[D66] 'Guantanamo of the East': Ukraine Locks Up Refugees at EU's Behest

[J.N.]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/ukraine-receives-eu-funds-to-block-asylum-seekers-from-reaching-europe-a-1018907.html

'Guantanamo of the East': Ukraine Locks Up Refugees at EU's Behest

Brussels is doing all it can to prevent refugees from reaching Fortress
Europe, with initiatives like funding the construction of interment
centers in Ukraine. Asylum seekers who have spent time there report
miserable conditions and abuse.


The European Union has provided Ukraine with €30 million ($34 million)
in funding, which Kiev is using to build and renovate migrant detention
centers, along with other facilities where they are housed temporarily.
The International Organization for Migration received several million
euros to support Ukrainian authorities in such areas as the internment
of undocumented migrants. Brussels is apparently hoping that the system
will reduce the number of asylum seekers in Europe -- without attracting
too much attention.

In 2010, the human rights organization Human Rights Watch criticized the
EU for investing millions to divert flows of refugees from Europe toward
Ukraine, while neglecting to take sufficient steps to ensure the humane
treatment of refugees in Ukraine.

The refugee crisis along the eastern edge of Europe could now escalate
in the course of the Ukraine conflict. The government in Kiev has its
hands full caring for almost a million internally displaced persons
fleeing the fighting between government troops and rebels in eastern
Ukraine. It is hardly capable of providing for asylum-seekers from the
Middle East and African countries, as well, warns Ilya Todorovich, the
UNHCR representative in Ukraine.