Russia deported at least 178 people from occupied Crimea last year – UN
Head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) Matilda Bogner said this while presenting the 31st report on the human rights situation in Ukraine during the period from August 1, 2020 to January 31, 2021, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.
Concerning the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, Ukraine, temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation, the report highlights, amongst other human rights violations, that deportations and forcible transfers continued.
Unlawful application of Russian Federation criminal legislation by the occupation authorities of the Russian Federation on the peninsula also affected freedom of religion, notably that of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and Jehovah’s Witnesses.
“In 2020, courts in Crimea issued deportation and forcible transfer orders against at least 178 individuals considered foreigners under Russian Federation immigration law, including 105 Ukrainian citizens (93 men and 12 women). The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) recalls that international humanitarian law prohibits individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the occupying Power or to that of any other country, regardless of the motive," Ms Bogner said.
She noted that OHCHR is also concerned about further reports of inappropriate conditions of detention in penitentiary institutions in the occupied Crimea and in the Russian Federation, where current and former prisoners have been deported to serve their sentences.
“OHCHR recalls that incommunicado detention, which deprives the inmate of any contact with the outside world, in particular with medical doctors, lawyers and relatives, has repeatedly been recognized as a form of torture,” Ms Bogner stressed.
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