Families of Children with Disabilities Risk Being Denied Re-Exit from Ukraine — Lawyers Call to Review the Rules
For many Ukrainian families raising children with disabilities, traveling abroad for treatment, rehabilitation, or wellness becomes not only an emotionally challenging process but also a test due to bureaucratic procedures.
The National Association of Lawyers emphasizes that current border crossing rules impose additional requirements on such families, forcing parents to undergo complicated bureaucratic procedures, wait in lines at consulates, and risk difficulties with re-exiting Ukraine.
Consular Registration of Children with Disabilities: What Sparked the Disputes
This concerns the Rules for Crossing the State Border by Citizens of Ukraine, approved by the Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 57 dated January 27, 1995. In particular, the rules require the accompanying person to register the child with a disability at the consulate within seven days after traveling abroad.
According to lawyers, this requirement is not provided by law and is established only at the level of a subordinate act, raising questions about its compliance with the principles of legal certainty and proportionality.
What Difficulties Families of Children with Disabilities Face Abroad
Among the problems highlighted by lawyers and community representatives are long hours waiting in consular offices, difficulty accessing diplomatic missions, language barriers, and uncertainty about the correct processing of documents.
They also cited an example where a father of an adult child with a disability traveled abroad with the child for treatment, then returned to Ukraine while the child remained abroad with relatives. Later, the man was unable to leave again due to the specifics of the current border crossing procedure.
Lawyers Call to Simplify Travel Abroad for Children with Disabilities
Discussion participants stressed that subordinate acts should not create additional restrictions for certain categories of citizens. In their opinion, the consular registration requirements should comply with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, and the principle of the best interests of the child.
They also raised the issue of excessive bureaucratization of procedures for people with disabilities. According to lawyers and community representatives, access to treatment, rehabilitation, wellness, or travel abroad for children with disabilities should be as simple as possible and not accompanied by additional documentary barriers.
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