Dozens of refugees and migrants from the Central Asia have been kidnapped in Russia last year.

Later the kidnapped people appearto be in detention in the countries of their origin accused of serious crimes of so-called religious articles of the Criminal Code.

In his interview with “Jarayon”,prominent Russian human rights defender Vitaly Ponomarev speaks about cases of immigrants from Central Asia, who fled their homelandsdue to threat of persecution for religious or political reasons, structures involved in kidnapping and international law standards to protect such individuals.

Jarayon: Mr.Ponomarev, the number of abductions of Uzbek and Tajik refugees and migrantsincreased in recent years in Russia. It seems that in the past such abductions caused strong response of human rights defenders, journalists and the public in general, but now, unfortunately, no-one is surprised by this phenomenon. Is this normal, do you think this should be accepted?

Vitaly Ponomarev: I agree with you that this topic is given insufficient attention. By the way, refoulement of refugees from Central Asia is exercised not only by abductions, but more often through extradition and administrative procedures, which are also accompanied by serious violations of international human rightsobligations. And not only citizens of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan suffer cases of refoulement, although in most cases they do. At the last OSCE Human Dimension session in Warsaw, I emphasized that refugees from Central Asialocated in the CIS countries face specific threats, and I suggested that the OSCE and other international organizations start monitoring cases of refoulement.

In Russia, the number of refoulement cases of Central Asian migrants, who fled their homelands because of threat of persecution for religious or political reasons, dramatically increased since the autumn of 2012. The number of incidents is so high that currently human rights organizations do not have sufficient resources to effectively work with such cases. Attention to the problem at the international level remains insufficient.

I would like to emphasize that all these processes take place in Russia against the background of rapid reduction of democratic freedoms. Human rights activists have become “foreign agents”, the Internet is censored, and the so-called “anti-extremist” legislation is noticeably being tightened, which is widely used to suppress dissidence…

In the future, exit visas may be introduced like in Uzbekistan. Government propaganda actively inflates “Islamophobia” and “Ukrainophobia”. It is clear that given a political background, not only incidents with refugees, but also some other traditional human rights topics are not reported by the media as often and loud as a few years ago.

Jarayon: Now, many human rights activists warn people in advance, in most cases, Uzbek citizens, who intend to go to Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstanseeking asylum, and advise them to go to a more secure country such as Turkey. But if somebody is still going to go to the above mentioned countries, in particular Russia, what does he or she need to fear in the first placenot to become a victim of abduction ofthe Uzbek security services?

Vitaly Ponomarev: Now I will not give any advice as before doing so I have to look in each individual case. And I will openly say that human rights defendersworking with refugees have different opinions on certain issues.

Jarayon: Mr. Ponomarev, it is common knowledge that almost all cases of abduction of refugees in Russia are conducted with active participation of FSB officers. But until today, none of them has been punished for abduction. How do you think one can make sure that FSB authorities answer for such crimes because kidnapping is real crimes committed by their employees.

Vitaly Ponomarev: The problem should be solved on the political level.

In this regard, it is important that at least investigationsof criminal cases filed in Russia after several cases of kidnappings of refugeesare completed. However, investigations of such cases challenge serious problems, in particular, impossibility to conductinvestigative actions with victims of abduction taken to Uzbekistan. If even it were possible to conduct questioning and identification on the territory of Uzbekistan, the authorities involved in abductions would have sufficient resources to influence positions of victims.

Jarayon: Are the international courts able to oblige the Russian authorities to make greater commitments to abductions of people, for example, to pay him or her some kind of compensations or secure his or her return to Russia?

Vitaly Ponomarev: If you mean the European Court of Human Rights, the Court makes decisions under existing procedures. The Court cannot oblige the Uzbek Government to something, which is not a party to the relevant international mechanisms, or imprison a FSB officer involved in illegal actions. As practice shows, Russia strictly pays compensations, reviewindividual cases, but when the matter is about systemic problems, as a rule, there is no adequate response.

Jarayon: Thank you for the interview, Mr.Ponomarev.

Interview prepared Sofia DAVRONOVA