Thousands of children in orphanages in Ukraine are in ‘chaotic’ situation

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Tens of thousands of children in orphanages are in a “chaotic” situation in Ukraine, besieged under bombings or exiled in countries with an irregular reception and drug dealers – warn NGOs and experts.

Ukraine, which has the largest number of children in Europe with at least 100,000 children according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is unusual in its vast, incomprehensible and often dysfunctional network of orphanages, boarding schools or institutions for children. disabled.

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“Before the war there were tens of thousands of children living in these institutions, which is huge”, says Geneviève Colas, Caritas France’s Collective Coordinator Against Human Trafficking.

For many, the situation is “chaotic”, Halyna Kurylo, Ukraine representative of the International Organization for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (DRI), told AFP.

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“Many institutions have been suspiciously evacuated. Some children have been left behind because they cannot move due to their disabilities. Some institutions have gone west and merged with others, their facilities are overcrowded (…) and children can get lost in the commotion,” he warns.

On February 25, an institution housing 55 children up to the age of 4 in Verozel was attacked by a Russian bomb.

“Fortunately, the children and staff were not in the building,” says Halyna Postoliuk, Ukraine director of the NGO Hope and Homes for Children.

The decision to evacuate the site that day had not yet been taken, which made it impossible given the intensity of the attacks. Another 55 children were not taken to a children’s hospital in western Kiev until 9 March.

1000km by bus

Another group of children, ages 5 to 14, from an institution in Nezhin, traveled nearly 1000 km from east to west of Ukraine to escape the bombs, said Marieta, the director of this centre, whose families took children who could not take care of themselves.

“The Russians began to approach. The children heard gunshots, explosions. It was traumatizing for them,” he recalls.

Some families went to pick up their children, but in seven of them this was impossible due to access issues. The authorities decided to put them on the bus and join another institution in Nizhny Vorota. It is 24 hours away by road, close to the border with Slovakia.

“There were curtains on the windows of the bus so that the children wouldn’t see the destroyed houses and dead people,” Marieta adds.

“Three days after we left, the Russians approached Nezhin. If we had stayed longer, we would not have been able to leave the city.”

Besides war, other dangers await the little ones. Eric Rosenthal, founder and managing director of DRI, warns that in Ukraine these institutions “create a huge disorderly system with little control. In the chaos of this war, children are easy prey for criminal organizations.”

Fears date back to pre-war when Ukraine was the scene of abuse in some orphanages, including forced labor and sexual exploitation in private homes.

Citing the 2014 example after the annexation of Crimea, Rosenthal says there were even accusations of illegal adoption and organ trafficking.

“The children disappeared from orphanages and were taken to Russia. Others were displaced inside Ukraine without being identified,” he says.

We know that children have been transferred from orphanages to neighboring countries such as Romania or Moldova in recent weeks, but there is a huge smuggling problem in these countries as well,” he adds.

According to the non-governmental organization Ukrainian Children’s Rights Network, approximately 70,000 of the detained children lived in areas hit by the violence of the Russian occupation that began on February 24.

Nearly 31,000 children who still have parents or legal guardians have returned to them, although their situation is at risk if these families are unable to care for them properly.

out of control

In Lviv, western Ukraine, 55-year-old American Colleen Holt Thompson, who has been working as a volunteer in Ukrainian orphanages since 2006, issues a warning.

The adoptive mother of six Ukrainians rushed to Lviv on March 3 to help the orphans and continue the process of adopting a young girl, which began three years ago. He said he was “shocked” by the “chaos” of the removal of these minors.

According to official figures at the end of March, 3,000 children were transferred abroad, mainly in Poland, Germany, Italy, Romania, Austria and the Czech Republic.

“No government is ready for these large-scale receptions,” Thompson told AFP.

“However, my concerns were heightened when I received calls from government officials asking if the names or ages of children traveling to Lviv by bus or train and for whom there was no trace of their identity, are their friends.” made his comment.

He also claims to have received “annoying” calls from someone asking for a list of children at an orphanage his network is trying to get out of Mariupol, particularly minors in the process of adoption from the United States.

“This person said he could take the children to Greece by private plane. This is crazy! There are very serious concerns about child trafficking,” she warns.

“I can assure you: there will be children who will never return to Ukraine, and there will be others who will disappear. And right now there are thousands of children in hotels, camps or private homes, with people we don’t know if they can trust.” reinforces it.

His adopted 18-year-old Maure arrived at an orphanage at age 4 and was evacuated from his Donetsk headquarters in 2014 when the war against pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine began. It has now moved to another location. To an orphanage in Lviv, where he took refuge in a “shelter” when the sirens sounded.

“The center’s director wants to take her and the other kids to Austria,” Thompson says.

Although the government set rules for the removal and monitoring of these children on 12 March, there is still much to be done according to NGOs.

The Child Rights Network estimates that 2,500 underage children urgently need to be transferred from war zones.

“Children are horrified. The grown-ups are trying to reassure the little ones,” says Darya Kasyanova, director of the Children’s Villages program in Ukraine.

“Those responsible for the development of these children who eat little and sleep little are noticing a delay,” she warns.

The danger of “sexual exploitation”

Borders are also risk zones.

Thomas Hackl of Caritas Romania, who opened a center at the Siret border post, said his team recently arrested a man who was trying to take two Ukrainian girls to Italy.

“We know that drug dealers are involved in the public, they suggest a means of transport. There were many signs that made us distrust this man: He was very insistent, wanted to take him to a certain place (…) There are many stories like this here,” he explains.

Colas says that at border crossings or in countries they travel to, children risk finding themselves in a vehicle with a stranger, or being sheltered, with the risk of becoming a “small house slave” or being sexually exploited. , from Caritas France.

The situation was “chaotic” in the first three weeks of the war, says Yuri Tsitrinbaum of the NGO IsraAID, whom AFP contacted on the border between Ukraine and Moldova, which has been helping since late February.

Afterwards, the flow “calmed down”, but “there is a growing concern (…) about human trafficking”.

In Nizhni Vorota, Marieta hopes the situation will remain calm and says she has no intention of going into exile. But her children won’t know what to do if Russian forces approach, she. “It’s better not to think about it,” she says.

source: Noticias

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