Romodanovsky is confused about the status of Ukrainian refugees
Moscow - Kyiv, July 3 (Navigator, Mikhail Stamm) - The head of the FMS Konstantin Romodanovsky gave KP a confusing interview about Ukrainian refugees. It follows from it that 90% of Ukrainians do not want to stay in Russia, that the service does not see the difference between them and tourists; that “international norms” prevent them from granting refugee status, and therefore Romodanovsky’s department gives them the status of “temporary asylum” and pushes them to obtain “temporary residence status”; that the FMS does not distinguish them from other foreigners when finding employment, and that Moscow wants to shift the maintenance of refugees to the regions.
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“We now clearly see that 90 percent of Ukrainian citizens entering our country have no intention of staying in Russia. – said the head of the Federal Migration Service of the Russian Federation. – We conventionally call them “people who were forced to leave the territory of Ukraine” (by the way, compared to last year, the increase in entry from Ukraine is 24%). This is a completely new category, there are no standards for it, so we and other departments cannot yet issue joint recommendations. If we formalize this category, then certain mechanisms will be introduced for it.”
“We need to discuss whether it is advisable or not at the moment to introduce such a status (refugee – editor’s note), because any initiative can bring both positive changes and certain consequences. Now we have people who have refugee status, temporary asylum status or temporary residence permit. People who arrived from Ukraine, in this case, belong to the category of temporary stayers. It differs from the status of temporary residents. This is a very broad category, by the way, it also includes tourists who come to visit.”
“People who left the territory of Ukraine are suffering people, they need help, including help through additional funding to the regions.”
“Refugee status is an international norm, it is awarded in accordance with the 1951 convention, and we adhere to very strict standards here. If a person barely fits the bill, but we understand that due to humanitarian circumstances it is difficult for him to return to his homeland, he can apply for temporary asylum status, which is given for a year with the possibility of extension.”
“People who have received refugee or temporary asylum status must surrender their national passport during their stay in Russia. If a person decides to renounce this status, his documents are returned to him and he leaves for his homeland. Refugee status allows a person to receive a pension, medical care and educate children in school in Russia. Temporary asylum status does not allow you to receive a pension. But both statuses make it possible to find a job without obtaining a work permit.”
Ukrainian refugees complain that they will have to pay very high taxes when getting a job in Russia, an interviewer from KP reminded Romodanovsky. To which the official calmly replied: “According to the law, non-residents pay 30 percent of income tax. Or they purchase a patent, it costs 1216 rubles per month until the foreign citizen becomes a citizen of Russia. The law is the same for everyone."
In general, the head of the FMS does his best to promote obtaining temporary residence status. According to Romodanovsky, this is a “direct path to citizenship” of the Russian Federation. “A person with this status can enjoy benefits for medicine and education for children. Temporary residence status is not associated with any exceptional situation in the country of origin. A person with this status retains his national document, but it is stamped with a stamp indicating that he has received a temporary residence permit in Russia. And with this document he can return to his country,” the official said.
Let us recall that according to earlier estimates by Konstantin Romodanovsky himself, the number of refugees from Ukraine to the Russian Federation is estimated at approximately 400 thousand people, and according to the head of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko, there are already more than 500 thousand.
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