Everything about Chechen Refugees totally explained
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.
In Russia
The
Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) reports that hundreds of thousands of people fled their homes in Chechnya since 1990. 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'd 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.
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. Estimated 325,000 was the total number of people that have entered Ingushetia as refugees in the first year of the
Second Chechen War. and 215,000 lived in Ingushetia by June of 2000. 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, 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. About 180,000 Chechens remained in Ingushetia by February 2002 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. 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.
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).
Abroad
Since 2003 there's 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.
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.
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. As of 2008, the Chechens are the greatest group (90% in 2007 As of 2008, thousands more are trying to get to France from Poland.
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.
Thousands more settled in the other EU countries, in particular in
Belgium (many in
Aarschot),
Norway,
Sweden and
Germany.
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 and 2,000 in 2007). 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.
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.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Chechen Refugees'.
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