“Re-education camps” and age change: a human rights activist told how Russians steal children

The Russians change the personal data of children abducted from Ukraine to make it more difficult to find them. In particular, cases were recorded when they added age to children who were taken to “re-education camps” in Crimea. This was reported by the expert of the Regional Center for Human Rights, Kateryna Rashevska, during a briefing at the Ukraine Media Center on February 24. “I cannot guarantee that they do this everywhere. However, we have recorded cases when they changed the personal data of children, for example, when they were taken to so-called “re-education camps” in order not to obtain the consent of their parents. They actually added their age , then moved to the territory of Crimea. The child was kept there, unable to return, because according to their documents, she was no longer a child, and her freedom of movement was illegally restricted by the Russian Federation,” says the human rights activist. There are also very young children who cannot remember their real names because of their injuries. Read also: “Help me”. The story of the deportation of a teenager who managed to return to Ukraine Kateryna Rashevska spoke about Russian “re-education camps” for children Kateryna Rashevska also spoke about Russian “re-education camps” – a kind of “camps of Russification, militarization and indoctrination”. There are 7 such camps on the territory of the Crimean Peninsula, and 43 on the territory of Russia. “Children were taken to some of them without the consent of their parents and using forged documents. There were also cases when approximately 200 children were taken out and placed in “camps”, – says the human rights activist. Ukraine has already informed the International Criminal Court about the actions of the Children’s Ombudsman of the Russian Federation, Maria Lvova-Belova, who “adopted” the Ukrainian boy Philip from Mariupol. “During the last meeting with Putin, Maria Lvova-Belova forgot or deliberately manipulated Philip’s age, saying, that he is 15 years old. At the same time, almost a year ago, she said that Philip was 16. And if we compare the information she provided, then by calculation we get 17 years. Because she said that Philip lost his mother in 2017 at the age of 11,” says the lawyer. The human rights activist noted that such distortion of information happens often and the personal data of children are changed not only during adoption. According to the human rights activist, the registers that existed in ORDLO, as well as the data that the occupiers stole from orphanages in the newly occupied territories, are unified with the federal database of orphans of the Russian Federation. In order to identify such children, find the families to which they were transferred, and repatriate them to the territory of Ukraine, it will be necessary huge efforts, adds Rashevska. “We have a problem with identification – and this is the first problem facing the state that needs to be solved,” the lawyer said. Ukraine has already managed to identify 16,000 deported children. In 2022, 400 were sent to Russian families children – these data are available on the “Children of War” portal. “It is necessary to try to develop a single legal mechanism for the return of such children. We cannot wait a year or two until the end of the war, as certain children have already reached the age of 18, and for boys this means forced conscription into the ranks of the Russian army,” added Kateryna Rashevska. Human rights activists also noted that the Russians are taking children away under the pretext of “dispensation “which involves the medical intervention of Russian doctors. “Russian doctors came to the recently occupied territories and did certain things to our children. As a result of such dispensation, 70% of children on the territory of ORLO alone must receive medical intervention,” says Rashevska. The human rights activist adds that for “dispensation” the children will probably be deported to the territory of the Russian Federation. Also read: “Finally, we can speak Ukrainian”: they returned home another 16 children deported to the Russian Federation and Crimea



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