The flow of refugees to Russia increased significantly in recent years.

Refugees are mainly coming from Afghanistan, Egypt, Syria and the countries of Central Asia.

In an interview with “Jarayon”, Yelena Ryabinina, prominent Russian human rights activist, head of the program “Right to asylum” of the Human Rights Institute, tells about people seeking asylum in Russia and the challenges they face in this country.

Jarayon: Ms Ryabinina, we know that in the past few years, you have been actively engaged in the protection of the rights of refugees, most of whom are citizens of the countries of Central Asia. We know that your efforts helped in suspending extradition of several Uzbek refugees from Russia, who would be imprisoned and tortured in their home country.

Recently, there has been a lot of hype around the case of a former U.S. intelligence officer Edward Snowden, who also asked for asylum in Russia.

Could you tell us who is now seeking asylum in Russia, except Snowden, and what is their fate in this country?

Yelena Ryabinina: The program “Right to asylum” of the Human Rights Institute, which I am leading, is engaged in providing legal assistance to refugees from Central Asia, only from there, as it is the specificity of our program. It is related to the fact that it is impossible to “know a lot about all the sciences,” and the work with refugees requires a good command of the regional geographic information on countries of origin of applicants.

We did manage to protect many of them from forcible return to their country of origin, where they face politically motivated persecution and torture. Over the past four years, we managed to secure the release from extradition arrest of about fifty refugees, but the success in many of these cases is not yet definitive – several cases still require a lot of work, situation is changing rapidly, and, unfortunately , not for the better.

As for those who seek asylum in Russia, “besides Snowden” (I am being ironic, because Snowden, without a doubt, is a political refugee, but his case is not relevant at the moment) there are a lot of different categories. They are Afghan refugees, whose problems are still not solved, although was formed a whole generation of those, who had been evacuated from Afghanistan as a child and had lost all ties with the country of origin. They are refugees from Egypt – Copts, who are persecuted at home because of their religion. They are Syrian refugees, for whom repatriation is equal to a death. And of course, people whom I work with – refugees from the countries of post-Soviet Central Asia, in the first place – from Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

Jarayon: Recently, the border guards of the Moscow airport “Domodedovo” wanted to extradite refugees from Andijan region of Uzbekistan – Zulhumor Alijonova and her four small children –from Russia to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. The young mother and her children were kept in very difficult conditions at the police station for entire week, and then in a deportation zone of the airport. Employees of “Domodedovo” did not allow Zulhumor take warm clothes from her suitcase, including a blanket for the children. As a result, her four small children, the youngest of whom is only three years old, had to use only one blanket at nights.

Due to the efforts of the Moscow-based human rights defenders, airport border guards stopped persecuting the Uzbek family, and they were able to enter the territory of Russia.

However, in the case of Edward Snowden, Russian authorities said that he would stay in the transit area of ​​the airport “Sheremetyevo” for as long as one of the countries gives him a political asylum.

What do you think, why Russia “opens its arms” to one refugees, and expels others from its territory by force, despite the difficult situation of these people?

Yelena Ryabinina: In case of Zulhumor Alijonova, extradition was not a matter (extradition is the official process of transferring a person from a requested state to a requesting state for criminal prosecution or punishment), as it was a non-admission to the Russian territory and, therefore, the subsequent deportation. Fortunately, colleagues managed to prevent such a development.

As for the reasons, for which Snowden was welcomed with open arms, and the vast majority of refugees in Russia have no chance of getting asylum – here, in my opinion, everything is obvious. Russia, when addressing these issues, considers the country’s geopolitical interests, although the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees states that providing asylum is an exceptional humanitarian act and cannot be regarded or used as an unfriendly act of one country against another.

Jarayon: Ms Ryabinina, observers have noted that in recent years many citizens of Uzbekistan had to leave the country for various reasons. And many of them are seeking asylum in neighboring countries, mainly Russia.

Do you agree with these data? If so, which category these people belong to, for what reasons they leave Uzbekistan and come to Russia?

Yelena Ryabinina: The flow of refugees from Uzbekistan for past ten years, at least, never stopped, its intensity varied, but always remained significant. People are forced to seek asylum because of the persecution in their homeland. The reasons for refugees to leave their homes also varied at different periods of time.

For example, at the end of 2004, there were a lot of “classic” political refugees – the opposition and human rights activists, who were forced to leave the country due to the intensification of repression during the parliamentary elections.

Year of 2005 – Andijan events, and that says it all. The flow of these refugees lasted for next few years, gradually becoming lesser.

