IDPs more and more often face refusals to get free train tickets at the Kiev railway station. Authorities don’t want to explain the situation, but IDPs suspect of a corruption. On the 9th of April “Ukrzaliznytsya” reported on its web page that it has transported 5158 IDPs for free, saving 605 thousand hrivnas. Earlier they reported about 14.5 thousand IDPs transported for free for general amount of 1 million 450 thousand hrivnas for the period since July 2014 till January 2015.
“There is no official direction or law obliging the railway to provide IDPs with free tickets, — human rights activist Alena Luneva from the “Vostok-SOS” organization tells. – There is such practice though. Unspoken direction may exist. Now “Ukrzaliznytsya” provides it due to its own initiative”.
IDP Elena came to Kiev with two children on her own. She read in the Internet about the Interdepartmental coordination center for IDPs located in the building of Kiev railway station, where people can apply for free train tickets. She decided to use this opportunity. She got verbal refusal without any explanations.
“About 9AM I wrote a request to provide me and my children with free tickets to Dneprodzerzhinsk. We are going to live there in a temporary IDPs settlement. I attached a copy of my passport, proving my Luhansk origin and waited for a call as I was told to do. I didn’t get an answer and soon after 4PM I called lieutenant Vinokurov, who accepted my request. He told me that I was refused to get a free transportation. According to his words he didn’t know the reason, was very rude and suggested me to address “Ukrzaliznytsya” for explanations”, — Elena tells.
According to Elena’s words, she had to spend money on a hotel room for one more day. Outraged woman addressed the Informator.lg.ua editorial office for a help and our correspondent tried to find out what the matter was. But the coordination center’s worker refused to communicate in front of the camera.
Officials denied giving Elena an exit number of her document, saying that they only accept requests at the railway station, but do not register them. At last, after a long argument and journalist’s arrival, the official gave Elena an exit number. But the date on the document was a day later the real one, what makes us suspect of a corruption.
“They took my request with all needed data, but when they refused – they didn’t give me any document, proving that I wasn’t in that train. So, according to documents, I and my two children received free tickets. But it is not true, and someone will put money into the pocket. I suppose that the government compensates those tickets”, — Elena assumes.
According to Elena’s words, she is not the only one who was refused.
“While I was waiting for an answer I saw two women in tears. They must got refusals too”, — she supposes.
“From time to time “Ukrzaliznytsya” tries to stop provision of free tickets, — Alena Luneva says. – It is unknown now whether the government compensates those tickets and who defines the number of free seats for IDPs. Maybe there is corruption and maybe the railway simply tries to save money”.
Informator.lg.ua will follow this situation and try to understand who and how makes decisions about free or paid tickets for IDPs.
Denis Matsola for Informator.lg.ua