08 April 2011, 15:02
Opening the meeting, Committee Chairman Oleh Zarubinskyi stated that the Committee was performing law-making and its supervisory functions in the sphere of migration, granting of a refugee status and asylum. He informed about the history of granting a refugee status and asylum in Ukraine.
According to the Committee Chairman, the resolutions of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine "On Assistance to the Persons who were forced to flee the Places of Permanent Residence in the Chechen Republic of the Russian Federation and arrived to Ukraine" and "On Assistance to the Persons who were forced to flee the Places of Permanent Residence in the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia in Georgia and arrived to Ukraine" were adopted in the 1990s. It was a tool of granting a temporary or extra protection to the refugees, which was first used by Ukraine in the CIS region," stressed O. Zarubinskyi. "The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe adopted the Recommendation No. 9 on the temporary protection only on May 3, 2000."
O. Zarubinskyi also stated, "The Law "On Refugees" has been modified by amendments and supplements throughout twenty years to meet the national interests and international standards." "We have a wide experience in the practice of granting the refugee status and asylum," the Committee Chairman summed up.