Year of 2009 gave a new wave of refugees – after the terrorist attacks in Khanabad and several high-profile attacks that occurred in Uzbekistan in the summer of the same year, the authorities started persecution of Muslims. This repressive process, which has been going on for more than fifteen years, never stopped. On the contrary, it is taking more rigid forms that reach the point of absurdity at times.

Jarayon: What international commitments and conventions are violated by the Russian authorities against refugees, particularly those who had fled from Uzbekistan?

Yelena Ryabinina: A lot of them, and not only in relation to Uzbek refugees – Tajik and Kyrgyz refugees are also treated the same way. For example:

Article 3 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, Article 3 of the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Article 7 of the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights – all of these norms categorically prohibit torture and accordingly, the forced return of people to countries where they may be subjected to prohibited treatment.

In addition, the authorities systematically violate Article 3 of the European Convention on Extradition, which prohibits the extradition of people persecuted for political reasons, and those, whose criminal prosecution is due to their ethnic or religious background.

Finally, Article 33 of the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, according to which asylum seekers cannot be forcibly returned to the country of origin before the end of the examination of their claims, including the period of appeal against negative decisions.

Jarayon: In recent years, there have been several cases when Uzbek refugees disappeared in Russia. Later they were found imprisoned in Uzbekistan. What do you think – do Russian secret services play a role in the disappearance of Uzbek refugees from the territory of Russia and what the local human rights activists and lawyers can do to prevent such incidents?

Yelena Ryabinina: I want to emphasize that the threat of abduction relates not only to the Uzbek refugees, but also to Tajik “religious people”, who are being exposed to the same level risk. Concerning the possible role of Russian special services in such abductions – I have no doubt they are involved in these cases, since without them one cannot take out the person without documents from the country on a plane, and all the abductees were taken out by air, although most of them had no documents allowing to cross the border.

The European Court established six times the Russia’s responsibility for such “disappearances” of people, who were later “found” in custody in Uzbekistan or Tajikistan. The last of these decisions was made ​​on November 7, and a week later another case will be considered. In all cases, the Strasbourg established that the forced displacement of the applicant from the territory of Russia to a country where they may face torture occurred “in a passive or active participation” of the Russian authorities.

The highest risk of being kidnapped is among the applicants of the European Court of Justice, whose expulsion and extradition is suspended or banned permanently by Strasbourg. It is quite clear, since others can be simply extradited or deported (legally they are different procedures, albeit with the same consequences for the people involved), and the person flies on a plane under the escort Uzbek or Tajik special services. As for the applicants under the protection of Strasbourg, there is no legal, quasi-legal and semi-legal ways to even send them to a requesting country. Therefore, the authorities use any means at their disposal to send the person to a country that seeks them for charges that are often politically motivated.

By the way, I think that these “operations” are organized at a considerable cost to the Russian budget. And needless to say that, in such circumstances, the only place where a citizen of Uzbekistan or Tajikistan, requested by these countries on politicized charges, has no risk of being on a plane Moscow-Tashkent or Moscow-Dushanbe with a bag on his head, is a place of their detention.

About what we can do – well, something we can do after all, otherwise the number of similar cases would be considerably higher. In April of this year, in one of our cases involving abduction (the applicant was illegally transferred to Tajikistan) Strasbourg made what can be named an outstanding decision: in case “Savriddin Djuraev against Russia” the Court ordered the Russian government to take the so-called general measures to provide security to applicants after their release. Since then, after each suspension by the Court to extradition or expulsion of the applicant, the Russian authorities must submit a monthly report to Strasbourg about the whereabouts of applicant.

In addition, starting spring of 2012 we have been actively working with the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, which is in charge of supervision of the execution of orders of the European Court of Justice. Recently, the Committee of Ministers issued a rather sharp resolution, pointing to the unacceptability of the current situation, in which the Court’s applicants are at risk to be kidnapped and illegally exported to countries requesting their extradition.

Let’s see how events will develop further.

Jarayon: Basically, you are engaged in the protection of the rights of Uzbek refugees. Have you come across with direct threats from representatives of the Uzbek authorities (security services) while protecting refugees from Uzbekistan?

Yelena Ryabinina: And again, I cannot say that I am “mostly” engaged with Uzbek refugees’ cases. The principle of selection of cases in our program is one – persecution on the grounds that relate to the criteria of “refugee.” Our applicant can be Uzbek, Tajik and Kyrgyz – it does not matter.

As for the direct threats, no, I did not get them, but I am clearly aware that everything I do is carefully observed by the special services of Russia and of the countries of origin of people, whom I work with.

Jarayon: MsRyabinina, thank you for the interview.

Interview prepared by Sofia DAVRONOVA