Today, the number of people leaving the temporarily occupied territory in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts is significantly lower than in early February, during the escalation of the armed conflict in the region of Debaltsevo. However, unfortunately, it is difficult to predict future actions and plans of the so-called "DNR-LNR." Many people predict another attack in May. Then, the mass evacuation problem may arise for residents of other towns that are now controlled by the Ukrainian government. The worst scenario is Mariupol, where children comprise about 50 thousand. Is the country ready for another wave of evacuation? Especially, since the previous waves are hardly successful. It's no secret that a key role in moving vulnerable social groups from Debaltsevo was played not by government agencies, but by volunteers. In addition, human rights defenders managed to investigate a number of cases where people came under fire, trying to leave. This is only one of the forms of interference with evacuation by the illegal armed groups. That proves that the safe evacuation formula has not been invented yet.

 

In her opening remarks, Representative of the Commissioner for observance of the rights of internally displaced persons Zhanna Lukianenko emphasized: "The current permit system poses a real danger to the life and health of people who are trying to leave the unsafe territory, and is connected with many obstacles. Thus, the issue of providing opportunities for citizens to freely travel out of dangerous areas is essential. Due to shortcomings in the interim order to control the movement of persons, vehicles, and goods along the contact line within Donetsk and Luhansk regions, we stressed the need to create electronic permits as an alternative."

 

During the roundtable, a report on preventing the evacuation of civilians was presented by the Center of Civil Liberties. Particular attention was paid to the phenomenon of shelling the so-called "humanitarian (green) corridors" through which the civilians leave the places of intense fire fights. Commenting on this phenomenon, Chair of the Board of the Center for Civil Liberties Oleksandra Matviychuk noted that in this case the rule of law is different from the norm of life.

 

Donbas SOS hotline coordinator Yuliya Halahan reported that during a month (from 15 March to 15 April) their hotline received more than 3,500 calls, and almost all of them were related to the permit system.

 

"People complain that it is impossible to get a pass, not only within the statutory 10 days, but within a month. In this case, the applicants state that there are no obstacles to cross the border between controlled and uncontrolled territory of Ukraine for those who have money," said Ms. Halahan.

 

In addition, participants of the roundtable talked about lessons of earlier waves of evacuation, mass displacement of the civilian population in the event of another wave of escalation of armed confrontation, evacuation of socially disadvantaged groups, system of notifications and permits, obstructing the movement by the illegal armed groups, interaction between volunteers and government on the issue of evacuation, etc.

 

Following the roundtable, civil society representatives prepared recommendations for national authorities to address pressing issues of civilians' evacuation from dangerous regions, given previous experience with the organization of this process. First of all, representatives of civil society stressed the need for establishing a working group with the participation of public authorities responsible for organizing the evacuation, volunteers, and representatives of international organizations to address current problems related to the evacuation of civilians, as well as potential problems in case of escalation of the armed conflict on the front line.

 

The event was organized within the project "Democratization, human rights and civil society development", implemented by UNDP in Ukraine and funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark during 2013-2016.