11-10-2011
More and more under age refugees arrive to Ukraine. Usually, these are children from Afghanistan and Somalia, who run away from their motherland. According to official statistics – only for the last two years the number of such illegal migrants increased in ten times. And there are few places for them in the special camp in Transcarpathia …
One of them are looking for asylum, others stay too long. What can they expect for at the strange land and what do they dream of leaving their home?
Seventeen-year-old Mariam and her older sister are at the Ukrainian lesson at Integration Centre of Charitable Fund. Sisters are already a year and a half in Ukraine. They are refugees from Afghanistan. Person taking money from them for delivering girls toEurope, he left them at Kyiv market and ordered to wait for their mother. She lost at the border.
Mariam, under age refugee:
– We did not know the place we arrived to – it was Ukraine or other government. It was very cold. We were waiting for dark. We entered the market and saw people talking our language. We said that we had no place to live. One Afghani family sheltered us.
Usually under age refugees are directed to special centre in Mukachevo, Transcarpathia. But there are no enough places there. Adults often just live in the families of other refugees. Girls look for younger children, boys work at the market. 15-year-old. Basir from Afghanistan is already six months here.
Basir, under age refugee:
– I have a wish to study. But there are no such conditions in Ukraine. If I am sent to Europe, I will have an opportunity study for sure.
State Migration Service promises to create centres for teaching such children.
Nataliya Naumenko, director of Refugee Department:
– Reconstruction of Temporary Holding Facility in the town of Yagotyn, Kyiv region is foreseen to be implemented. The centre is calculated for 250 places and 50 or more places can be allocated particularly for children without accompaniment.
For the present moment psychologists work with children-refugees.
Mariam, under age refugee:
– My dream is to live normally. I wish to find my mother, to have my house and to study. I want to live as a human being.