Ask Amnesty

From Patty:

I read that some countries were returning refugees from the war in Chechnya. Over all how would you describe the international community's attitude to Chechen refugees?

Eliza Moussaeva and Bela Tsugaeva are two human rights defenders from Chechnya who have recently completed a tour in the US

Yes, we have received information about countries returning refugees back to Chechnya. We think it is because some foreign countries do not want to make Russia angry by interfering in this issue, which Russia considers to be an internal affair. Unfortunately, very often economic interests prevail over humanitarian ones and that is why some countries prefer to conclude a number profitable agreements with Russia rather than to accuse it of atrocities against a small nation, whose territory is even difficult to find on the map. Nevertheless, a number of countries have given refuge to Chechen refugees and provided them with facilities and shelter in refugee camps. Among them are: Belgium, Holland, France, Denmark, Norway and some other countries. As for Germany, it also hosts Chechen refugees in camps, but after a meeting with Mr. Putin, where a number of mutually profitable agreements were signed, we received reports that some Chechen refugees were deported from Germany.