In Norway, refugees from Chechnya continue complaining about refusals of asylum

The Migration Service of Norway continues passing refusals of asylum to refugees from Chechnya. It often happens that some Chechen family members are granted asylum, while other members are rejected. One of the refugees, who asked not to disclose his name for security reasons, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent about such case. Local rights defenders confirm that such cases are not unique.

"They want to deport me to deport to Russia, but I don't want to leave. I'm only 25 years old, not married; my mother and younger brother received residence permits. Another brother and father were lost in 2003 in the Vedeno District of Chechnya," says the refugee who wrote to the "Caucasian Knot" about his problem.

According to his story, he even lost the trial, where not everyone has chance to get. "The reason for refusal was that there was not enough evidence that it's dangerous for me to return. I'm in despair," he added. He is afraid to return to Chechnya, as his perished brother and father were militants; and the republic's authorities persecute those, whose relatives had gone to the forest.

"It's bad that he had lost the case," Akhmed Gisaev, a rights defender, who lives in Norway, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. "Now, he has little chance to stay in this country."

According to his story, this case, when one family member was allowed to stay in Norway, and another will be deported, is not unique. "Not so long ago such rejection was announced to mother with children, despite the fact that her husband was granted a residence permit," said Gisaev.

Ilyas Gerikh, a Chechen living in Norway, believes that matters with Chechen refugees here are pretty bad. "Since 2009, the Office for Refugees in Norway behaves negatively towards refugees from Chechnya. Recently, several families were deported; and I think it will continue, until there are changes made in laws on refugees," said Gerikh.

According to his story, not only Chechens face problems in Norway: "The same internal policy is pursued not only in relation to refugees from Chechnya, but also from other countries - from Somalia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and others; refugees from Iraq are also rejected and deported, like Chechens."

In his opinion, when he worked for two years as the chairman of the Chechen Diaspora in Norway (in 2007-2009), he noticed that the Migration Service of Norway made use, in making their decisions on natives from Northern Caucasus, only the information which was given by the official mass media of the Russian Federation.

"There is also the organization named 'Landinfo', which is to gather information about the Caucasus and provide this information to the Office for Refugees. This information is also quite scanty and not enough to thoroughly consider the cases of individual families of refugees from Chechnya, Ingushetia and generally from Russia," said Gerikh.

The source has stressed that the refugees who reach the court and pay a lot to lawyers usually win and receive asylum in this country.

"This proves that the Office for Refugees is working very badly. I think this is all due to the fact that the administration had changed its policy toward refugees in general. The flow of refugees after 2008 was very high, much higher than to other European countries. In order to cope with the flow, Norway toughly changed its policy and began deporting people," said Gerikh.

In his turn, Akhmed Gisaev noted that "it can't be concluded that information from 'Landinfo' is scanty." "The information is quite extensive and comprehensive, I've read their reports. Another matter is how it is used in practice by the State Migration Service. I can state, because I happen to visit the trials, that in refugees' cases it is not used integrally, but as quotes, torn out from the general context," he said.

Earlier, the Information-Analytical Agency "Landinfo" had answered to the request of the "Caucasian Knot" that they are an independent agency, engaged in collecting and providing objective and relevant information for employees of the Norwegian Immigration Directorate and the Office for Receiving Applications on Immigration.

"We do not participate in decision-making and do not express our opinions to decision-makers on whether it is safe for a particular person to return to a particular country or the region," the answer to the request said.

The analysts of the Agency are studying reports of local and international human rights organizations and maintain regular contact with sources in the regions. "We try to regularly travel to the regions and directly communicate with the sources. Unfortunately, in recent years, our access to the republics of Northern Caucasus is difficult. Our last visit there was in 2009. Also, last year we came to Moscow to talk with people who know the situation in the Caucasus," the "Landinfo" said.

According to the experts of the Agency, they are concerned about the human rights situation in Chechnya. "The war is over (with cancellation of the CTO regime in April 2009, - note of the "Caucasian Knot"), but we are very worried about regular raids of Kadyrov's forces aimed to find and liquidate militants. We believe that it's quite easy to suspect a militant in any human in Chechnya. We believe that rebels, people who help them (including with treatment), militants' relatives and rights defenders are at risk in Chechnya. Besides, we are closely watching the situation with women, whose position is quite vulnerable due to the Islamization conducted by Kadyrov," the experts of the "Landinfo" said, adding that they have no influence on the migration service.

The "Caucasian Knot" also sent a request to the Norwegian Migration Service to comment on the motivation for refusals given to refugees; so far, there is no response.