The Ukrainian Migration Service is reported to have turned down two activists’ asylum application despite very strong grounds for believing that they could be imprisoned on falsified charges if forced to return to Russia

Llocal official Leonid Bessarabov from the Donetsk Railway Union is trying to evict almost 100 women, children, pensioners and invalids from their shelter. He has met with determined resistance from Pastor Sergei Kosyak and others helping the displaced people who ask the media to publicize this monstrous attack on people in need of refuge and support.

President Poroshenko has signed a law regulating the status and rights of people forced to leave their homes in the Crimea or Donbas. The law was long overdue even when adopted by parliament on Oct 20 and a month later the delay was simply incomprehensible

The Ukrainian government has issued a blow to people living in areas under the control of Kremlin-backed militants.  That at least is how many view measures which could leave some of the most vulnerable people in Donbas without pensions, or access to hospitals, etc.

Ukraine’s Migration Service looks set to provide refugee status to Viacheslav Martynov, one of three Russian activists placed on Russia’s List of Extremists and Terrorists for planning a peaceful march in support of greater federalization for Kuban

While the President is in no hurry to sign a vitally needed law on displaced persons, Ukraine’s Migration Service is continuing to hamper attempts by Crimeans forced to leave their homes to legitimize their position in mainland Ukraine.

Over 455 thousand people are registered as displaced, including 127,409 children

On Monday, Oct 20, the Verkhovna Rada passed a long-needed law on internally displaced persons. The bill was drawn up in cooperation with NGOs directly working with people forced to flee the Crimea or Donbas.

On Oct 14, the last day possible for adopting vital legislation on internally displaced people, civic activists staged a picket outside parliament but to no avail. Not one MP even came out to speak to them

The government is continuing to delay adoption of vital legislation regulating IDP rights, procedure for obtaining assistance, etc. In the meantime, individual medical establishments are demanding that people pay or provide proof that they’re registered locally

With cold weather imminent and tens of thousands of people in need of help, the government has still not even passed a law on helping people forced to flee their homes. Human rights groups working directly with displaced people have issued an urgent appeal to speaker Oleksandr Turchynov to ensure that the draft bill is put to the vote on Tuesday

The overall number of people registered as internally displaced persons [IDP] comes to 330,984.

A new Russian decree instructs the authorities in occupied Crimea, as well as 10 Russian regions to send refugees from Ukraine to parts of the RF under a ‘voluntary settlement’ programme Siberia is meant and there’s nothing voluntary about it.

The head of the State Emergency Service has reported that for the first time people are returning to eastern Ukraine, rather than leaving the area where fighting has been underway

President Poroshenko has vetoed the law on dealing with the ever-increasing number of people forced from their homes since Russia’s invasion of the Crimea, While this apparently heeds calls from human rights groups and activists working directly with displaced people, the recommended amendments will still leave many of the failings of the bill intact

As well as many other failings already reported, the law fails to ensure allocation of funding to help internally displaced persons, confusingly called ’forced migrants’, and does not specify where people should go for help

Civic Activist Olexandra Dvoretska reports that she and colleagues have been unable to learn any details about the 25 million UAH supposedly allocated by the Cabinet of Ministers to provide temporary accommodation for Crimeans forced from their homes

Short analysis of the law passed on June 19 which in KHPG’s view does not resolve the problems of those forcibly displaced

According to civic activist Alexandra Dvoretska, "this law does not resolve even 10% of the problems encountered by people who’ve ended up on occupied territory or in zones where anti-terrorist operations are underway”.

Brief description of the problems now faced by internally displaced people in Ukraine