GENEVA (Reuters) – The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) expressed concern on Monday about the absence of a system for the return of Ukrainian children displaced to Russian territory or occupied by Moscow since the beginning of the invasion, and in the face of the mistreatment that some have reported.
Ukrainian authorities say they have identified nearly 20,000 children believed to have been taken to Russia since the start of the war in 2022.
Ukraine has repatriated more than 400 children so far and says it is not clear how many remain in Russia, lacking access to the country as well as the vast occupied territories in the south and east of the country.
“The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) remains gravely concerned that there is no established system for the return of Ukrainian children who have been transferred to other parts of the territory occupied by Russia or in the Russian Federation,” Nada Al-Nashif, UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
“Among the children who were reunited with their families after their families traveled to the Russian Federation to pick them up, some reported experiencing or witnessing psychological or physical violence at the hands of educational staff there,” she said. she added.
Moscow has repeatedly denied forcibly transferring Ukrainian children, saying it moves children found in orphanages or without parental care to Russia for their own safety and places as many as possible with relatives there. country.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants in March for President Vladimir Putin and Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova, accused of war crimes over the deportation of children .
The ICC says it has information that hundreds of children have been kidnapped from orphanages and child care centers in parts of Ukraine claimed by Russia.
(Reporting Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber; French version Diana Mandiá, editing by Kate Entringer)
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