Gisaev: Norway illegally denies asylum to Chechen refugees

The Migration Service of Norway continues passing unlawful refusals to refugees from Chechnya. This was reported by defender Ahmed Gisaev who lives in Norway.

According to the rights defender, the situation in Norway is complicated. "There are people of Ramzan Kadyrov (head of Chechnya, - note of the "Caucasian Knot") here and people from the FSB who spread all kinds of rumours. When coming to Chechnya on business, officials of the Migration Service communicate with Kadyrov; he arranges feasts for them. Norwegians observe the new buildings and come back home with the feeling of accomplished duties," Mr Gisaev told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent in his interview.

According to his story, in March, a mother with two children was expelled from Lillehammer; and not so long ago in Oslo, the police demanded from the wife of one of the refugees to appear to the police station with tickets for departures. "That is, they already demand from her to buy a ticket and fly away!" Gisaev was outraged.

"Earlier, they had taken away people to camps prior to exile, and then started in the judicial order to sort out, who was right and who was wrong. And it turned out that refugees were to blame. Now, they act wiser: pass refusals well in advance," the defender has added.

According to his data, within the last 18 months, the Migration Service of Norway received about 500 applications for political asylum; of them, only 20 were decided positively. "Refugees have lived in Norway since 1999. There are examples, when people are rejected; they appeal against refusals - and again all the time, along a circle," the rights defender concluded.

He said that one refugee from the Chechen village of Tsentoroi, the Kadyrov family village, was refused asylum, given that "the body of his murdered brother was kicked in front of TV cameras."

"The brother of this refugee 'went into the forest' after working in Kadyrov's private residence. Now, his brother is dead, and all his friends were kidnapped and tortured," said Gisaev.

"It turns out that people also suffer here, in Norway, because of their relatives. These are the people, defended by human rights advocates in Russia; many of them have already perished. And now - we see such decisions in Norway," the rights defender was perplexed.

Moreover, as he noted, the reports of human rights defenders, in particular, Dick Marty, a member of the Committee for Legal Matters and Human Rights of the PACE said that the atmosphere of fear now reigns in Chechnya. "Besides, there is a recommendation: to treat refugees from Northern Caucasus more leniently. But it is all ignored. Recently, the police began touring refugee camps and take people's photos; this is usually done two or three weeks before deportation," said Ahmed Gisaev.