Migrants detained in Sochi complain of extremely bad custody conditions

In Sochi, courts pronounced decisions to deport from the country 14 people, citizens of Uzbekistan and Ukraine. However, instead of sending them to a special detention centre, the migrants were left in the unsuitable premises of the court marshal service, with no shower and no toilet. The detainees also do not get food, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

A message about the violation of the migrants' rights came to the SMS-service of the "Caucasian Knot". 14 citizens of Ukraine and Uzbekistan are kept in the city of Sochi, in No. 24a in Kirpichnaya Street, in a room of 12 square meters, the author of the SMS-message reported.

"They did not explain our rights to us. It took just several minutes from them to inform all of us about our deportation. No court's decisions were given to us. And then they put us in a closed room with bunk beds in the court marshal building. There are not enough places for us in bunk beds, since there are 14 of us already. We sleep on the floor, and they do not provide us with food. They say that it is not allowed. Those of us who have money are accompanied by warders to a night store, and we buy food there. Meanwhile, we are already short of money," the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told by Alisher Karimov, one of men, detained on December 18.

Advocate Mikhail Okhrimenko believes such treatment of people can be qualified as illegal deprivation of liberty. "Those people are not arrested or detained ... Placement of people to a room not suitable for living and refusal in their freely movement, feed, and use of toilet can be equated with torture. The investigating bodies and the Prosecutor's Office should verify those facts," Mikhail Okhrimenko commented on the situation.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.