GENEVA / UKRAINE DISPLACED

More than 117,000 people are believed to have fled from their homes in Ukraine to other parts of the country due to the deteriorating situation the eastern region of the country. The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) says that over the past seven days alone more than 6,200 people have been forced from their homes. UNTV CH

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:02:38
• Production Date: 5 August 2014
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES - UNHCR
• Subject Topical: REFUGEES; DISPLACED PERSONS
• Geographic Subject: UKRAINE
• MAMS Id: 1145699

Description

STORY: GENEVA / UKRAINE DISPLACED
TRT: 2.38
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 5 AUGUST 2014, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

Shotlist

1. Wide shot, exterior Palais des Nations
2. Wide shot, briefing room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Vincent Cochetel, Director of Europe Office, UNHCR:
“As we speak now, we have registered through the local authorities - there is no unified central registration system in Ukraine - we have registered 117,000 IDPs, internally displaced persons. Mainly men and woman, many women and children. Many men choose not to register. They do that for some protection reasons. They don’t want to be drafted into the Ukrainian army and be sent back to the east to fight.”
4. Med shot, journalists
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Vincent Cochetel, Director of Europe Office, UNHCR:
“Over the last three weeks, we’ve seen the arrival of 1,200 person per day, arriving to the front line reception at Donbas, the district of eastern Ukraine bordering Luhansk and Donetsk, so we see 1,200 people a day arriving. And those people are living with very little, unlike those who left from Crimea a couple of months ago. Most of them are not prepared for their departure. They took a quick decision. Some of them arrived with almost no belongings, or got some of their belongings confiscated at checkpoints.”
6. Med shot, journalists
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Vincent Cochetel, Director of Europe Office, UNHCR:
“What we are scared about is the way the military operations are conducted. What will happen if we have intense fighting inside the big urban centres of Luhansk and Donetsk? So far the fighting is in the suburbs but not in the city centre. Fighting in highly intensified urban areas could lead to massive exodus and massive destruction. There are still 1.5 million people living in Donetsk as we speak.”
8. Close up, camera woman
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Vincent Cochetel, Director of Europe Office, UNHCR:
“Sixty percent – six-zero – 60 percent of the 430 collective centres in Ukraine cannot be winterised. There is no heating system. These are summer camps, what we call former pioneers’ camps, so summer, vacation resorts for kids. You can’t winterise those places. It’s a rough winter out there so we are going to have to help the Ukrainian authorities to relocate those people”
10. Wide shot, Press Briefing room

Storyline

More than 117,000 people are believed to have fled from their homes in Ukraine to other parts of the country due to the deteriorating situation the eastern region of the country.

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) says that over the past seven days alone more than 6,200 people have been forced from their homes.

From January to the beginning of August, an estimated 168,000 people had also crossed into Russia, seeking refugee status, temporary asylum and other legal residence permits.

Russian authorities say that as many as 730,000 Ukrainians have moved to Russia since the conflict began, as part of a visa-free regime.

The number of people displaced from the Luhansk and Donetsk regions has risen sharply since early June from 2,600 to 102,600 in early August. People from eastern Ukraine now make up 87 per cent of the total displaced population in Ukraine; those from Crimea now number some 15,200 people.

Vincent Cochetel, UNHCR Director of Europe Office says that people are leaving eastern Ukraine with few belongings and are facing increasing difficulties.

He also says that basic services and infrastructure have been heavily affected by the increased violence, with clean drinking water having become increasingly more difficult to find. In addition, many houses and buildings have been partially or totally destroyed in the areas affected by conflict in Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

However, it is the fear of being caught in crossfire that is the main reason that displaced people are giving for leaving their homes.

Cochetel says that so far most of the fighting has been away from city centres but he is concerned that, if the fighting intensifies in urban areas, more people will be forced to flee their homes and there will be yet more destruction.

UNHCR is calling for the Ukrainian government to set up a central registration system of internally displaced people. The agency says that the current lack of a systematic and uniform system hampers the coordination and implementation of relief efforts. It also says that Ukrainian authorities must make adequate preparations for housing for displaced people over the winter months. Most of the current shelters in use are not suitable for cold weather accommodation.