On December 29, a group of two dozen refugees from Chechnya and Ingushetia were expelled from Bosnia and Herzegovina to Turkey. As Kavkaz.Realii reported, they arrived in Sarajevo on December 28 and planned to seek political asylum in Croatia. Among them were men who fled Russian mobilization and members of their families.
On December 26, about 60 Chechen refugees with children accumulated on the border of Bosnia and Herzegovina with Croatia. All of them encountered problems leaving the country, they are threatened with deportation to Russia through Turkey, say human rights activists from Chechen organizations in Europe.
In early November, it became known that 50 Chechens were detained in Croatia. According to the Assembly of Chechens of Europe, some of them were subjected to violence, threats and insults.
“They don’t allow me to contact my family and lawyers, they put me under strong pressure, demanding that I sign a waiver of my asylum application, and then they deport me. We already know of four cases where people signed a waiver and were deported. Migrants found themselves in the same powerless situation as they were in Chechnya,” said Isa Daduev, a representative of the “Assembly of Chechens of Europe”.
According to him, the detained Chechens arrived in Croatia through the Balkans and did not intend to stay in the country: they planned to go further to Europe to visit their relatives and friends. They are being held in a deportation camp.
Following media reports, the office of the Croatian Ombudsman Tena Šimonović-Einwalter opened a case about migrants from Chechnya who faced discrimination on ethnic and religious grounds.
On November 21, a court in Croatia considered the case of one of the natives of Chechnya who came to the country and left him in custody for another three months - until the end of February. The man is suspected of involvement in Islamist extremist movements.
In the deportation prison of Austria there are also two natives of Chechnya who fled from Russia after receiving summonses to the military registration and enlistment office. They are planning to be returned to Croatia, from where they will likely be deported to their homeland. “People don’t want to be murderers, and Europe doesn’t accept them,” Roza Dunaeva, a representative of the unrecognized Chechen Republic of Ichkeria in Austria, commented on the situation.
Since the beginning of the so-called special operation in Ukraine, cases of deportation and refusal to provide asylum to Chechens with Russian citizenship fleeing mobilization have become more frequent in many European countries. The Romanian migration service especially distinguished itself. According to human rights activists, Chechens in Romania face deportation or arrest, even if they are not officially wanted by the special services, but are crossing Romania in transit.