Refugees from Ukraine have finally been “noticed” in Moscow - the FMS is asking for permission to give them asylum and not deport them anymore

Moscow - Kyiv, July 11 (Navigator, Mikhail Stamm) - The FMS proposes to simplify the process of obtaining temporary asylum in the Russian Federation by refugees from Ukraine. Until now, only 10 Ukrainian citizens have been recognized as refugees. Now they want to give them asylum without analyzing their identity. They offer it even to those who were previously refused. But this is if the government agrees with the Federal Migration Service. It is unclear whether it will agree. In the meantime, the FMS itself is preparing refugees from Ukraine for deportation.

Subscribe to the news “Navigator - Kiev” в Facebook, Classmates or In contact with

Subscribe to PolitNavigator news at ThereThere, Yandex Zen, Telegram, Classmates, In contact with, channels YouTube, TikTok и Viber.
To subscribe to notifications in your browser, click here.

As follows from the explanatory note to the draft government resolution, which the Federal Migration Service (FMS) presented for public discussion on the website regulation.gov.ru, temporary asylum in the Russian Federation will be provided “on a group basis without analyzing the individual data” of the applicant. This means that in order to obtain asylum, it will be enough for internally displaced persons to submit an application to the FMS offices and indicate that they were forced to flee to the Russian Federation by the fighting in Ukraine. Temporary shelter gives displaced persons and members of their families the right to food, medical care, placement in temporary detention centers, and a one-time cash benefit.

Now the procedure for obtaining asylum can take up to three months - the FMS considers it too long and labor-intensive. In recent months, only ten citizens of Ukraine have been recognized as refugees, and 626 have been granted temporary asylum. At the same time, according to the Federal Migration Service, in the period from March 1 to June 25, 2014, citizens of Ukraine submitted 1445 applications for recognition as refugees and 9604 applications for temporary asylum. More than 100 thousand residents of the neighboring state sought advice on determining their status in the Russian Federation. The FMS notes that in June 2014, compared to May, the number of accepted petitions and applications increased almost fourfold. The department predicts that if the fighting in the south-east of Ukraine continues, then by the end of the year about 120-150 thousand more people from Ukraine will apply for asylum in the Russian Federation.

The FMS emphasizes that the rules are changing due to “the difficult internal political situation in Ukraine” and the increasing flow of refugees from this country. Moreover, before the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine, the Russian authorities rejected almost all applications for asylum: according to statistics, the FMS satisfied only 10-11% of incoming applications.

The draft resolution, in addition, obliges the heads of regions to allocate places for temporary accommodation of refugees and determine their number; local authorities must notify the FMS about this. Yesterday, the Ministry of Emergency Situations announced that a state of emergency due to the massive influx of residents of the neighboring state was introduced, in addition to the Rostov region, in the Volgograd and Astrakhan regions, Kalmykia, Stavropol Territory and Sevastopol.

At the same time, it is proposed to actually cancel the previous decisions of the Federal Migration Service on the undesirability of the stay of certain Ukrainian citizens in the Russian Federation. As stated in the document, this will not be considered an obstacle to granting asylum if the stay of a Ukrainian citizen does not pose a threat to national security. In essence, a moratorium will be introduced on the deportation of citizens of Ukraine to the Russian Federation - until specifically instructed by the government, the FMS is recommended to refrain from their expulsion and readmission.

The FMS could not comment on when the resolution would be approved.

The head of the Civic Assistance Committee, Svetlana Gannushkina, says that at the moment the FMS not only refuses forced migrants from Ukraine, but also prepares them for deportation.