Ukraine war: UN accuses Russia of breaking child protection rules over refugees – BBC

The head of the United Nations’ refugee agency has accused Moscow of violating “fundamental” child safety principles by giving Russian passports to unaccompanied child refugees.

Filippo Grandi added that Russia had then been putting these children up for adoption simply by Russian families.

He said the particular UNHCR would try in order to get access to those affected and try to find solutions in their best interest.

However, Mr Grandi admitted he did not know how many children were affected.

“In the situation of war, you cannot determine if children have family members or guardianship. And therefore, until that is clarified, you cannot give them another nationality or having them adopted by another family, ” Mr Grandi said.

According to the most recent UNHCR data, nearly three million refugees from Ukraine have been recorded in Russia — more than in any other European country. It is unclear how many of these are kids.

A Ukrainian presidential adviser stated earlier this month almost 14, 000 children experienced been “deported” to Russian federation from occupied parts associated with Ukraine, plus accused it of kidnapping them. The Kremlin has denied the allegations.

Mr Grandi has said the particular UNHCR is seeking access to The ussr “all the time” but that so far this offers been “rare, sporadic and not unfettered”.

His comments come after the United Nations’ top rights official expressed concern within July that will Ukrainian children had already been taken from orphanages in the eastern Donbas region and “forcibly deported” in order to Russia. There was also concern Moscow was “modifying existing legislation” to fast-track this process.

Michelle Bachelet mentioned at the time that she could not confirm the allegations or the particular number of kids potentially affected.

Then in September, the assistant UN secretary-general for human rights said there were “credible allegations” of “forced transfers of unaccompanied children to Russian busy territory, or even to the Russian Federation itself”.

Mister Grandi was speaking at the end of a six-day visit in order to Ukraine plus told local residents that will “the whole world admires you because you are strong people. ”

This individual said it was possible more refugees can return to Ukraine in the summer, as happened last year, yet warned that more fighting could lead to greater displacement, especially internally.

Mr Grandi furthermore painted a bleak global outlook when it came to refugees : predicting the number of displaced individuals would “almost inevitably” grow from the particular current figure of around 103 mil within the coming years.