Chechen refugees

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During the inter-ethnic strife in Chechnya and the two separatist Chechen wars, hundreds of thousands of Chechen refugees have left their homes and left the republic for elsewhere in Russia and abroad.

Contents 1 In Russia 1.1 Ingushetia 1.2 Chechnya 2 Abroad 2.1 European Union 2.2 Other countries 3 References 4 External links

[edit] In Russia

The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) reports that hundreds of thousands of people fled their homes in Chechnya since 1990.^[1] This included majority of Chechnya non-Chechen population of 300,000 (mostly Russians, but also Armenians, Ingush, Georgians, Ukrainians and many more) who had left the republic in the early 1990s and as of 2008 never returned (it is hardly possible they would ever return).

Many ethnic Chechens have also moved to Moscow and other Russian cities. According to the 2008 study by the Norwegian Refugee Council, some 139,000 Chechens remained displaced in the Russian Federation.

[edit] Ingushetia

In the nearby republic of Ingushetia, at the peak of the refugee crisis after the start of the Second Chechen War in 2000, estimated 240,000 refugees almost doubled the Ingushetia's pre-war population of 300,000 (350,000 including the refugees from the Ingush-Ossetian conflict) and resulting in an epidemy of tuberculosis.^[2] Estimated 325,000 was the total number of people that have entered Ingushetia as refugees in the first year of the Second Chechen War.^[3] Some 185,000 were in the republic already by November 1999^[4] and 215,000 lived in Ingushetia by June of 2000.^[3] In October of 1999 the border with Ingushetia was closed down by the Russian military and a refugee convoy bombed after being turned away.

Thousands of them were pressured to return by the Russian military already in December 1999,^[5] and the refugee camps were forcibly closed after 2001 by the new Chechen government of President Akhmad Kadyrov and the new Ingush government of President Murat Zyazikov.^[6] About 180,000 Chechens remained in Ingushetia by February 2002^[7] and 150,000 by June 2002, most of them housed in a "tent city" camps, abandoned farms and factories and disused trains, or living with sympathetic families.^[8] As of early 2007, less than 20,000 Chechens remained in Ingushetia and many of them were expected to integrate locally rather than return to Chechnya.

[edit] Chechnya

As of 2006, more than 100,000 people remain internally displaced persons (IDP) within Chechnya, most of whom live in substandard housing and poverty. All official IDP centers in the republic were closed down and the foreign NGO aid severely limited by the government (including the ban of the Danish Refugee Council).

[edit] Abroad

Since 2003 there is a sharp surge of Chechen asylum-seekers arriving abroad, at a time when major combat operations had largely ceased. One explanation is the process of "Chechenization", which empowered former separatists Ahmed Kadyrov and his son Ramzan Kadyrov as the leaders of Chechnya (indeed, Chechen refugees indicated that they feared Chechen security forces more than Russian troops). Another explanation is that after a decade of war and lawlessness, many Chechens have given up hope of ever rebuilding a normal life at home and instead try to start a new life in exile.

[edit] European Union

In 2003, some 33,000 Russian citizens (over 90% of them presumed to be Chechens) applied for asylum in the European Union (EU), according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, making them the largest group of new refugees arriving in developed nations. Czech refugee camps were said to be "overhelmed" due to an overwhelming number of Chechen refugees crossing to the Czech Republic in 2003.^[9]

In Poland, almost 3,600 Chechens have applied for refugee status in the first eight months of 2007 alone and over 6,000 in the next four months.^[10][11] As of 2008, the Chechens are the greatest group (90% in 2007^[11]) of refugees arriving in Poland, on the eastern border of the EU, often treated as a transit country further west.

In the United Kingdom there is a large number of Chechen refugees. Some of them wanted by Russia for terrorism and other crimes; however, the UK government refuses to extradite them on grounds of concern for human rights. Some of the original Chechen separatist government figures relocated to the UK.

Thousands of Chechen families live in France; many of them in Nice, conflicted with immigrants from North Africa.^[12] As of 2008, thousands more are trying to get to France from Poland.^[13]

Austria granted asylum rights to more than 2,000 Chechen refugees in 2007. In January, 2008, Jörg Haider, a far right governor of Carinthia, called for a moratorium on giving them asylum blaming some already there for violence and sex crimes.^[14][15]

Thousands more settled in the other EU countries, in particular in Belgium (many in Aarschot), Norway, Sweden and Germany.

[edit] Other countries

Of 4,000 Chechens who have sought safety in neighbouring Georgia, the majority have settled in Pankisi Gorge and several hundred remain today. Of 12,000 Chechen refugees who arrived in Azerbaijan, most has moved on to Europe later (leaving some 5,000 in 2003^[16] and 2,000 in 2007^[17]). Both Azerbaijan and Georgia have extradited Chechen refugees to Russia in violation of their obligations under international law (the European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Georgia violated their rights).

Some 3,000 to 4,000 Chechens arrived in Turkey, of which most also moved on further, but as of 2005 some 1,500 stayed.^[18]

Ukraine is the main transit country for Chechen refugees traveling to Europe. Some other travel through Belarus.

A small, but growing Chechen community exists in the United States.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Chechen Refugees Fast to Decry War The Associated Press, June 22, 2001
• Guidelines on the Treatment of Chechen IDPs, Asylum Seekers& Refugees in Europe European Council on Refugees and Exiles
• Information on the Chechen refugee situation in Ingushetia in the late 2000 University of California, Sept. 10, 2000
• Poland: Chechen Refugees Grateful for Protection but Need Integration Support Refugees International, 12/06/2005
• Refugees and Diaspora Chechnya Advocacy Network, 2007
• The Plight of Chechen Refugees revisited Islamic Human Rights Commission, 21 March 2005
• The right not to return: the situation of displaced Chechens dispersed in the Russian Federation, Chechnya Advocacy Network, August 2003