Information on the number of ethnic Ukrainians who have applied for refugee status in the Ukraine in 1994 and on the number of Ukrainians from Moldova who applied for and/or obtained Ukrainian citizenship [UKR20619.E]

Specific information on the above-mentioned subject is not available among the sources consulted by the DIRB.

However, according to a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) survey from July 1994, Ukraine had 10,000 refugees from the Newly Independent States (NIS) of Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, and the region of the North Caucasus, as well as 2,362 non-NIS refugees (July 1994, 34). The UNHCR has also reported that the Ukraine office responsible for refugee matters was created by presidential edict in July 1994, and was still in the process of creating an internal structure at the end of 1994 (20 Dec. 1994, 1). The UNHCR added that the Ukraine "lacks the full implementation of a refugee determination procedure" (ibid., 1). For additional information, please consult the attached report.

Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1994 states that Ukraine had provided resources for Ukrainians living in Russia and elsewhere, and that "by 1994 250,000 Tatars had returned to Crimea," but no other information is provided (1995, 1021).

For general information on refugee issues in the Ukraine, with reference to conditions in Crimea, please consult the attachments.

This response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the DIRB within time constraints. This response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of sources consulted in researching this information request.

References


Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1994. 1995. United States Department of State. Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), [Geneva]. 20 December 1994. Background Information on the Situation in Ukraine in the Context of the "Safe Third Country" Concept. (DIRB Country File)

_____. July 1994. The Activities of the High Commissioner for Refugees in the Newly Independent States. Document faxed to the DIRB by the UNHCR in Ottawa.

Attachments

Krymskaya Gazeta [in Russian, Simferopol]. 4 August 1994. "Report on Crimea's Refugee Situation." (FBIS-USR-94-087 11 Aug. 1994, pp. 62-4)

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), [Geneva]. 20 December 1994. Background Information on the Situation in Ukraine in the Context of the "Safe Third Country" Concept. (DIRB Country File)

Sources Consulted

Foreign Broadcast Information Service Reports.

In Ukraine.

Profiles of Asylum Claims and Country Conditions.

Refuge.

Russia and the Successor States Briefing Service.

Transitions.

UNHCR Background Information on the Situation in Ukraine in the Context of the "Safe Third Country" Concept.

UNHCR Legal Factsheets on Asylum Procedures in Central and Eastern Europe.

World Refugee Report.

World Refugee Survey.

Oral Sources.
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