Representatives of the human rights organizations, namely, Crimea SOS, Crimean Human Rights Group and Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union are in favor of repealing Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers’ decree to restrict the operation of entry-exit checkpoints on the administrative border with temporarily occupied Crimea.
“The ideal option is to repeal decree No. 979-r and adopt other regulatory framework that would legally, in compliance with the principles of law, resolve the issue of crossing the checkpoint,” representative of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union Anna Rassamakhina said during a briefing on August 18.
She also talked about what key positions need to be written in the new document. Thus, in the opinion of human rights defenders, humanitarian grounds for crossing the border should be clearly written, a list of documents that confirm humanitarian grounds, permission of the person who provides these documents to use her personal data or data of her family members to whom she is traveling, a transparent procedure for accepting decisions, as well as the opportunity to appeal this decision.
Rassamakhina said that at the moment, citizens can appeal against the decision of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine not to allow them to enter the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea, but only in court.
“In addition, this is the release from self-isolation of persons who transit through the territory of Ukraine, this is also an important and painful topic, the release from self-isolation of people who go to the funeral of closed people and for treatment in a hospital, because it is pointless to demand self-isolation from people, who will be in the hospital anyway and can do a coronavirus test there,” she said.
In turn, coordinator of the Crimean Human Rights Group Olha Skrypnyk appealed to President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and the President’s Office to explain to people the validity of the grounds for restricting the crossing of the entry-exit checkpoint.
“We are now addressing the President of Ukraine and the President’s Office so that they simply explain to people whether there really are such conditioned circumstances to restrict people so much, which has led to serious problems. The border guards are also heavily burdened and this is a conflict situation, very tense and therefore, it is very important that people understand that there was at least some state communication from those who make such decisions,” the human rights activist said.
According to Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers Oleh Nemchinov, this is due to the President Volodymyr Zelensky’s instruction to government to revise the mode of operation of the entry-exit checkpoints at the entrance to the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea to prevent the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) on the territory of Ukraine.
