VZCZCXRO7704
RR RUEHDBU
DE RUEHMO #0063/01 0140907
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 140907Z JAN 10
FM AMEMBASSY MOSCOW
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5908
INFO RUEHXD/MOSCOW POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUCNRCC/REFUGEE COORDINATOR COLLECTIVE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 MOSCOW 000063 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/12/2020 
TAGS: PHUM PREF SMIG AU NO RS SW PL
SUBJECT: IOM'S FACILITATION OF CHECHNYA RETURNS RISKS ITS 
CREDIBILITY 
 
REF: 09 WARSAW 1222 
 
Classified By: ACTING DEPUTY CHIEF OF MISSION SUSAN ELLIOTT, REASON 1.4 
 (B AND D). 
 
¶1. (C) Summary:  In collaboration with the Austrian 
government, the International Organization for Migration 
(IOM) started a pilot project in November 2009 that assists 
voluntary returns and reintegration for migrants returning 
from Austria to Chechnya.  IOM also continues to aid returns 
from other European countries to Chechnya under the 
organization's broader facilitation of returns to the Russian 
Federation.  Representatives of international organizations, 
representatives of nongovernmental organizations, and private 
citizens expressed compelling concerns to us that returnees 
to Chechnya face serious risks of physical and economic 
insecurity.  End Summary. 
 
------------------------------------------ 
Between a Rocky Europe and a Hard Chechnya 
------------------------------------------ 
 
¶2. (SBU) Under the direction of sending countries in Europe, 
IOM implements voluntary assistance to migrants returning 
from Europe to Russia.  The flow of IOM-assisted migrants 
returning from Europe to the North Caucasus has increased 
from 621 in 2007 to 1,688 in January-September 2009.  In 
response to this increased migration flow, IOM developed a 
comprehensive voluntary return and reintegration assistance 
pilot project for migrants from Austria to Russia's Chechen 
Republic.  The goal of the program is to provide these 
migrants with pre-departure counseling, post-return 
assistance, and financial support to ensure their successful 
reintegration in their native republic. 
 
¶3. (SBU) European countries granted asylum or residence 
permits on humanitarian grounds to fewer Chechens in 2009 
than in previous years, thus creating demand for support for 
return as a durable solution.  Seija Saarelainen, an 
Immigration Attache at the Norwegian Embassy in Moscow, told 
us on October 16 that from January to September 2009 more 
than 90 percent of Russian asylum seekers in Norway were from 
Chechnya, and Norway granted asylum or residence permits to 
13 percent of all Russian asylum seekers.  Saarelainen told 
us that the asylum seekers who are denied asylum or a 
residence permit usually appeal the decision, and since the 
appeal process is lengthy she did not know what would happen 
to any of those who were denied their appeals in 2009.  Per 
Hedqvist, an analyst for the Swedish Migration Board, told us 
December 3 that 111 failed asylum seekers with Chechen 
registered as their native language have returned from Sweden 
to Russia this year; the Swedish Migration Board does not 
register ethnicity or specific Russian region of return. 
 
¶4. (C) For some Chechens, returning to Chechnya is the best 
choice among few options.  An internal IOM report given us 
November 5 indicated that one of the reasons people choose to 
return is "pending deportation to Poland as a result of the 
Dublin II Regulation."  (Note:  Reftel reports on grave 
economic and protection concerns for Chechens in Poland that 
led to a tense December 15 stand-off between refugees and 
border guards there.  End Note.)  Aslanbek Isayev, an ethnic 
Chechen who works as a lawyer in Chechnya, told us November 
19 that he "know(s) people who are in Europe who meet the 
criteria for the voluntary return program, and they are 
worried about their future.  They see two possibilities:  the 
first is that there are no perspectives for building a future 
in Europe, and the second is that they are not sure what will 
happen if they return to Chechnya." 
 
-------------------------------------- 
Returnees' Physical Safety in Question 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶5. (C) Refcoord contacts in international and nongovernmental 
organizations expressed misgivings about the feasibility of 
stable reintegration for returnees.  Their first concern is 
about risks to the migrants' physical safety.  Kameta 
Saidova, an ethnic Chechen staff member of the Humanitarian 
Aid Department of the European Commission (ECHO) Moscow 
office, commented November 18 that "the situation is 
difficult.  One hears of cases of disappearances, and 
allegedly the disappearances are not necessarily linked to 
participation with the rebels or other parties. . . .I would 
not advise someone to return if he or she asked my opinion." 
 
