,974 persons displaced from Crimea, as of yesterday.
Unfortunately, we cannot say that this flow has stopped. In the period
between November 2016 and March 16, 628 newly displaced persons
arrived,” Zhanna Lukyanenko, a representative of the human rights
ombudsman on issues relating to internally displaced persons in Ukraine,
said at a press conference in Kyiv on March 17.
Lukyanenko said indications of discrimination against internally
displaced persons, specifically, additional checks of documents
submitted by them to register to live in new places can be observed in
Ukraine. The ombudsman also said the Ukrainian legislation has no
mechanism which allows internally displaced persons to participate in
elections.
The nationalities of the displaced persons from Crimea are unknown.
Valeria Lutkovska, Ukrainian parliamentary human rights ombudsman,
said she is against mentioning nationality in any of the registers kept
on the territory of Ukraine.
“As human rights ombudsman, it doesn’t matter to me at all, who came
as internally displaced people and what their nationality is. They have
come here, to the territory controlled by Ukraine, and they should get
all rights that are now determined by the Ukrainian legislation. The
issue of nationality is not on the agenda here,” she said.
