27-02-2013
For citizenship and document of Ukrainian the sum asked as if $80 000
Scandal flares up in the Crimea threatening to become international one: Passport Service is accused in illegal issue of Ukrainian citizenship to migrants from Palestine, Lebanon and Gaza Strip.
Mark Ben-Naim, human rights activists reports: “after the authorities did not make any reaction to the presence of Ukrainian documents in the members of the Dikaev’s band (in autumn 2011, the killers shot two policemen and then were killed during the attack in Odessa) an investigation was commenced. The former worker of Visa and Registration Department gained access to me, who told me about organized traffic for Palestinian fighters to Europe through the Crimea”.
According to the words of the human rights activist, the scheme is simple: the organizers of profitable business (new citizenship to Arabs costs from $25 to $80 thousand) send by post to Passport Office of Zheleznodoroznyi district of Simferopol the photocopy of application written as if by Palestinian himself about issue of the passport of the citizen of Ukraine on the basis of his residence in Simferopol in the beginning of the 1990s. Then a reject comes from Passport Office, after which a complain is submitted to the court on behalf of Palestinian who asks to consider his case in his absence – in such a case original of the documents have not to be presented. The court makes a decision for one sitting in favour of Palestinian, the fact of his residence in Ukraine in 1991 is established, which makes him the citizen of Ukraine automatically, – Mark Ben-Naim retells. – After, Palestinian himself arrives to the Crimea as a tourist, he is registered at one of the flats at the addresses Sper Str., 30 and Kazanskaya Str., 19/11 belonging to the organizer of the scheme and migrant from Gaza Strip, Zakut Rashad Rabah. “New citizen” is already expected by the national passport and passport for travelling abroad with the help of which he departs to Turkey, and from there – he travels along the world”.
The lists of registered persons according to above mentioned addresses serve as evidence of existence of this entire scheme: about 50 and even 100 people live as if in one flat simultaneously – all of them with Arabic names and surnames.
We visited the indicated addresses. Nobody was at home. The neighbours have told that they often see eastern faces, however there are no tens of Arabs there for sure – they would be noticed. There are lists of dwellers in disposal of Editorial Office as well as photocopies of the passports filled in by one hand, though many of the “guests” leave their names, the others depart with one and the same surname – Zakut – as the above mentioned migrant fro Gaza Strip.
The migrants from the East residing in Simferopol confirm that the scheme on citizenship registration really exists. “There are websites in Arabic, where it is advised with whom it is possible to contact in the Crimea on this point, – it was told by the legal citizen of Ukraine asking to introduce him as Hassan. – There are also those among the clients who really live in autonomy for many years but who are not able to process citizenship because of bureaucracy. Those arriving from the East are mainly not admitted to Europe according to their documents because of their relation to terrorists. They travel along the world with Ukrainian passports for travelling abroad easily.”
«THESE ARE HUSBANDS FROM TURKEY»
Applications with request about investigation are directed to the Prime Minister of Ukraine, SSU, profile committees of Supreme Council of Ukraine, Public Prosecutor’s Office of Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Administration of Interior Security of MOI as well as to the Crimean Border Service.
Situation was not commented at Interior Security Department of the Crimea referring the bosses were busy. The Crimean Tax Administration, where identification numbers are registered for the newly arrived, explained that they were not in the know about the present situation. However, the chief deputy of Crimean Migration Service Petr Yarosh explained that the stir was not about the Palestinians at all: “It is complete stuff and nonsense. There is a certain number of the citizens of Turkey in the Crimea, who are issued visas for residence, when they get marry and have children. For some reasons, the Crimean women like to marry foreigners. But all this is done in legal way.”