Norwegian authorities to ban travels to homeland to refugees from Chechnya who received their residence permits

On February 25, the leaders of the Chechen Diaspora in Norway held a rally near the Norwegian parliament against mass deportation of Chechen refugees to Russia. For those immigrants from Chechnya who obtained their residence permits in this country, a ban will be introduced on visits to their homeland.

The appeal, which was spread among the refugees from Chechnya before the rally, its organizers urged their compatriots to oppose the forced deportation of Chechens.

The movement against mass deportations got intensified after a month ago 50 Chechens were deported from Norway; earlier their political asylum applications had been rejected; and they remained in the country illegally. Many of them had already been repeatedly rejected and had deportation statement in hand.

"Mostly, those people are rejected, who have no documents or whose documents were obviously forged. Usually, they are those, who had problems in Russia with the law, and who tried to escape justice," Musa M., who lives in Norway for three years and has his residence permit, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. "Those of us, who were rejected asylum and have no offences, go home by themselves, not waiting for deportation."

According to Musa, last year asylum and residence permits in Norway were granted to several Chechen militants, who fought against Russian troops. "After they learnt here that those guys were militants, the local TV was just talking about it all the time - it was a great scandal," he said.

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told at the Migration Department of Norway, the authorities of this country hope that the trend of Chechens' voluntary return to Chechnya will continue. The Norwegian authorities are ready to support such people financially, if they address the Department in due advance and state their decision to return home.