THE SITUATION WITH REFUGEES IN RUSSIA

The legal framework of the Russian Federation (RF) includes: Resolution "On Joining the Geneva Convention and Protocols Regarding the Status of Refugees" passed by the Supreme Council of Russian Federation in November 1992.

• Law "On Refugees", 19 February 1993.
• Law "On Forced Migrants", 19 February 1993.
• Law "On Citizenship", 17 June 1993.
• Law "On the Citizens' Right for Freedom of Movement", 25 May 1993.

In accordance with the laws on refugees and forced migrants there is a difference between these two groups: forced migrants are the citizens of Russian Federation and as such they enjoy certain privileges. The law does not discriminate between the refugees /forced migrants from the former USSR and those from other foreign countries.

As a rule, the authorities apply the term 'forced migrants' to those who found the compact settlements on the territory of the Russian Federation, irrespective of their citizenship. The authorities also recognize as refugees and forced migrants only those persons who were lucky enough to get the special certificate confirming their status from the migration service.

In this paper we shall call "a refugee" every person, who conforms to the Convention of 1951. The latter says that a person should be treated as 'a refugee' not on the reason that he/she was recognized as such by the authorities but due to the fact of his being the refugee.

Here Are Some Figures

Total number of refugees and forced migrants from the former USSR in the Russia Federation

611220

Among them:

in Moscow	8967
in Moscow oblast	6694
From other foreign countries	46572

/Data given by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the RF, February 1994/

Some figures concerning the refugees and forced migrants in Moscow

	men 32% women 49% children 18%	Among them:		Armenians 56% Russians 29% Georgians 6%

Sources of migration:

Azerbaijan 68% Abkhasia 13% Georgia 5% Central Asia 6% (60% from Tadjikistan) Baltic states 1,5%

The total number on 5 January 1994 for refugees registered at Moscow hotels and dormitories was 3600.
(Information given by the Administrative Department of Migration, and the Department of Labor and Employment of the Moscow Government)
All above figures do not include people who were not recognized as refugees. (Georgian community fixed 30 000 refugees from Abkhasia which were refused to be registered by Moscow authorities).

4. General Violations of the Refugee's Rights

4.1. There is a gap between the refugee's status in Russia and international standards. Persons recognized as refugees are registered by the regional migration services. These services give them a certificate, which should be renewed periodically. The period of validity for such a certificate is determined by the regional authorities, which may deprive a refugee of his rights refusing to prolongate his certificate. Besides these services often refuse to register the application for the refugee's certificate and refuse to formulate their decision in written form.

4.2. Regional migration services are not subordinated to the FMS. They are under the jurisdiction of the local authorities, so they are much more interested in the execution of their bosses orders then in their wards' well being.

4.3. Persons fled from their native countries (former Soviet Republics) because of the political prosecutions are not recognized as refugees.

4.4. Some resolutions and decrees violate the RF laws. For example: Moscow Government Resolution #637 says that every refugee arriving in Moscow must pay 10% of the minimal salary daily, up to the day of his being registered as a refugee. In practice, there have been many refuses in registration since 1991. RF Government Decree #1049 (13 October 1993) and Moscow Government Decree #1122 (7 December 1993) have been used as a base for the attempt to expel refugees from Moscow hotels. (Only public protests and the company in mass media helped refugees to keep roof over their heads temporarily). Moscow Government Resolution #656 (14 April 1994) forbids to register refugees in case they don't have close relatives in Moscow.

4.5. There is no information about the existing area for refugees' settling, about the possible working places and dwellings in different regions . All this leads to the increase in number of the refugees concentrated in Moscow.

4.6. Government does not help refugees to build the compact settlements. Local authorities prevent refugees from receiving the land, building materials, and so on. Migrants can get only very small credits that inflation swallows in a jiffy.

5.Individual Violations of the Refugee's Rights

5.1. The recognition of the old people who arrive to stay with their adult children as refugees is prohibited. As a result these senior persons find themselves deprived of pensions and medical service.

5.2. Authorities in Moscow oblast began to get rid of refugees as it is done in Moscow. There refugees' displacement is carried out easier, because the majority of human rights organizations are located in Moscow. The local authorities are less sensitive to the public opinion than their colleagues in Moscow. The courts pass the resolutions about moving refugees out without giving him another shelter. In the courts the FMS personnel support the demand to expel those refugees if who refused once or twice to move over to the ecologically unsafe areas, peat bogs, or the buildings unfit for living.( Often such places are proposed to the nontransportable invalids, senior persons or single mothers with small children).

5.3. If the office or the factory supplies the refugee with an apartment the local authorities refuse to grant him the ' propiska'. (You cannot owe a residence without a 'propiska' in Russia.)

5.4. A refugee cannot get 'propiska' in the flat he has bought.

5.5. Refugees are not allowed to repair for their needs the empty dormitories and unfinished buildings, numerous in Moscow and its vicinity.

5.6. There is a secrete instruction prohibiting to employ refugees.

5.7. The FMS has no any premises for the temporary settling of refugees.

5.8. Non-governmental organizations were refused to have a meeting with Moscow Mayor Ju. Luzhkov to discuss the refugees' problems.

5.9. The FMS refused to show to the non-governmental organizations such its documents as:

1. list of dwellings for refugees it owes at the current moment,
2. list of areas that are ready to accept refugees and are suitable for their settling.

5.10. Sometimes regions reject refugees sent to them by the FMS.

5.11. It is practically impossible for a refugee to acquire the Russian citizenship, because he cannot get it without the 'propiska'.

5.12. Refugees residing in the hotels and dormitories live in constant stress under the threat of forced displacement.

5.13. 14 journalists from Central Asia victims of political persecution in their native countries are not registered in Moscow as refugees in spite of the help of international human rights organizations.

So it is obvious that the RF laws on refugees and forced migrants do not work;the 'propiska' abolished by the law exists; the state fails to accomplish its obligations toward the refugees, and even more, it acts as their prosecutor.