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Lubbers visits Chechen refugees in an effort to draw attention to their plight
News Stories, 16 January 2002
MOSCOW, Jan. 16 (UNHCR) – In an effort to draw renewed attention to their plight, High Commissioner Ruud Lubbers Wednesday visited tent camps and refugees from war-ravaged Chechnya on the second day of a three-day visit to the Russian Federation.
Lubbers flew from Moscow to the southern Russian republic of Ingushetia, home to 150,000 refugees from neighbouring Chechnya. An additional 160,000 people are displaced within Chechnya itself.
"One of the reasons he's going is to put Chechnya back on the map," a UNHCR spokesman, Kris Janowski, said in Geneva ahead of the High Commissioner's visit.
The visit, Lubbers' first trip to Russia since he became High Commissioner one year ago, focused on the protection of refugees in Russia and the link between asylum and migration in the country.
"Our main request to Russia is that these people not be pushed back to Chechnya, which would be a huge security risk," Kris Janowski, a UNHCR spokesman, told a news briefing in Geneva Tuesday. "We want them to be able to stay in Ingushetia even though the situation there is not ideal."
"We think the Russian authorities share our position that Chechnya is not safe enough for people to go back," Janowski said.
On Tuesday Chechen refugees complained to a Council of Europe parliamentary delegation of poor food and living conditions in a tent city at Bart near Nazran, Ingushetia's major city, where the most of the refugees live.
Many of the displaced Chechens are spending their third winter in Ingushetia, with 15 percent of them living in tent camps, 21 percent in so-called spontaneous settlements such as converted farm or industrial buildings, and the remaining 64 percent with host families or in private accommodations.
Although UNHCR does not operate in Chechnya itself, it assists the displaced Chechens through legal and psychological counselling centres, provides shelter materials, and improves water and sanitation facilities in the tent cities.
Russia currently hosts about 21,000 recognised refugees and has integrated some 210,000 others from the former Soviet republics that now make up the Commonwealth of Independent States, according to UNHCR. In addition, some 6,000 persons have registered with the agency for asylum status in Russia.
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UNHCR country pages
Ingushetia: Internally Displaced Chechens
When fighting broke out between government troops and rebel forces in Chechnya in 1999, over 200,000 people fled the republic, most of them to the neighbouring republic of Ingushetia. Today, tens of thousands of Chechens remain displaced in Ingushetia, unwilling to go home because of continuing security concerns.
As of early December 2003, some 62,000 displaced Chechens were living in temporary settlements or in private accommodation. Those living in settlements face constant threats of eviction, often by owners who wish to use their buildings again.
Another 7,900 displaced Chechens live in tents in three remaining camps – Satsita, Sputnik, and Bart.
The authorities have repeatedly called for the closure of tent camps and the return of the displaced people to Chechnya. Three camps have been closed in the past year – Iman camp at Aki Yurt, "Bella" or B camp, and "Alina" or A camp. Chechens from the latter two camps who did not wish to go home were allowed to move to Satsita camp or other existing temporary settlements in Ingushetia.
Ingushetia: Internally Displaced Chechens
Displacement in Georgia
Tens of thousands of civilians are living in precarious conditions, having been driven from their homes by the crisis in the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia.
On the morning of August 12, the first UNHCR-chartered plane carrying emergency aid arrived in the Georgian capital Tbilisi, the first UN assistance to arrive in the country since fighting broke out the previous week. The airlift brought in 34 tonnes of tents, jerry cans, blankets and kitchen sets from UNHCR's central emergency stockpile in Dubai. Items were then loaded onto trucks at the Tbilisi airport for transport and distribution.
A second UNHCR flight landed in Tbilisi on August 14, with a third one expected to arrive the following day. In addition, two UNHCR aid flights are scheduled to leave for Vladikavkaz in the Russian Federation the following week with mattresses, water tanks and other supplies for displaced South Ossetians.
Working with local partners, UNHCR is now providing assistance to the most vulnerable and needy. These include many young children and family members separated from one another. The situation is evolving rapidly and the refugee agency is monitoring the needs of the newly displaced population, which numbered some 115,000 on August 14.
Posted on 15 August 2008
Displacement in Georgia
Vincent Cochetel interview
On the occasion of World Humanitarian Day 2010, a senior UNHCR staff member reflects on his experience being kidnapped near Chechnya in 1998.
UN High Commissioner Visits Georgia and Russia
UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres spent four days in Georgia and the Russian Federation to assess UNHCR's humanitarian operations and to speak with those affected by the recent fighting in the breakaway region of South Ossetia.