PARIS: Amnesty International urged European countries, including France, to cease the practice of returning refugees from the North Caucasus to Russia, highlighting the potential dangers of torture or coercion into participating in the conflict in Ukraine, as stated on Thursday.
France is urging for the expulsion of additional individuals from the Muslim-majority North Caucasus in Russia, the ancestral homeland of the radical Islamists responsible for the deaths of French teachers Samuel Paty in 2020 and Dominique Bernard in October of the previous year.
“It is scandalous that despite claims to have frozen all judicial cooperation with Russia following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, several European states are threatening to send people who fled persecution in Russia’s North Caucasus back to the very place where those abuses have occurred,” said Amnesty International’s Europe director Nils Muiznieks.
The report highlighted that authorities in several European nations, such as France, Germany, Poland, Croatia, and Romania, have either attempted or successfully sought to repatriate refugees or asylum seekers who fled persecution in the North Caucasus.
Although Russia engaged in two wars in Chechnya, the North Caucasus region, encompassing Ingushetia and Dagestan, is currently more stable, despite occasional attacks from a persistent Islamist insurgency. Activists contend that widespread rights abuses, including torture, arbitrary detention, and enforced disappearance, persist, especially in Chechnya under the leadership of strongman Ramzan Kadyrov. The situation has reportedly deteriorated significantly since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
