EUROPE-MIGRANTS/UKRAINE Ukraine facing refugee problem as conflict in the east continues

Record ID: 151797

  • Title: EUROPE-MIGRANTS/UKRAINE Ukraine facing refugee problem as conflict in the east continues
  • Date: 19th June 2015
  • Summary: KIEV, UKRAINE (JUNE 19, 2015) (REUTERS) REPRESENTATIVES OF UNHCR (UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES) ARRIVING FOR NEWS CONFERENCE SIGN WITH NAME OF ACTING CHIEF OF UNHCR OPERATIONS IN UKRAINE, JEAN-NOEL WETTERWALD ON IT ON DESK (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTING CHIEF OF UNHCR OPERATIONS IN UKRAINE, JEAN-NOEL WETTERWALD, SAYING: "Since last year's World Refugee Day,
  • Embargoed: 4th July 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Ukraine
  • Country: Ukraine
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA7GB41WW0JJYTRLEZA2E1N5O67
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: As the world prepares to mark the International Refugee Day, Ukraine struggles to cope with the growing number of the internally displaced people from the conflict stricken east.
    The acting Chief of UNHCR operations in Ukraine, Jean-Noel Wetterwald, said the refugee situation in the country deteriorated significantly over the past year.
    "Since last year's World Refugee Day, there is a tragic situation unfolding in Ukraine," Wetterwald said at a news-conference in Kiev.
    "As of June 2015 more than 1.3 million people were registered as IDPs (Internally displaced people)," he added.
    A former tourist camp in Ukraine's Kharkiv was turned into a refugee camp by a local businessman.
    It currently shelters 190 people and can accommodate a hundred more.
    Olga Verkhovod, a refugee from the city of Luhansk, currently under separatist control, said her family cannot return home at the moment because of the security situation there, but does not want to stay at the shelter for much longer.
    "We can't imagine what will happen to us in the future, because at the moment we don't want to return home because of what's going on there. As for staying somewhere - even in Kharkiv which I like very much - I cannot imagine myself doing it. Because our home is there (in Luhansk) and I really want to go back there. But at the same time I cannot imagine life and future of my children there," she said.
    A European Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, Johannes Hahn visited the camp on Friday (June 19) and talked to its residents.
    "We are all being deeply concerned. If you see refugees - and these people are refugees - and they are called internally displaced people, these are refugees. People had to leave their homes, their families, this is always something that affects a normal human being, no matter from where you are," Hahn said.
    "Visits like this give me a much better sense where we have to target our financial efforts in order to address, so to say, the immediate needs. What is necessary? Is it shelter, is it clothes, is it finances to provide infrastructure, that people get the documents? So it is exactly to have an idea where we have to address, how we have to spend the money in order to have a better impact," Hahn added.
    Yelena Gredchena told Reuters how her family fled the hometown of Debaltseve as fighting intensified.
    "I was pregnant when we fled Debaltseve. Then I gave birth, we lived in Myronivka for half a year and then it (fighting) started again there and we came here from there," she said.
    "Volunteers help with everything, everything we have - that's all from volunteers," Yelena added.
    Yelena Trusenkova, also a refugee from the rebel-controlled Luhansk, said her family's future is uncertain, as they have no money to permanently settle in a new place.
    "Firstly, there is no certainty in the future. This situation now is such... anyway this is not our permanent home. We need to get out, to search somewhere, to build anew...but it is practically unrealistic without getting help from the authorities, which does not reach us for some reason," she said.
    The separatist rebellion erupted last April after Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea in response to the ousting of a Moscow-backed president by street protests in Kiev which ushered in a government committed to integration with Europe.
    Moscow denies it has any regular troops in Ukraine despite what the West and Kiev say is incontrovertible proof.
    Ukraine and separatists have accused each other of increasing attacks in recent weeks, prompting international monitors to warn of the threat of a bigger flare-up.
    More than 6,200 people have been killed since fighting broke out in April 2014 when pro-Russian rebels opposed to a new pro-Western government declared independence from Kiev.
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