Refugees in Europe: Austria plans to add Ukraine to the list of safe countries

08-02-2018

Austria plans to list Ukraine as a safe country of origin of refugees.

This was discussed during a briefing press-conferences of the President of Austria Alexander Van der Bellen and Petro Poroshenko in Vienna, as reported by  UKRINFORM.

In particular, Poroshenko has stated that he supports the desire of Austria.

“I fully support this wish of Austria (to add Ukraine to the list of safe countries of refugees’ origing – ed.). We are ready to establish effective cooperation”, – he said.

In this context, he noted that even during the Russian aggression led to the emergence of 1 million 600 thousand displaced persons in Ukraine, we have “extremely effectively settled this”.

“We are very proud of not making any problems to any of our neighbors. And it’s pleasant that today the individual countries come to study and learn from our experience”, – said Poroshenko.

Under the Geneva Convention, a refugee is one who left the country “due to the sufficiently grounded fear of becoming a victim of persecution because of his/her race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion and is unable or unwilling to take advantage of protection in his/her country.”

The key factor is not the military conflict within the country, but the inability of the country to provide its citizens with protection.

Source: https://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2018/02/8/7171018/