The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has asked Ukraine to secure “immediately” two immigrants detained in a center in Mykolaiv (south), near the battlefront, the ECHR and the immigrants’ lawyers said on Tuesday.
The Ukrainian government “should immediately transfer the applicants to a safer area (within the country) and take all measures it deems necessary to ensure their safety from the ongoing armed conflict,” the court said in its decision, issued on Thursday. Friday. , to which the news agency France-Presse (AFP) had access.
“One (of the asylum seekers), of Palestinian origin, has been released, but the other has not done anything so far”Daria Sartori, a migrant lawyer, told AFP that “for security reasons” she did not mention the nationality of the others represented.
The lawyer appealed to the ECHR, based in Strasbourg, according to an emergency procedure that allows ordering “precautionary measures” when applicants are exposed to “a real risk of irreparable damage.”
The ECHR asked the Ukrainian authorities to provide information on, in particular, the conditions of detention and the means they intend to use to “protect the lives” of migrants. Ukraine has until May 30 to respond to the European court.
The detention center, where there are about twenty immigrants, is located near Mykolaiv (south), not far from the “front line” of battle, according to Sartori.
Mykolaiv, which the Russians attempted to seize at the start of their February 24 offensive, remains a strategic shield protecting Odessa, Ukraine’s largest port.
“Detainees from other detention centers in Ukraine have been released”Sartori said, citing a March report from the Global Detention Project that indicated the center in Chernigiv (north) had been evacuated.
Interrogated in early May by Human Rights Watch (HRW), the center’s director had indicated that the then-empty structure had been hit in late March, apparently by a drone shot.
According to the migrants defended by Sartori, also Regular “bombing” takes place “less than 500 meters from the center” of Mykolaiv.
According to HRW, migrants are in a similar situation in Zhuravychi, near the border with Belarus. This center would house 45 migrants, the research portal Lighthouse Reports indicated on March 14.
“Ukraine must urgently release the dozens of migrants … arbitrarily detained … and allow them to seek refuge in neighboring countries,” HRW said in a statement released in early May.
Russia launched an ongoing military offensive in Ukraine on February 24 that has killed more than 3,000 civilians, according to the UN, which warns the true number is likely to be much higher.
The offensive has already caused more than 14 million people to flee their homes -some eight million internally displaced persons and more than 6.3 million to neighboring countries-, according to the latest data from the UN, which classifies this refugee crisis as the worst in Europe since the Second World War. World War (1939-1945).
The Russian invasion was condemned by the international community at large, which responded by sending weapons to Ukraine and tightening economic and political sanctions on Moscow.
Source: Observadora
