Why Crimeans are refused refugee status in EU

Ukraine - Poland border crossing: photo - wikipedia

The refusal to grant refugee status does not come from a lack of a humanitarian response to the escalating Ukraine crisis, say officials, but due to the illegally annexed region still being part of a sovereign and democratic state, despite internal conflict and Russian intervention.

More and more from conflict stricken regions are seeking refuge in the European Union, however.

As Slawek Szefs reports, though host countries in the EU say they fully understand the motives behind the desperate decisions of the affected people to flee their homeland, certain criteria of granting asylum must be enforced, say officials

“There are no procedures for automatically granting these persons asylum in any country, simply on the basis that they come from Crimea," Interior Minister Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz told Polish Radio.