Some German States Deporting Chechen Refugees

The German human rights organization Gesellschaft fuer bedrohte Voelker (“Society for Threatened Peoples;” website www.gfbv.de) warned in an April 22 statement that the authorities in several German states are moving to deport Chechen refugees back to Russia. Chechens living in the states of Hamburg, Lower Saxony and Bavaria face the threat of being “delivered to their persecutors in the Russian Federation,” said the statement. The organization called on the authorities to recognize that there is not an “interior refuge alternative” for Chechens – as is shown by the fact that five refugees deported from Germany to Moscow in recent months were arrested as soon as they arrived in Russia, and have yet to resurface.