Over 2,000 Ukrainians have been denied entry into Israel so far in the second half of 2023 and the situation is now critical, the Ukrainian Embassy in Israel told Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) on Aug. 22.

All in all, 2,705 Ukrainian citizens were denied entry in 2022, while 2,037 Ukrainians received refusals in the first half of 2023, Ukrainian diplomats said.

The diplomats claimed that Israel is deliberately manipulating statistics, claiming that only 5% out of 40,000 Ukrainians who sought to enter the country after the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion had been denied entry.

Read also: Ukraine may ‘suspend’ visa-free deal for Israelis, not ‘terminate’ it — UA Ambassador to Israel

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However, most of these 40,000 people had the right to Israeli citizenship, so they could not be denied entry a priori, the embassy stressed. Refusal only applies to Ukrainian citizens who are not eligible for an Israeli passport and are traveling to the country as tourists.

“The situation is escalating, with the number of refusals increasing. At the same time, we’re recording improper treatment of our citizens by Israeli migration service personnel,” the embassy said.

Read also: Israel to extend health and social benefits for Ukrainian refugees

Meanwhile, Israeli Interior Minister Moshe Arbel has refused to meet with the Ukrainian Ambassador, Yevgen Korniychuk, to discuss the situation, for over six months.

Ukraine’s diplomats in Tel Aviv have claimed they had twice turned to the Israeli Foreign Ministry seeking consultations on the implementation of the visa-free agreement, but “all our requests were ignored.”

As a result, Kyiv might suspend its visa-free travel regime with Israel in the coming days Korniychuk said on Aug. 21.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine