Reintegration Ministry is working to return Ukrainians home

5 months ago, on October 18, 2022, the Government established a Coordination Headquarters for ensuring departure of Ukrainian citizens from the temporarily occupied territories through the territory of third countries to Ukraine. The Headquarters is headed by Iryna Vereshchuk, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories.

The priority task of the Coordination Headquarters is to ensure that Ukrainian citizens leave the TOT through other countries for further return to their homeland.

To this end, a number of regulations have been elaborated. A significant part of them is aimed at organizing the process of obtaining and restoring identity documents and confirming Ukrainian citizenship. Indeed, many citizens who left the TOT found themselves abroad without documents.

To this end, the State Migration Service of Ukraine has introduced a pilot project to issue a certificate of identity for returning to Ukraine. The issuance and transfer of such certificates for persons who were forcibly transferred to the territory of the aggressor state and lost their documents is carried out at the request of their relatives, legal representatives, or the Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories.

An important part of the Coordination Headquarters’ work is to establish diplomatic ties with countries used by Ukrainians to get home. These include, in particular, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, Kazakhstan, Turkey, and Georgia. Diplomatic cooperation is aimed at making it easier for Ukrainians to cross the borders of these countries.

In addition, with the support of the Coordination Headquarters, the provision of administrative services to Ukrainians who have found temporary refuge abroad has been improved. For example, the opening of mobile offices of the State Enterprise “Document” in a number of European countries has simplified the process of issuing and receiving ID documents.

Diplomatic missions have also expanded their services in the field of civil registration. In the near future, diplomatic missions in countries with the largest number of Ukrainians will be able to issue extracts from the Civil Registry Office, including birth certificates.

All these initiatives were implemented thanks to the cooperation of the Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Justice, the State Migration Service, and NGOs.