Samosely

The zone contains a number of abandoned towns and villages whose current population is made up of people who either refused to evacuate the area or secretly resettled in the relatively unprotected region after it was cordoned off.

The majority of the samosely are elderly people who made their home in the area prior to the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, although some are disaffected settlers from outside the region.

In 2012, the local administration unofficially granted permission to the elderly samosel to live in the area, but ordered all the younger inhabitants to move out.

[3] Also, a few families live in the city of Chernobyl illegally, after migrating from areas outside the Exclusion Zone to escape poverty.

Local administration is claiming that the squatters have occupied several houses in the city, without proper permission from the original owners.