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Russia begins to resettle all Ukrainian refugees from tent camps by September 1

At the moment, there are 730,000 Ukrainian citizens in Russia, and 70,000 of them have applied for the refugee status
A refugee camp in Russia's Rostov Region EPA/YURI KOCHETKOV
A refugee camp in Russia's Rostov Region
© EPA/YURI KOCHETKOV

MOSCOW, August 19. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia has made a decision regarding the immediate future of all Ukrainians who have fled the areas of hostilities. By September 1 all temporary accommodation facilities in the ten regions of Russia that have hosted most of the forced migrants will be closed down. Under a program proposed by the Federal Migration Service, all refugees will be resettled to permanent housing before the winter season sets in. Creating enough jobs is another aspect of the humanitarian effort. However, this may prove a daunting task as the flow of refugees from Ukraine’s south-east continues unabated.

At the moment, there are 730,000 Ukrainian citizens in Russia, and 70,000 of them have applied for the refugee status. Russia has opened 716 temporary accommodation facilities, which at the moment house 51,000 refugees. In early August the federal government disbursed an equivalent of $9.7 million to 40 Russian regions for accommodating Ukrainian refugees.

Starting from Tuesday, about 1,000 Ukrainian refugees will be leaving Crimea, the republic’s acting leader, Sergey Aksyonov has told ITAR-TASS, adding that the resettlement program would be working at full capacity starting from August 21.

“Slowly but surely everybody (refugees) will move to the mainland. There will be no temporary refugees shelters in Crimea. There is a special program for this, it has the federal government’s backing and the funds have been reserved for it," he said.

In the meantime, the influx of Ukrainian refugees to Crimea remains significant, with about 300 people arriving there every day.