The Commission for Exceptional Situation’s decision that enabled Ukrainian citizens to stay in Moldova for longer than 90 days without a confirmed legal status was abrogated. Instead, the Ukrainian refugees can go to the General Inspectorate for Migration to swiftly obtain Moldovan IDs required for being granted a legal status in Moldova, secretary of state of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Jana Costachi said in a public debate hosted by IPN.
By derogation from the Moldovan legislation, the Ukrainian citizens were allowed to stay in Moldova without having a legal status or documents during the state of emergency. This derogation was annulled and the Ukrainian refugees now need to obtain Moldovan IDs to be able to benefit from social services and assistance in Moldova, stated Jana Costachi.
“In times of peace, any person who entered the Republic of Moldova from Ukraine could stay here without asking something from the state for 90 days. This was the basic rule. Given the huge number of refugees during the first months of the outbreak of the war, the state was unable to offer IDs to so many people. We would have had a very large number of persons who violated the law on the regime of stay if they hadn’t applied for asylum or a work permit. From legislative viewpoint, it was unacceptable to have so many people whose legal status wasn’t regulated in the Republic of Moldova. So as not to cause panic among the displaced people from Ukraine, we offered them the moral right to analyze their perspectives: to either leave for the EU, to return to Ukraine or to remain in the Republic of Moldova. That’s why we earlier didn’t impose this 90-day period of stay during the state of emergency. No one knew that this state of emergency will continue up to now,” noted the official.
As the Moldovan authorities decided, after the CES decision was abrogated on May 10, the Ukrainian citizens can stay in Moldova for 90 days only or to obtain a legal status if they want to stay longer here.
“We offered them the possibility of staying in the Republic of Moldova without local IDs during the state of emergency. This was the derogation, but it is no longer valid. In 30 minutes, one can obtain Moldovan IDs from the General Inspectorate for Migration and act in the Republic of Moldova as all the citizens so,” explained Jana Costachi.
The official assured that with a minimum set of IDs and with an appointment scheduled online, the Ukrainians citizens can swiftly obtain the IDs needed for staying legally in Moldova. For further information on the issue, the citizens of Ukraine can visit the official website www.dopomoga.gov.md
“The ID is a kind of local identity card. To avoid crowdedness and to offer them the right to act in a programmed way, we enable to schedule an appointment for the interview with the inspector of the General Inspectorate for Migration through the online application. The conditions are very simple. One needs to confirm their identity with a Ukrainian ID. They need to prove that they have a place to stay. It doesn’t go to residence,” said the secretary of state of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The public debate entitled “Difficulties in providing temporary protection to Ukrainian refugees. How can they be overcome?” was staged by IPN News Agency as part of the initiative “Socially Responsible Management of External Financing” of the Institute for Strategic Initiatives (IPIS) in partnership with the Independent Think Tank “Expert-Grup”, with support from Soros Foundation Moldova.
