The attitude towards internally displaced persons (IDPs) has changed for the better since 2014, Inna Drahanchuk, Deputy Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine, has said.
“It seems to me that it has changed for the better due to the fact that most of the IDPs who came in 2014 with the opinion that this would not last long and they would return, realized that this was not the case. Most of them have already integrated or are integrating into accepting communities with the knowledge that they will continue to live here. That is, total continuous pain and the demand to protect absolutely objective needs ended and most people were able to integrate, and the communities have already felt how worthy and conscious Ukrainians are these people,” Drahanchuk said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
At the same time, she noted that there is still a prejudiced attitude towards IDPs. It started in 2014 due to single negative situations.
“It was necessary to make more efforts to tell about all the other responsible ‘Donetsk people.’ Our doctors, teachers, policemen moved there to the communities where our universities, departments, and institutions moved from the occupied territories, to whom, by definition, there could be no bias, because they helped the communities with their activities,” the deputy minister said.
As for discrimination against IDPs by the state, one of the main problems, according to Drahanchuk, is the linking of all administrative and other state services to the certificate of movement.
“There is also an absolute restriction on banking services, according to which displaced persons must receive all social and pension payments exclusively at Oschadbank. For me, these are the main discriminatory points that we know how to solve and have introduced them into our Strategy for the reintegration of internally displaced persons,” added the deputy minister.
As reported, on Oct. 28, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved the Strategy for the Integration of Internally Displaced Persons and a plan for the implementation of medium-term solutions on internal displacement for the period until 2024.
