On September 21, Afghani shopkeepers in a Khmelnytsky retail store in Khmelnytsky’s marketplace told The Day’s correspondent they were waiting with alarm and hope for their near and dear “already on the way, fleeing away further troubles.” They forecast the coming of about a hundred refugees. They say there are problems on the borders, but still they look forward to a happy reunion.
“This is the second wave of refugees from Afghanistan to lap at our not so affluent but still quiet shore,” says Dmytro Kornatsky, chief of the passport, registration and immigration section of the Khmelnytsky oblast police department. He said the following about the first wave, “Among the 49 Afghanis on our territory, there are what I can call old-timers. They’ve been living here for about six or seven years. Most of them found shelter in Khmelnytsky, some other in district centers. One in each of Yarmolyntsi, Vinkivtsi, Derazhne, Horodok, two in Dunayevtsi.”
Mr. Kornatsky says three have applied for Ukrainian citizenship. This means their native land is still very far from being in order. Some have acquired refugee status; the rest are here on a temporary basis.
They are said to have understood long ago that nothing is more permanent than temporary hardships. “There was a Afghan army colonel who received a visa in May to go to Holland,” Mr. Kornatsky continues. This colonel, like his other compatriots in Khmelnytsky, was a trader. He kept three locals were under his command: they dealt with the sale of consumer goods. After the commander had left, they came under the patronage of other Afghani shopkeepers.
Mr. Kornatsky is not perturbed about the new wave: the Afghans never break the law: they duly pay their taxes and their entrepreneurial duties.
INCIDENTALLY
Last Friday Viktor Pobiedonostsev, deputy director of the State Department for Nationalities and Migration, told The Day’s Oksana OMELCHENKO that there is nothing to worry about. “At present, the department has no information that the number of refugees in Ukraine has substantially risen after the US events... “Besides, there is also no information that this is possible. Ukraine’s geography is not conducive to a large number of refugees coming here from Afghanistan, because in this case they must cross several other borders. Nonetheless, we have lately expanded the existing refugee camp in Odesa. So in case of a wave of refuges, we are prepared to render them assistance according to Ukrainian law.” The passport, registration, and migration department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine also believes that the US events will not increase the number of refugees in Ukraine, because nothing seems to now indicate this.
Asked if there were anti-American or anti-Arab mass actions in Ukraine, the department said no such facts had been recorded in any region, for this country has quite a small community of individuals coming from the Middle East. The department also said that such events are very unlikely in the future for the same reason.
