Federal Migration Service of Russian Federation has denied reports of the Russian state media about mass number of refugees from Ukraine who want to obtain Russian citizenship.
This was stated by Deputy Head of the Federal Migration Service of the Russian Federation Anatoly Fomenko at the meeting of Federation Council committee on monitoring the situation in Ukraine, the Russian newspaper reported.
“Since beginning of 2014 82 Ukrainian citizens have asked for refugee status from Federal Migration Service of Russian Federation. Figure of 143,000 people, which was mentioned in the media is the number of Ukrainian citizens who have entered the territory of Russia for the last two weeks, “- the report says.
During their meeting the senators have stressed that the media has information about 143 thousand refugees who flew from Ukraine to Russia.
“Noone said about 143,000 refugees” – replied Fomenko, noting that these are people who have entered Russia for the last two weeks. These figures were announced by Federal Migration Service, but they have not used the word “refugees”,” mentioned Fomenko. “These are people who have entered and crossed the border,” – he specified.
Deputy Head of the Migration Service recalled that Russian legislation has a special procedure for obtaining refugee status. “There are certain criteria. If a person comes and claims asylum, he must submit a request, the application. After the application is submitted, we can legally place him in our detention centers for the period of application process to determine if refugee status can be granted, “- said Fomenko.
StopFake dares to mention that although Mr. Fomenko refutes the claims about thousands of refugees he is being cunning in his assertions that noone ever has talked about refugees. Such statement was made by the Governor of Belgorod region Yevgeny Savchenko. StopFake has also refuted his assertions earlier.
Fomenko stressed that 82 people have applied for refugee status since the beginning of the year.
He also presented data on the number of Ukrainian citizens who have applied for Russian citizenship. According to Fomenko, from 1st of January, 2014 1 thousand 573 people turned up for Russian passports. Last year’s figure for this period was 1 thousand 900 people.
Previously, Russian state media reported about 143 thousand refugees from Ukraine.
Based On: UNIAN.
