Внутрішньо переміщені особи та маломобільні люди в Україні між 2014 та 2022 рр: вік та інвалідність як фактори вразливості_MOM [ENG]

19 Вересня 2023 by Olga Zhurbenko

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MRS No. 77 – Internally displaced and immobile people in Ukraine between 2014 and 2022: Older age and disabilities as factors of vulnerability

Introduction

Since February 2022, one third of the people living in Ukraine have fled from their homes because of full-scale Russian aggression, with estimates of over 7.7 million fleeing Ukraine to European countries (UNHCR, 2022) and 6.5 million internally displaced (IOM, 2022:Annex 1). Out of Ukraine’s total population of 44 million, 15.7 million people are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance and protection (OCHA, 2022).

While the scale of the current displacement is widely represented by the media and politicians, the internal displacement caused by the war in the temporarily occupied parts of Donetsk and Luhansk region and in the Crimean Peninsula since 2014 has received less attention. In 2021, the Humanitarian Response Plan for Ukraine was launched by local and international humanitarian actors; however, this was only 27 per cent funded by mid-August, with just USD 45.4 million of an overall call for USD 168 million received (Humanitarian Response, 2021).
Understanding the vulnerabilities of displaced populations caused by war, persecution, torture and protracted internal displacement before their actual departure is crucial to evaluating the impacts of the ongoing crisis. As a result of the war in the eastern regions and the temporary occupation of the Crimean Peninsula, Ukraine had the highest number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Europe, even before 2022, with over 1.4 million people fleeing as of July 2021 (Slovo I Dilo, 2021). The number of registered IDPs in Ukraine slightly decreased in November 2019 and was stable until 2022 (Mykhnenko et al., 2022; see Figure 1).

Focusing on individuals displaced before 2022, this paper argues that the pre-existing vulnerabilities of those who were stranded in occupied areas since February 2022 have been exacerbated.

These vulnerabilities include involuntary immobility, lack of access to employment, difficulties in receiving pensions and lack of affordable housing. The statistics of IDPs before 2022 show that a majority –over a million – were registered in the eastern and south-eastern regions that are occupied by Russian forces or damaged by the invasion (Slovo I Dilo, 2021).1 Also, according to estimates based on data from the Ukrainian Ministry of Social Policy, 52 per cent of IDPs were pensioners, and 60 per cent were women (see Kuznetsova et al., 2018; Mykhnenko et al., 2022).
People with disabilities comprised about 4 per cent of registered IDPs in 2016 (UNHCR, 2016).
Taking into consideration people stranded in the conflict-affected Donetska and Luhanska oblasts (on both sides of the “contact line”), people with disabilities constituted 13 per cent of the total number of people in need of humanitarian assistance (OCHA, 2021). In fact, the share of people with disabilities among IDPs and people in need of humanitarian assistance is possibly higher, as the Government of Ukraine only counts persons who register their disability and regularly verify it via a complex bureaucratic process (see also United Nations Ukraine, 2021). These findings echo the 2022 IOM survey data that revealed a large proportion of older adults (46%) and people with disabilities among the IDPs (IOM, 2022).

The current crisis in occupied territories has to be addressed from the perspective of the vulnerabilities of IDPs who lived in those areas. Before February 2022, 3.4 million people on both sides of the contact line had “critical humanitarian needs” (Humanitarian Response, 2021), including the elderly, people with disabilities, female-headed households, and children living in isolated villages. However, the internally displaced population is not the only category of the population under concern within the displacement continuum in Ukraine. While involuntary immobility is crucial in refugee studies (Lubkemann, 2008), voluntary immobility (meaning people choosing to stay) is a significant part of the continuum as well (Schewel, 2020).

Many support organizations have been established in Ukraine to support IDPs, including some initiated by IDPs themselves. For example, between June and December 2014, the nongovernmental organization (NGO) Station Kharkiv found accommodation for 30,000 IDPs.

Organizations in the non-profit and non-governmental sector supported IDPs in becoming “assets” to their communities, as well as IDP self-reliance (Uehling, 2021; see also United Nations Volunteers, 2021). NGOs provided various types of support for IDPs and the communities into which they are received, including legal and psychological services and vocational professional training (Kuznetsova and Mikheieva, 2018). This was necessary for the vast majority of IDPs in Ukraine because the displacement has caused great socioeconomic disruptions with increasing levels of poverty, as well asissues in terms of health and pensions (see, for example, Durnyeva et al., 2019; Woroniecka-Krzyzanowska and Palaguta, 2017; Bulakh, 2020; Kuznetsova and Mikheieva, 2020). Though there were some positive changes in legislation since 2019, the situation with accommodation and pensions has remained challenging.

This paper is based on qualitative and desk-based research, and aims to explore the vulnerabilities of IDPs before 2022. After describing the methodology, the paper addresses why statistics of IDPs do not clearly reflect their situation. Then it focuses on the causes of immobility and experiences of return to occupied territories of Ukraine, followed by analysis of the intersections between, on the one hand, displacement and immobility, and on the other, disability, older age and housing.

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