European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson says there are already reports of criminals taking orphans out of Ukraine’s orphanages, pretending to be their relatives as they cross the border for further trafficking, in the general refugee flow.
In this regard, she called for doing everything possible to protect the most vulnerable category of Ukrainian refugees – unaccompanied minors who may become victims of trafficking. She said this on Tuesday, speaking at the plenary session of the European Parliament on the issue of “Deterioration of the situation with refugees as a consequence of Russian aggression against Ukraine.”
“Let me raise the issue that causes me the greatest concern. It’s about children. We do not know exactly how many children arrived in the EU. From what I saw with my own eyes when I was at the border – I would guess that almost half of the two million may be children. These kids need to go to school, they need some kind of normal life. There is an urgent need to support children who are fleeing the war. But we also need to ensure that we can provide support to the most vulnerable children – unaccompanied children,” the European Commissioner said.
She said that the MEPs saw photographs of small children crossing the border “alone, with a small bag, without parents.” “Unfortunately, in this situation, we know that there is a very high risk that unaccompanied minors may become victims of crime who would like to use them for various purposes. For example, for trading. We have reports of criminals using orphans from orphanages in Ukraine, crossing the border pretending they are the child’s relatives, and then using him for trafficking,” Johannson said.
In this regard, she expressed her confidence that the EU has an obligation to protect these children. “We have to do much more than we have done so far. We must support children better than we have been able to do so far. They need our support. This (refugee flow) will not end soon. Putin wages his war without any restrictions or mercy. There will be more, the worst is yet to come. Many more millions will flee. And we should welcome them,” the European Commissioner said.
She also said that about two million refugees arrived in the EU in 12 days. “Just to compare, in 12 days we received two million refugees. This is the same amount as the EU received for the period 2015 and 2016 combined. More than one million in Poland, almost half a million in Romania, 170,000 in Hungary, 130 in Slovakia. Member States are doing an outstanding job,” Johannson said.
The European Commissioner also expressed confidence that “in addition to solidarity and unity, we need money not only for admission, but also to help with education, work, living, integration into our community.” “Today we proposed – and this is yet another unprecedented decision – to provide more flexibility to Member States to use our €420 million Home Affairs Fund and unspent funds from the previous macro-financial assistance package, to provide the flexibility to switch priorities so that States can provide more money to support those fleeing the war. We will also propose today to amend the rules for funding the Asylum and Migration Fund. I hope that this Parliament will approve these proposals without delay,” the European Commissioner said.
EUROPEAN COMMISSIONER, EVACUATING, MINORS, PROTECTION, VICTIMS TRAFFICKING
National Nuclear Generating Company Energoatom, taking into account the political situation, has prepared an order to harden the protection of its nuclear facilities and their infrastructure, Head of Energoatom Petro Kotin has said.
“We are introducing a special order to harden security at all our nuclear facilities and their infrastructure. It will, of course, provide for additional steps for the physical protection of the facilities. Of course, we will harden these measures. And, if necessary, we will allocate additional funding,” Kotin told Interfax-Ukraine during a visit to the Central Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Facility (CSFSF).
According to him, now law enforcement agencies are working out all the necessary steps to improve safety at the nuclear power plant.
“These are organizational steps. As for additional funding, issues are resolved within the framework of security protocols that are signed with the National Guard and other relevant bodies, in particular, the SBU. Now, this work is being carried out at all nuclear power plants,” Kotin said.
Concerning the CSFSF, the head of Energoatom said that all the required protection steps are also being taken on it.
“This is a nuclear facility, and therefore it is also very vulnerable from the point of view of a terrorist attack. It is only 14 km from the border with Belarus. All necessary steps are being taken to protect it physically, there are many of them, they are sufficient. You heard that the representative of the National Guard from the unit that will guard it said that security will be ensured,” Kotin said.
Ukraine is waiting for the arrival of investors from Israel and guarantees the protection of their investments, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.
“Ukraine is waiting for Israeli investors, and the government and I personally guarantee the protection of all their investments. In addition, Ukraine is interested in studying and using Israel’s significant experience in the field of innovation,” Zelensky said during joint statements with Israeli President Isaac Herzog to the media.
He added that Israeli campaigns, in turn, can use Ukraine’s colossal potential as a new European technological hub.
Zelensky noted that today the volume of direct Israeli investments in Ukraine does not meet the potential of the two countries.
“New technologies, innovations, cybersecurity, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, space programs, banking, finance, construction, agriculture are just some promising areas for the development of investment cooperation between Ukraine and Israel,” the President of Ukraine said.
Zelensky also said that the Free Trade Agreement between Ukraine and Israel opens up new opportunities for strengthening bilateral economic interaction. The countries intend to increase trade volumes to the level that had been before the spread of COVID-19.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine has launched the operation of the Business Protection Office (BPO) under the ministry, the head of which was appointed adviser to Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, ex-Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Anton Gerashchenko.
“Today we are launching an additional operational protection mechanism – we are opening an advisory body – the Business Protection Office under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, where every entrepreneur and investor will be able to receive the necessary assistance and effectively protect their rights. Our global goal is to make the business environment in Ukraine as much as possible protected and attractive for investors both Ukrainian and foreign,” the website of the Ministry of Internal Affairs reported on Thursday evening.
The specific areas of work of the Business Protection Office will be combating raiding, combating corruption and abuse of business in the structures of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, unshadowing the tobacco, alcohol and fuel market, helping the State Customs Service and other law enforcement agencies in the fight against smuggling, the issue of combating counterfeit products, violation of copyright and trademark counterfeiting.
Other issues of violation of the rights of entrepreneurs by law enforcement officers in the structures of the Ministry of Internal Affairs – the National Police, the State Emergency Service, and the State Migration Service – will also be in the field of vision and response of the Business Protection Office.
The Northern Mining and Processing Plant (Northern GOK, Kryvy Rih, Dnipropetrovsk region), which is the part of the Metinvest Group, will invest UAH 2.3 billion in environmental protection measures in 2020.
Metinvest Kryvyi Rih said on Facebook on Thursday, August 20, that Northern GOK continues seeking effective ways of environmental protection.
“This time peat hydroxide reagent was successfully tested during the blasting operations in the mine. Earlier, spraying of the reagent in the Hannivsky mine helped to reduce dusting by 30% and gas emission by 70%,” it said.
As reported, Metinvest plans to invest UAH 3.1 billion in the modernization and overhauls of equipment and construction of strategic facilities at Northern GOK in 2020.
Northern GOK is a part of the Metinvest Group, the main shareholders of which are JSC System Capital Management (SCM, Donetsk) (71.24%) and Smart Holding group of companies (23.76%).
The holding company of the Metinvest Group is Metinvest Holding LLC.
Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada has passed at first reading bill No. 1056-1 on protection of ownership rights, ceasing activities of accredited entities in the sphere of public registration of ownership rights. As an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent reported, bill No. 1056-1 at the plenary meeting on September 12 was supported by 327 MPs.
“The bill is aimed at providing additional guarantees for the protection of ownership rights in Ukraine, and provides for the removal from the market of the so-called accredited entities – nongovernmental organizations that regularly, unfortunately, performed the functions of “black registrars” and were one of the elements of criminal schemes,” one of the initiators of the bill, MP Olena Shuliak (the Servant of the People parliamentary faction) said.
The document also introduces the principle of simultaneous notarization of a legal act and public registration of emerging rights, and obliges to notarize certificates on disposing corporate rights.
In addition, the bill provides for increased liability for violations of registration procedures.
