Human rights defenders criticize EU countries for deporting Chechen refugees

In the European countries, the police break into houses of Chechen refugees at night, take them away to some unknown destination, deprive them of medical aid, and ignore court decisions. Thus, the police actions echo the methods used by the Russian special services in Northern Caucasus, human rights defenders claim.

The French authorities changed their attitude towards refugees from Chechnya after in the autumn of 2020, in a suburb of Paris, a native of the Chechen Republic killed a teacher who showed his students the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad during a lesson. However, as a result, the people, for whom returning to Chechnya is fraught with torture and imprisonment, are suffering from the situation, the Human Rights Centre (HRC) “Memorial”* reports on its website today.

“For the deportation of a native of the Caucasus to homeland, it is now enough to suspect that a person is associated with terrorist groupings or involved in the conflict in Syria,” the human rights defenders emphasized.

According to the human rights defenders’ release, in the European countries, the police violate both the laws of their countries and international norms. “One gets the impression that the law enforcement bodies of the European states have adopted the worst methods used by the Russian special services in Northern Caucasus. The police force their way into apartments at night, take refugees away to some unknown destination, refuse them in contacts with relatives and lawyers, lie about their whereabouts, deprive them of medical care, and force them into a plane, thus violating the laws of their own country and ignoring court decisions,” the HRC “Memorial”* reports.

* The organization is included by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) in the “Register of non-profit organizations performing the functions of a foreign agent”.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on June 25, 2021 at 12:23 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.