ERRC: New research to show Romani children likely among the thousands Russia has abducted from Ukraine

The children are being detained in 43 adoption and re-education facilities in occupied Crimea and on the Russian mainland. At least 32 camps previously used for recreation are now being used for a political re-education of their minor prisoners that is systematic, where adolescents are subjected to military training and programs promoting Russian patriotism, while the other facilities serve for the interim housing of children to be adopted or placed into foster care in Russia.

That number could be even higher: The Prosecutor-General of Ukraine, Andriy Kostin, has said his teams have documented more than 14,000 minors from Ukraine who have been forcibly adopted by residents of Russia, calling the process that is underway a “direct policy aimed at demographic change by cutting out Ukrainian identity”, characteristic of the crime of genocide. In July, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi expressed unease over the fact that children had been removed from orphanages in the Donbas in the east of Ukraine and “forcibly deported” to Russia.

Concerns have also arisen that Moscow is “modifying existing legislation” to accelerate the process. The Foreign Ministers of Germany and the Netherlands have condemned Russia for what they call a “cruel” and “inhumane” policy that “is tearing families apart”.

Soon-to-be-released research by the ERRC indicates that Romani children who were in state care in Ukraine at the time of the full-fledged invasion are among these “stolen children”. Unaccompanied minors and children from institutional care are more at risk of illegal adoption in Russia.

Due to the lack of data disaggregated by ethnicity, it is impossible to report an exact number, but given the high proportion of Romani people living in areas such as Donetsk and Luhansk and the general overrepresentation of Romani children in state care, “it is extremely likely that there were Romani children in the child care institutions in the occupied territories and a strong likelihood that many have been deported to Russia.” The ERRC report “In Time of War: Romani Children in State Care in Ukraine” will provide a comprehensive account of what happened to these children in the chaos of full-scale war.

The absence of clear procedures approved by the Government in the first weeks following Russia’s full-fledged invasion of Ukraine resulted in uncoordinated responses, such as untimely evacuations or failure to evacuate institutions close to combat zones or occupied territories, as well as the instant return of children to their family homes without prior risk assessment. Maryna Lazebna, Ukraine’s former Minister of Social Policy, has criticized these institutions for the mistakes they made in association with Russia’s full-fledged invasion: “Some managers of institutions where children are kept around the clock refuse to transfer them to safe places [and] do not coordinate their actions with regional military administrations and central executive authorities.”

“This is not an issue that can be debated,.” the ex-minister said. “Children must be protected.”

The tragedy is that many of these minors were not evacuated in time and remained on territory occupied by Russian soldiers. Some children were returned to their parents, who then missed the opportunity to evacuate in time from cities that fell into the hands of the occupiers just a few days after the full-fledged invasion was underway.

However, most of the Romani children in orphanages and other state facilities were either evacuated to other facilities and institutions in parts of Ukraine that were safe at the time or were evacuated abroad. They face the same problems as other minors in state care: Limited access to education, poor living conditions as a result of overcrowding, and a lack of quality care.

Evacuation abroad is risky for all vulnerable children, including the many Romani children for whom this was the likely outcome, because it is highly probable that they will be considered stateless. The European Parliament, in its resolution on protecting children and youth fleeing Russia’s war on Ukraine, has stated that these “children in forced migration are at increased risk of statelessness due to issues linked to obstacles to birth registration in their country of origin or during displacement and a lack of recognition of their parents’ statelessness; whereas this risk is exacerbated for unaccompanied children in view of obstacles to documentation and registration, including lack of proof of family links.”

The outlook for thousands of children abducted from Ukraine by the Russians remains grim. The authors of the report from Yale have ascertained that this criminal operation is being centrally coordinated by the Government of the Russian Federation, and that all levels of the state administration are involved in both its functioning and its justification in political terms; that parents are unable to access information about their children, including their state of health and where they are living; and that it is not exactly known how many children from Ukraine remain in captivity in Russia.