Finland: DPR fighter's family fear for lives after being denied asylum in Finland

Tatyana Imatova, a refugee from eastern Ukraine and wife of a fighter from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR/DNR), was filmed together with her family in Vantaa, Tuesday, after she had received a letter from the Finnish authorities denying her asylum in Finland and stating their intention to deport her and her child to Kiev. Along with her seven year-old son, Imatova left eastern Ukraine to escape the conflict, hoping to find shelter in Finland, while her husband stayed to fight within the ranks of the DPR. The young mother explained that the decision to deport both herself and her son was based on the fact that the Administrative Court of Helsinki saw "no military conflict" in East Ukraine. Imatova explained that a return to Ukraine would threaten both her son's life and her own, stating that "my return with my son can turn out to be very dangerous for me, as I might get killed. The SBU [Security Service of Ukraine] of course will persecute me. So will the Ukrainian radicals." As of May 2015, the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR estimated that the number of internally displaced people in Ukraine has reached 1.3 million. The total number of Ukrainians who have sought asylum or other forms of legal stay in neighbouring countries such as Russia, Belarus, Poland, the Baltics and Finland is estimated at around 857,000 people, while at least 6,334 people have been documented as killed and 15,752 as wounded, according to the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).