Immigrants from Chechnya living in Ingushetia get ready for congress

On May 4, in the city of Grozny, the office of the expert of the Moscow Helsinki Group (MHG) for Northern Caucasus hosted a conference of representatives of forced migrants, who made a decision to hold, on June 1 in Nazran, a congress of forced migrants from Chechnya with the aim to discuss the problems of their return home.

According to Aslambek Apaev, the MHG expert, the conference had 19 participants who represented temporary accommodation centres (TACs) of forced migrants from Chechnya in Ingushetia and the so-called "hostels for persons in need of improvement of housing conditions", as they now prefer to call former TACs of Chechen refugees.

"We plan to invite to this congress officials from Russian President's administration, a number of federal ministries, leaders of Chechnya and Ingushetia, well-known human rights and public figures, in particular, Liudmila Alekseeva and Svetlana Gannushkina," said the human rights activist. "People hope that the congress will help solving at least some of the existing problems and remove tension around TACs."

According to Mr Apaev, currently the territory of Ingushetia may house about seven thousand forced migrants from the Chechen Republic. Most of them hire their dwelling rooms in private houses.