When 16-year-old Ibrahim Balde came to Ukraine, it was his only chance to escape persecution in Guinea, where he was jailed for protesting the unavailability of school.
A contact in Kyiv that promised to help Balde took his money and documents. Balde never saw this person again. After sleeping on Kyiv streets for weeks, he linked up with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, or UNHCR, which helped find him a state shelter and attend a local school. Now 18 and done with secondary school, Balde speaks Russian and Ukrainian, wants to attend college, find a job, and make himself a life here. But for now, he cannot.
The State Migration Service, which processes applications for asylum and residency, recently rejected Balde’s application for refugee status. He is currently waiting to file a court appeal with the aid of NGO lawyers. In the meantime, with a ‘dovidka’ as his only document, he cannot attend college, find a job or lawfully rent an apartment.
“I can’t rent an apartment, I can’t go to university,” said Balde. “I can’t get a normal job. All jobs ask for an ID code if you want to work officially.” The lack of ID also prevents people from accessing some of the help they need when they are the most vulnerable.
Many refugees who come to Ukraine will face a variety of problems. The UNHCR estimates that there are around 6,500 asylum-seekers waiting on their application review by the State Migration Service or courts. Only about 100 asylum seekers will be given status each year. The rest will be left in limbo, trying to exhaust every possible appeal or simply trying to stay off the police’s radar to avoid arrest and eventual deportation.
There are two kinds of status — the internationally recognized refugee status that enables a path towards citizenship and the complementary protection status, which is much more limited in scope. Most refugees who get some kind of status will receive the latter.
“Sometimes we consider that some that deserve refugee status are granted a subsidiary status,” said Hugues Bissot, a senior protection officer at UNHCR. “This is an issue — the (government) organs lack consistency on this. And this has a direct impact on the lives of people.”
According to UNHCR and multiple NGO experts, the application process itself is fraught with difficulties. Qualified translators for some languages are in short supply. The high personnel turnover at the State Migration Service means case workers aren’t always the most experienced and up to date on both Ukrainian and international law.
Some experts who work with refugees told the Kyiv Post that despite Ukraine’s clear and progressive body of law on refugees, migration authorities have an unofficial policy to turn away as many people as possible. There are inconsistencies in whose documents will be accepted and whose rejected based on seemingly arbitrary violations. Turning to the courts sometimes but does not always provide another chance.
“Why does this same tendency, which contradicts the law, keep happening, despite there being thousands of court decisions that say this is unlawful?” said Dmytro Mazurok, a lawyer with the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, which works with threatened asylum seekers.
The State Migration Service did not respond to requests for comment via phone and email.
These graphs present data about people of working age (18 – 59) who are registered with the United Nations High Commissionf or Refugees as of June 2019.
Source: UNHCR
Trouble applying
Multiple experts and organizations who work with refugees pointed out that migration authorities often lack the capacity to handle the flow of refugees. There is often not enough translators for certain languages. For some language groups, the only people who can provide reasonable interpretation are refugees’ friends and acquaintances.
“One problem is simply financing, the lack of financing for translators for interviews and documents,” said Mazurok. “Often, people have to bring their own friends or established refugees as translators but the service tries to follow the rules and only permits declared interpreters.”
However, the situation is improving, according to the refugee NGO Right to Protection, which provides multiple services for refugees. “Recently, the migration service started providing interpreters in a smooth manner,” said Hanna Khitsevych, a coordinator with the NGO Right To Protection.
Volodymyr Kosanyak used to work as a trainer for the State Migration Service. He quit in 2016, saying he had come to the job to help people but was prevented from doing so. Despite having moved on, he still knows people who work there. He said that very experienced employees are few in number and that salaries are not high. Right to Protection agreed, saying that the high workload means that employees often “burn out” easily and don’t stay for long.
Multiple experts told the Kyiv Post that if people don’t apply for refugee status “immediately,” they may accrue fines they cannot afford. However, not applying immediately is not always by choice. The deadlines aren’t always consistent and some cities migration services offices have long lines and limited appointment slots.
