Within the framework of the all-Ukrainian City of Solidarity Initiative, a round table was started in Kyiv, initiated by the authorities of Mariupol and the UN Refugee Agency in Ukraine. The purpose of the meeting is to exchange ideas and experiences and organize a network of cities that are ready to help internally displaced persons to find a new home for themselves.
The City of Solidarity Initiative was launched at the Mariupol forum last year. The integration of internally displaced persons is very important for Mariupol, because the city has taken over 100 thousands of people. This is a fifth of the population of the city before the beginning of the conflict. Then, this forum brought together many supporters of the integration of internally displaced persons, including central and local authorities, humanitarian organizations and development agencies, international and national non-governmental organizations and internally displaced persons.
Kseniya Sukhova, the Deputy Mayor of Mariupol and Dina Lipkan, the Head of the UN office in Mariupol were moderators of the round table. Representatives of Kyiv, Slovyansk, Kherson, Korosten, Poltava and representatives of international organizations, councils and the EU took part in the event. The meeting was opened by Pablo Mateu, the UNHCR representative in Ukraine, Georgiy Tuka, the Deputy Minister for the Occupied Territories and IDPs, Vadim Boychenko, the Mayor of Mariupol and Mykola Porovoznik, the Deputy Mayor of Kyiv.
“There are cities for which consider immigrants not as a problem, but as a perspective. The first was Mariupol, because the city's administration has a clear plan for the internally displaced persons’ integration, works according to it and achieves results”, - Pablo Mateu said. – For a year the city was visited by many foreign guests and everyone saw the rapid development of the city and community. Many projects are implemented and they work, including the construction of social housing”.
The UNHCR representative in Ukraine has invited the cities to study the experience of Mariupol and support the Cities of Solidarity Project. In his turn, Georgiy Tuka noted that Mariupol was a city of special significance for Ukraine.
“Around of 80% of immigrants indicate the problem of housing as the most acute. Solving this issue is only the first step”, - he emphasized. According to him, 1 million and 630 thousands of Ukrainian citizens have the status of an immigrant. 500 thousand families need to provide with housing, and this is more than 5 billion dollars. At present, the state does not have such funds, it is necessary to make certain changes in the legislation.
“We have to stop this deparation into indigenous population and immigrants. The integration has already started and we must raise the issues to the highest level and discuss the problems of the communities”, - underlined Georgiy Tuka.
The Mayor is convinced that people who were forced to leave their homes because of an armed conflict had to be treated with understanding and tolerance: “They were forced to drop everything. Many of them went through all the circles of hell searching for help, housing and with the lack of money. They were sick and did not understand where to go. They had to put children in the gardens, schools. They had to find a job. All of this is real when a person decides to move to another city by himself, but not when his family was pushed out from the hometown by the shell bursts”, - the Mayor said.
According to Vadim Boichenko, the country was supposed to consolidate its efforts and unite so that the immigrants could feel support. But society was not ready for such a turn of events.
Mariupol experienced the tragic moments of 2014 by itself and knows what it is like to sleep during the shell bursts. “Therefore, we took those people who escaped from the war and tried to surround them with care”, - Vadim Boichenko said. Then dozens of charitable organizations united in Mariupol. Metallurgists and volunteers stood and packaged food parcels for 24 hours a day for people to survive. All resorts, hotels, schools around were filled with people with constantly crying eyes.
"We were able to help them. I believe that Mariupol survived this difficult period with dignity and we moved on”, - the Mayor summed up and told the participants about the projects that were implemented in our city in details.
During the meeting Mariupol and other cities will exchange experience of the developing programs for the integration of immigrants. International organizations will inform about the best practices of social housing programs and the ability of cities to finance long-term plans.
