The program to support refugees from Ukraine has failed

Members of the Presidential Council for Human Rights (HRC) claim violations in the implementation of the program for financial support for refugees from Donetsk and Lugansk. The FMS admits that there are problems with cash payments, but assures that they affected only those refugees who arrived in the Russian Federation from October to December—they are promised assistance during this year.

As Yevgeny Bobrov, head of the HRC Commission on Migration Policy, told Kommersant, in 2015 the program for paying compensation to refugees from south-eastern Ukraine was under threat of closure. According to the Federal Migration Service, there are about 800 thousand refugees in Russia from Donetsk, Lugansk and adjacent settlements of Ukraine, of which about 300 thousand have applied for temporary asylum in the Russian Federation. As Mr. Bobrov explained, back in the summer of 2014, the government adopted a resolution according to which more than 9 billion rubles were allocated for “lifting” refugees and their maintenance in temporary accommodation centers (TAP). There were two types of payments, said the HRC member: 800 rubles. were spent daily on keeping refugees in temporary temporary accommodation, and 100 rubles. per day it was supposed to be handed out to them. “But in the case of the second type of payments, either no one saw them, or they lasted only a month - from July to August 2014, and in 2015, as far as we know, this program may be closed altogether,” said Mr. Bobrov. At the same time, he noted that earlier members of the HRC proposed not to issue 100 rubles. into the hands of refugees, and pay them as an incentive for Russian citizens who have sheltered forced migrants. “Instead, it was proposed to make it easier for Ukrainians to obtain working patents, but in the end everything turned out to be some kind of ineffective spending,” Mr. Bobrov said.

As a Kommersant survey of regional officials and volunteers showed, the situation with payments to refugees is indeed ambiguous. For example, Olga Pavlenko, an activist of the Union of Refugees of Ukraine in Stary Oskol, Belgorod Region, said that there was nothing about the issuance of 100 rubles. did not hear. “There are 800 rubles that are allocated per refugee per day, but this is not “real” money, but payment for food, room, etc.,” she said. The press service of the government of the Irkutsk region told Kommersant that 100 rubles. paid six refugees, but this year the federal budget has not yet transferred funds for new payments. In Voronezh, in addition to 800 rubles, 5 thousand rubles were transferred to PVR accounts at a time. from the regional budget, but this money was not given to the refugees. The Ministry of Social Policy of the Nizhny Novgorod Region told Kommersant that targeted financial assistance in the amount of 100 rubles. per person was carried out and in 2014 amounted to 977.7 thousand rubles. “In 2015, this assistance will also be provided,” the ministry added.

According to Evgeniy Bobrov from the Human Rights Council, the reason for such confusion with payments is the excessive bureaucratization of this procedure. “The problem is that the regions simply cannot figure out who should pay what and how, and there is no control from the public, although the president gave the government instructions to include members of the Human Rights Council in the appropriate working group,” says Mr. Bobrov.

The Federal Migration Service claims that funds for financial and social assistance to refugees have been allocated in full. “The Federal Migration Service, as part of the implementation of government resolutions, issued three orders in 2014 on the procedure for allocating funds,” the department’s press service told Kommersant. The FMS explained that 8.7 billion rubles. was allocated for the maintenance of refugees in temporary accommodation centers, 276 million rubles for the transportation of refugees around the country, 457 million rubles for the production of forms for issuing refugee status and temporary asylum and medical examination of migrants. In addition, another 218 million rubles. The FMS allocated one-time assistance to preferential categories of refugees - men from the Donetsk and Lugansk regions of Ukraine over 60 years old, women over 50 years old, disabled people and women with children were entitled to payments of 100 rubles. per person. “Those who came to the Russian Federation from October to December were not provided with money in 2014; it is planned that benefit recipients will be given money in full in 2015,” the department explained. At the same time, the FMS admitted that some regions did not spend the money. However, it was difficult for the service to say which regions these were.

Grigory Tumanov, Vyacheslav Kozlov; Ekaterina Eremenko, Irkutsk; Vsevolod Inyutin, Voronezh; Anton Prusakov, Nizhny Novgorod

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