Over 20,000 displaced persons moved to Ukraine from Crimea in past two years
KYIV. March 17 (Interfax) - 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 yesterday, 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 Thursday.
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.
