VLADIKAVKAZ, June 25, /ITAR-TASS/. Two Russian Emergencies Ministry planes have delivered about 200 Ukrainian refugees to North Ossetia. Most of them do not have any documents. That is why employees of the Russian Federal Migration Service will start working with them as soon as they settle at the local health improvement homes.
“Two Emergencies Ministry planes have delivered 188 Ukrainian refugees, including 81 children of whom six are babies, to North Ossetia,” the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations told Itar-Tass.
The planes arrived from Rostov-on-Don, southern Russia, and Simferopol, Crimea. The flights had been detained for several hours waiting until old women and mothers with young children were collected from various temporary refugee camps.
The refugees will stay at the Tamisk and Ursdon health improvement homes which have all the necessary conveniences and amenities. Social workers and the Emergencies Ministry psychologists are ready to receive the refugees. All the expenses have been covered from the republic’s budget.
About 120 Ukrainian nationals have come to North Ossetia since military hostilities started in southeast Ukraine. They are staying with their relatives and friends.
“Refugees have started arriving since the first days of military hostilities in Ukraine. However, most of them came to their relatives and did not register themselves at the Federal Migration Service. In recent days, many people have decided to apply for a refugee status or Russian citizenship,” the Federal Migration Service said.
The 188 refugees who arrived in North Ossetia earlier on Wednesday do not have relatives or friends in the republic. They have urgently left Ukraine for the Rostov region or Crimea which no longer have the capacity to accept more refugees.
North Ossetia has great experience in working with refugees. After the collapse of the USSR and the first Georgian-Ossetian conflict in the 1990s, North Ossetia received more than 100,000 refugees. Most of them adopted the Russian citizenship and adapted themselves to life in a new place.
The North Ossetian government hopes to receive compensation from the federal authorities for expenses on organization of temporary accommodation centers for Ukrainian refugees.