Ukraine sees asylum applicants from a variety of countries. The largest demographic group is single men and the majority of asylum seekers and refugees are hosted in Kyiv and Chernihiv, Odesa and Kharkiv.
Source: UNHCR
Useless dovidka
Many asylum seekers arrive without any documents. Others may have documents, but while they are applying for status, they lack an official Ukrainian ID. Instead, they receive a certificate, a “dovidka,” which can be shown to a police officer, but cannot be used for much else.
Balde, who finished secondary school in Kyiv and was accepted into college here, said that he would not be able to attend without an official ID code. Employment is also a problem. Official employers ask for a tax ID. Not having one prevented him from taking a job as a consultant and translator at a business in Gulliver business center. There is a way around this — just have a high paying job — but it’s not open to most refugees.
“The requirements are totally unrealistic,” said Bissot. “A person has to earn ten times the minimum wage to receive a work permit.”
The UNHCR gave an example of a refugee from Chad, who was supposed to undergo eye surgery, where any delay could lead to blindness. The UNHCR and its NGO partner set up the operation and would provide the costs of surgery. However, doctors refused to perform the operation and withdrew the person from surgery.
Bafinga Patience came to Ukraine from Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She had been arrested for political activism and jailed many times. To save her life, she escaped into Ukraine, where she found shelter first in a hotel and later in an apartment with the aid of fellow refugees. Her number one priority is to try to get enough money to get her young daughter out of the country. The daughter currently lives with Patience’s mother, and Patience had been told that men came looking for her many times. But she cannot find a job with only a dovidka.
Bissot said that these conditions force people to work illegally or in the shadows. If they are caught, they are on the hook for extra fines.
Natalia Gurzhiy, the head of Charitable Foundation Rokada said that people are most vulnerable when they arrive to Ukraine. There are only three temporary housing centers with several hundred total places, against a total annual applicant volume of about 1,500. Refugees with a dovidka are not entitled to any kind of aid, nor are they able to earn money for themselves.
“Remember that they just got to the country. They don’t know the language, they don’t know the rules, the culture, they need to adapt, to integrate,” she said. “They went through some kind of traumatic events, they often have post-traumatic stress disorder… sometimes they experienced torture. Here, instead of receiving government aid, they get nothing.”
On the bright side, she said, many Ukrainians welcome the refugees with open arms. Neighbors often help them with everything, from making appointments, to finding a place to live.
An unofficial policy
“In Ukraine, we have a very interesting paradox,” said Mazurok. “We have a very good legal system — it’s humane and it answers the demand of the convention on the status of the refugee. We have functional government agencies… everything is set up to examine the applications for refugee status on time and in a qualified manner.”
“But for some reason this does not happen,” he said.
Other organizations agree, saying that migration employees often have a security concern about refugees and don’t want them staying in Ukraine. This especially affects refugees from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, among several other countries.
There are several ways that refugees can be denied. Their documents are often called into question. In many cases, the refugees can turn to local courts to try to overturn the migration services’ decisions. But, Bissot and Mazurok said, in many cases, the application may be rejected again for a different reason.
“When I was working in 2016, this kind of (unofficial policy) was there. Factually, everyone was turned away,” said Kosanyak. “As far as I know, today, nothing has changed.”
Bissot said that he has seen some positive changes in Odesa courts, which have been taking strides to force the migration service to review refugees’ documents once more.
Even worse, Mazurok said, is the ongoing cooperation between Ukrainian security services and their counterparts in other post-soviet countries. He gave the example of several Georgian asylum seekers, who were allegedly abducted by the State Security Bureau, flown to Odesa on helicopters, put on a boat and sent back. A court case filed by his organization went nowhere because all the relevant evidence was marked a state secret.
Fikret Huseynli, a journalist and critic of the Azerbaijani government, who is a Netherlands citizen, agrees. He said he had once been detained in Ukraine at the request of the government of Azerbaijan and a representative from the Azerbaijan prosecutor’s office came to ask him to renounce everything he had written, which he refused to do. He is now back in the Netherlands.
“Ukraine is a difficult country for political refugees,” he wrote in a message. “Ukraine is a beautiful country. The people and society are wonderful. But there are also problems with the government.”
