Children affected by Chernobyl disaster prohibited to go to Ireland for recuperation

• 8.09.2008, 18:55

Belarusian authorities prohibited children who had been affected by Chernobyl nuclear power station disaster to go to Northern Ireland for rest and recuperation.

It has been informed by RIA Novosti with a reference to BBC. According to the British agency, this decision is connected with the recent loud incident when a Belarusian girl Tatsyana Kazyra, who had arrived to the US for summer holidays as a member of a group of children affected by Chernobyl catastrophe, refused to return back in her home country.

Then Belarus officially announced that programs for health improvement of Chernobyl victims in the US would be banned. BBC reminds that a few thousands of children affected by the nuclear accident visited the United Kingdom and Ireland in summer for rest and recuperation.

Many of them stayed in families of local residents, who took part in special “Chernobyl” programs. Paul Carlisle, the chairman of the Chernobyl Children's Project Foyle said he was shocked when he heard the news.

"It was quite a surprise, I got an e-mail stating the government had banned children from travelling for rest and recuperation."