Ukraine faces a huge hidden threat due to the government's refusal to support nearly 1,4 million refugees, reports Reuters.
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The agency writes: “Refugees accuse the government of breaking its promise to provide housing for people displaced by the conflict and are calling for help.”
Ukraine currently, reports Reuters, has one of the world's largest groups of internally displaced persons (IDPs) - that is, refugees from war. Some experts warn that the displacement crisis could continue for years or even decades.
Many of those who fled the fighting between Kyiv forces and republican separatists have been forced to rely on networks of benefactors for food, clothing and shelter, with the state unable to help.
Refugees from Lugansk and Donetsk are often placed in inappropriate conditions, the agency notes. So, a family of five is forced to huddle in a tiny room in a charity center in a village near the western part of the city of Lvov, more than 1000 km from Lugansk.
“If we didn’t eat here for free, if we had to pay for heating and services, I simply wouldn’t know how we would survive, because everything we get is spent on expensive medicine for Denis,” says the refugee Olga Strizhina, mother of three children, the eldest of whom suffers from epilepsy.
The agency reports: “Real estate agents say some landlords in Lviv and Kiev are capitalizing on a severe housing shortage and increasing rents for displaced people, while others are refusing to rent to refugees from the East because they believe they will not be able to pay, or because of growing discontent towards new arrivals.”