Significant deterioration of the situation could be observed in the pursuit of durable solutions: self-reliance, livelihoods and local integration opportunities of the refuge and asylum-seeking population in Ukraine. Economic problems in Ukraine, such as the devaluation of currency and increasing prices, continued to have a serious impact on refugees and asylum-seekers and to severely limit the potential for local integration. Many refugees and asylum-seekers reported that they either lost their jobs or earn much less than before. Business capacity of the largest markets in Odesa, Kharkiv and Kyiv where people of concerns are mainly employed has significantly shrunk. Many of the conflict-affect population, including those who were previously self-reliant, approached UNHCR for support in 2015.
Reception conditions remained poor, with two temporary accommodation centres in Odesa and Zakarpattya, and there was no increase in state funding allocation for their maintenance. For this reason, living conditions in these centres have deteriorated further. However, at the end of 2015, State Migration Service received state funding and renewed construction work for Yagotyn accommodation centre in Kyiv region, with the aim to open the centre in early 2016.
Although authorities renewed their efforts in some regions to re-establish working groups envisaged by the National Plan of local integration. Further efforts will be needed to achieve large-scale practical results. Without additional funding, UNHCR will not have the capacity to conduct local integration and self–reliance activities on the scale of the Regional Local Integration Project, which ended at the end of 2013. Nevertheless, UNHCR continued providing some assistance through a small business grants programme, although this could not respond to the level of needs.
While UNHCR continued to be involved in border monitoring of the implementation of readmission agreements, including through cooperation with IOM, lack of additional funding did not allow UNHCR to maintain its involvement at the same level as during the implementation phase of the Regional Protection Programme, which also ended in 2013.
Despite the political will of the central State Migration Service to improve the asylum system, due to the general political crisis, the recognition rate of 2015 dropped to 22 per cent compare to 37 per cent in 2014. Staff of Kyiv city and Odesa region migration services, which receive the largest numbers of applications in Ukraine, underwent significant staffing changes, losing many of the staff trained by UNHCR under QIEE Phase I. These changes negatively impacted the quality of RSD decision-making.