Refugees ordered to leave tent camp SatsitaRuslan Isayev, North Caucasus – The Ingush migration authorities recently notified the refugees in the tent camp Satsita that they must leave by June 1 as an official order was issued to close down the camp on that date. However, they did not present any document to back this up.
Adlan Daudov, head of the Public Council of Refugees, thinks this is just another example of the intimidation refugees have been subjected to for the past four years. "We’ve gotten used to it by now. Nevertheless, we’re not going to leave ... We have no place to go. There is no safety in Chechnya, not with houses being demolished there. And the places they offered to move us into in Ingushetia lack even the basic amenities that we have in our tents," he told our Prague Watchdog correspondent.
Yet some families, who were unable to take the pressure any longer, decided to leave. And according to Russian human rights defender Vladimir Shaklein, who was in Satsita a week ago, any refugee who refuses to return to Chechnya will be blackmailed into doing so.
“I’ve received dozens of petitions from Satsita asking that we protect the people from the threats of the authorities. They’ve been told that if they refuse to leave, their names will be removed from the restitution lists and they won’t get any compensation for loss of property sustained during the war. And there have also been threats that the electricity and gas will be shut off in the camp.
Parents are especially fearful of taking their teenage sons back to Chechnya. They could be accused of aiding the rebels and be arrested during mop-up operations,” stated Shaklein.
Another tactic they use is to focus on food products sold in the camp. Employees of the Interior Ministry's units that fight against economic crime come to the camp and buy some sample items. If they report that something illegal was going on, huge penalties are imposed on the guilty parties.
In Daudov’s opinion, this is all done just to force the refugees to leave the camp. And those who finally cave in and do leave, receive free transportation for themselves and their belongings, and are also offered small modular houses to live in. “However, these houses are made of cheap material and will not last long; after a rainy autumn they’ll collapse,” he added.
About 1,200 refugees from Bella, the camp that was closed down in the fall of 2003, now live in Satsita and all of them complained to the Russian Interior Ministry about the camp’s illegal shutdown. A Moscow district court ruled that the actions of the Ingush migration authorities were legal, but the verdict was overturned by the Moscow City Court, which will now retry the case.
If it turns out that Satsita will also be closed down, the refugees will file another lawsuit against the Ingush authorities.
(S/E,T) |
