Below you can find links to English-language publications only. For Ukrainian and Russian languages, please click here
(some publications refer to No Borders Project under the translation “Without Borders”)
20 January 2012 – Ukraine urged to release Somali refugees (Associated Press/published at “Kyiv Post”)
News report based on information by Amnesty International and No Borders Project.
07 October 2011 – Foreigners face detention despite arriving legally (“Kyiv Post”)
When the Afghan family with valid passports and visas flew into Kyiv’s Boryspil airport on Sept. 6, they expected to be spending the next few days with their relatives in Odesa. But it was another 72 hours before the two parents and their one-year-old child saw their relatives after Ukrainian border guards refused to admit them to the country, instead locking them in a small room without food or drinking water. [..R]ights group Without Borders [...] was contacted for help by the father.
28 July 2011 – Foreign students get shaken down (“Kyiv Post”)
If Nigerian student Kenneth Onojeta had not turned to lawyers, he would have been deported from Ukraine $3,000 poorer and without a degree or an explanation why. [...] Halyna Bocheva from the human rights group No Borders, which is helping Onojeta, said his case is typical of universities, migration authorities and the study agency trying to squeeze money from a student by threatening him with deportation.
08 July 2011 – Uzbek asylum seekers face uncertain future in detention (“Kyiv Post”)
Article depicts cases of Uzbek asylum seekers detained in Ukraine. (The link is included because refugees mentioned are subjects of other texts at No Borders Project web-site.)
20 May 2011 – Racially motivated attacks on the rise (“Kyiv Post”)
Reported incidents of racially motivated attacks are becoming more frequent yet still often go ignored by police, according to international organizations and human rights activists.
Kyiv (Ukraine) – The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees continues to be concerned about the situation of a Kyrgyz national who was denied access to Ukrainian territory in Boryspil airport where she arrived by the flight from Kazakhstan on 29 March 2012.
Statement of the international transborder meeting in Turkey, made on March 18, 2012 in front of Edirne detention centre
Kyiv (Ukraine) – The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has noted that on 3 March 2012 European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ordered Ukrainian authorities in response to a petition to the Court under Rule 39 that 3 stowaways on the ship docked at Mykolayiv seaport (2 from Eritrea, 1 from Ethiopia) should be allowed to disembark from the vessel and be granted access to asylum procedure to exercise their right to seek asylum.
Further information on UA: 29/12 Index: EUR 50/002/2012 Ukraine Date: 22 February 2012
URGENT ACTION
detained asylum-seekers stop hunger strike
The strike, held in protest by the group of Somali asylum-seekers and migrants, against their illegal detention and alleged ill-treatment, lasted for six weeks. The strike was halted by the group on 17 February after they received assurances from the State Migration Service that their asylum applications would be considered.
UNHCR is relieved to hear that the hunger strikes have ended at both detention centres in the Volyn and Chernigiv regions of Ukraine. The detainees, including many asylum-seekers and minors, were protesting against the length of their detention and demanded that the authorities consider their asylum claims in compliance with international standards.
Source: Human Rights Watch site
(Moscow, February 1, 2012) - The Ukrainian authorities should immediately stop police harassment and threats against Somali asylum seekers held at the Zhuravychi Migrant Accommodation Centre, Human Rights Watch said today. In a letter sent to the Ukrainian authorities, Human Rights Watch also called for the immediate release of all Somali asylum seekers who are being held in administrative detention pending deportation.
Source: UNHCR site
UNHCR remains concerned about the situation of detainees, including many asylum-seekers and minors who are currently held in two detention centres in the Volyn and Chernigiv regions[1] of Ukraine. Their situation remains problematic even after several visits of UNHCR staff and NGO lawyers and Government officials. To obtain clarity more visits and interviews are scheduled for the coming weeks.
Amnesty International has urged the Ukrainian authorities to stop the ill-treatment of a group of detained asylum-seekers and their supporters, who were attacked by security forces attempting to forcibly end a hunger strike.
To: Vitaliy Zakharchenko, Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine
Dear Mr. Zakharchenko:
We are writing to raise our concern about the arbitrary detention of some or all of a group of 125 Somali nationals detained at the Zhuravychi Migrant Accommodation Centre (MAC). Some of them are registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) or the Ukrainian authorities as asylum seekers. Around 80 have told UNHCR they want to apply for asylum in Ukraine, but have not been allowed to do so.
Below is a part of Human Rights Watch report 2012 about the situation with human rights in Uzbekistan.
Uzbekistan’s human rights record remains appalling, with no meaningful improvements in 2011. Torture remains endemic in the criminal justice system. Authorities continue to target civil society activists, opposition members, and journalists, and to persecute religious believers who worship outside strict state controls.
Freedom of expression remains severely limited. Government-sponsored forced child labor during the cotton harvest continues. Authorities continued to deny justice for the 2005 Andijan massacre in which government forces shot and killed hundreds of protestors, most of them unarmed.
Reacting to the pro-democracy Arab Spring movements, the Uzbek government increased the presence of security forces across the country and widened its already-tight control over the internet. Despite the government’s persistent refusal to address concerns about its abysmal record, the United States and European Union continued to advance closer relations with the Uzbek government in 2011, seeking cooperation in the war in Afghanistan.
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