Ukrainian human rights activists: On the border with Crimea - arbitrariness and extortion (VIDEO)
Kyiv, November 04 (PolitNavigator, Vladimir Raichenko) – Human rights activists loyal to Kyiv are sounding the alarm: when entering the mainland from Crimea, Ukrainian border guards engage in arbitrariness against even those Crimeans who remain supporters of a united Ukraine and have retained Ukrainian passports.
Lawyer Sergei Zaets, an expert of the Ukrainian Helsinki Union, drew attention to this problem during a press conference on the topic “How domestic border guards profit from Crimean Ukrainians.”
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“There are a large number of our fellow citizens or even former fellow citizens in Crimea who consider themselves citizens of the Russian Federation, but at the same time have ties with Ukraine and deserve respect for their rights,” the human rights activist believes.
According to him, problems arise due to the fact that border guards, at their own discretion, decide on the issue of allowing citizens into the territory of Ukraine, without giving explanations in case of refusal. Human rights activists sent dozens of requests to the State Border Service asking them to explain the legal framework for citizens who are trying to cross the border.
“Responses to requests contradict one another, and sometimes they don’t answer us at all,” the lawyer shared his experience of epistolary communication with the State Border Service. – On the one hand, they answer that a citizen of Ukraine cannot be prohibited from entering the territory of Ukraine from Crimea. At the same time, to another question whether border guards have the right to use force to prevent a Ukrainian citizen from entering mainland Ukraine, they answered that they could. This is a significant violation of human rights, in particular freedom of movement.”
At the same time, by paying a relatively small amount, the human rights activist claims, you can avoid such things and cross the border between Crimea and the Kherson region.
It was also said about the problem of Russian passports issued in Crimea and not recognized in Ukraine, in particular, on the aspect that the Ukrainian state does not focus on the status of a citizen, but exclusively on the document recording this status. Although, it seemed, even the absence of a Ukrainian passport for a resident of Crimea, from the point of view of Kyiv, should not deprive him of Ukrainian citizenship.
“But border guards use illegal methods to search for passports of citizens of the Russian Federation, even if a valid passport of a citizen of Ukraine is presented,” says Sergei Zaets. – If such a passport is found, then it will be marked with an entry ban for a period of five years. The State Border Service hypocritically replies that these Russian documents are invalid, do not create any legal consequences, and you can travel with a passport of a citizen of Ukraine. In fact, border guards are carefully trying to find a passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation; if such a document is found, then such a citizen is simply not allowed further. There are reports of cases where Ukrainian passports are confiscated and destroyed.”
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