AI urges authorities in European states to stop deportation of natives of Northern Caucasus

Authorities in European states must immediately halt the transfer of refugees and asylum seekers from Northern Caucasus back to Russia where they are at risk of torture and other ill-treatment, the “Amnesty International” (AI) has declared.

In its new research document published on the AI’s website, the human rights organization states that the authorities in Croatia, France, Germany, Poland, and Romania have or have attempted to extradite or deport asylum seekers who fled persecution in Northern Caucasus. Due to their religious identity, entire communities have been branded as “dangerous extremists” that pose an existential threat to national security of the European countries.

Nils Muiznieks, the director of the Amnesty International Europe Regional Office, has claimed that, despite claims “to have frozen all judicial cooperation with Russia” since the start of the special military operation (SMO) in Ukraine, “several European states are threatening to send people who fled persecution in Russia’s Northern Caucasus back to the very place where those abuses have occurred.”

The human rights situation in Northern Caucasus is dire, particularly in Chechnya. Anyone who expresses critical views, engages in human rights activism or is perceived to be a member of the LGBTI community risks being targeted, as well as their friends and family members, the AI states on its website.

The AI’s research document cites several cases of migrants from Northern Caucasus, in particular, the case of Daud Muradov. The French authorities had deported him and handed details of his asylum application containing the personal information of members of his family to the Russian authorities,” the human rights defenders report.

In February 2022, it was reported about the Daud Muradov’s death. In late 2021, he was transported to Grozny, where, according to the human rights defenders’ information, he was again tortured.

The risk of expulsion from France to Russia has increased substantially following the fatal stabbing of a schoolteacher in Arras by a man from Northern Caucasus on October 13, 2023.

The French authorities expelled Chechens to Russia at the slightest suspicion, and the mass expulsion stopped only with the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine, reported Pascale Chaudot, the head of the “Chechen Committee” in France.