It will be easier for Ukrainians from the occupied territories who have lost their documents to return from abroad

Ukrainians from the temporarily occupied territories who have lost their documents will be able to return from abroad to Ukraine under a simplified procedure.

The Ministry for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories has announced this, Ukrinform reports.

It is noted that recently, under the chairmanship of Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk, a meeting of the interdepartmental working group on protecting the rights of citizens who need assistance in returning to Ukraine was held. The group was created a few days ago on behalf of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. It will solve the problems of obtaining or restoring documents of Ukrainian citizens who have left for third countries.

The essence of the problem is that our fellow citizens from the occupied territories are trying to get to Ukraine through third countries. However, now this is not easy to do if a person has lost or does not have a passport or birth certificate.

“According to Decree No. 57 and changes in the Border Crossing Procedure, citizens of Ukraine under 18 years old are allowed to enter the territory of our state if they have a birth certificate. At the same time, the State Border Service independently enters data about a person into the database. Citizens over 18 years old who have lost their documents , will also be allowed to pass if there is a birth certificate. Then the identification of the person will be carried out already on the territory of Ukraine,” the message says.

Also, the members of the working group decided to expand the powers of the consulates of Ukraine in Kazakhstan, Turkey, Georgia, Estonia and Latvia in order to simplify and speed up the procedure for issuing a temporary certificate of return to Ukraine.

As reported on October 11, 37 more children were returned to their homeland, who were forcibly taken from the Kharkiv region to the Russian village of Kabardinka (near Gelendzhik) at the end of August, despite the fact that they all have parents.