The Transnistrian administration decided to extend the quarantine regime and to maintain the same travel restrictions until February 1, 2021. In connection with this fact, the Bureau of Reintegration issued a press release whereby it expresses its regret and concern about such a decision, IPN reports.
“Despite the hundreds of approaches and calls made by Chisinau through communication channels at the level of key negotiators and by using the existing dialogue platforms, including by inviting the mediators and international observers to make an active contribution in this regard, the artificial barriers are maintained. During the past almost nine months, thousands of inhabitants from both sides of the Nistru haven’t had access to workplaces, homes, close relatives and have been thus limited in the exercise of the right to free movement all over the country and of a series of other related basic rights,” said the Bureau.
It noted that the rising statistics about the infections with COVID-19 in the Transnistrian region, which keep it practically at the top of the territorial-administrative units with high infection rates, reveal the unfounded character of the maintained restrictions and the necessity of substituting them with sanitary-epidemiological and individual protective measures in public and closed places, according to the practices that are widely used all over the country and at international level, without affecting the inalienable right of persons to go unrestrictedly to work, to access medical services on the right side of the Nistru, etc.
The Bureau reiterates the call to unconditionally unblock the free moment of the people on both sides of the Nistru, without connecting this process to the pandemic context. International practice provides viable methods of protecting public health without encroaching on the basic human rights. Chisinau’s proposal to relaucnh the dialogue at the level of health protection experts remains valid.