¶6. (C) Private citizens are also wary of the prospects for 
people returning to Chechnya.  An ethnic Chechen referred to 
us by ECHO's Saidova told us November 25, "The situation in 
Chechnya is absolutely unpredictable.  You cannot plan 
anything, and you do not know whether there will be a next 
 
MOSCOW 00000063  002 OF 003 
 
 
morning."  This individual grew up in Chechnya but left with 
his family 10 years ago and now lives in Moscow; he continues 
to visit Chechnya occasionally but does not plan to move out 
of Moscow in the foreseeable future.  He told us that his 
wife and cousins, who are also ethnic Chechens living in 
Moscow, are not willing to move back to Chechnya either. 
 
¶7. (C) Absence of protection entities to care for the 
returnees adds to concern for their physical safety.  It has 
been over a year since the last time UNHCR asked the GOR to 
allow it to open an office in Grozny to monitor returns; 
previously it received repeated refusals.  The leading 
protection NGO in Chechnya, Memorial, only recently resumed 
its work in Chechnya following a months-long shutdown 
necessitated by security concerns.  Memorial will proceed 
with great caution, having suffered the loss of its foremost 
activist in the republic, Natalya Estemirova, who in July was 
kidnapped and murdered, apparently with official complicity. 
Without close monitoring of the situation on the ground in 
Chechnya, IOM can only have incomplete information about the 
return environment.  Tainamat Saidulaeva, an ethnic Chechen 
ECHO Moscow office staff member, told us November 18, "The 
current security situation is not very good.  People working 
in Chechnya for organizations defending human rights are not 
willing to lend them (returnees) protection. . . .They 
themselves do not feel protected enough."  Lamenting 
Memorial's lengthy shuttering, Allison Gill, director of 
Human Rights Watch in Russia, told us November 25, "Since 
July 15, Human Rights Watch does not know what is going on in 
Chechnya.  That should give any asylum officer pause about 
sending people back." 
 
¶8. (C) Chechen migrants with ties or suspected ties to 
alleged insurgents are highly vulnerable to violence in case 
of return.  According to newspaper reports, a Chechen 
wrestler who had been living in exile in Azerbaijan, Artur 
Dugzayev, was killed by security forces November 5 in Grozny 
for an alleged link to rebels.  Leyla Nugmanova, Senior 
Protection Officer at UNHCR Baku, told us November 17 that 
Dugzayev, 20, was traveling to Chechnya to visit relatives 
and earn money.  Nugmanova reported, "The family believes 
that this happened solely due to his kinship with a Chechen 
family that was and continues to be in strong opposition to 
the present regime."  Extrajudicial punishments are of course 
not unusual in Chechnya.  A July 2009 Human Rights Watch 
report, for example, catalogs 26 cases of punitive home 
burnings that can be attributed to Chechen law enforcement 
personnel between June 2008 and June 2009.  The report 
observes, "All the affected families whose homes were burned 
are close relatives of alleged insurgents.  The impunity for 
those who carried out destruction of their homes has been 
absolute." 
 
--------------------------------------------- - 
Housing and Economic Uncertainty for Returnees 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
¶9. (C) Returnees to Chechnya will also face the challenge of 
securing long-term shelter.  IOM is aware of this problem, 
acknowledging in an internal report that the republic's 
housing and public utility (water, gas, and electricity) 
infrastructures are weak due to damage from armed conflict. 
Even though IOM addresses the issue by providing returnees 
with financial assistance for housing (using funding from the 
European countries of departure), Inna Gladkova, UNHCR's 
Protection Officer for the North Caucasus, expressed concern 
that the returnees would not be able to obtain housing that 
meets minimum humanitarian standards.  In a November 20 
e-mail Gladkova stated, "Specific socio-economic conditions 
and the present-day political situation in Chechnya do not 
ensure the preconditions of secure and dignified 
repatriation. . . .Chechen officials informed UNHCR several 
times in 2008 and 2009 that their priority was to resolve 
housing issues of people who are already in Chechnya and in 
need of housing, and therefore they have no plans or 
absorption capacity for those intending to return." 
 
¶10. (C) Returnees to Chechnya will encounter a bleak economic 
situation in the republic.  The official unemployment rate in 
2009 was about 50 percent but in reality could be even 
higher, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council's Internal 
Displacement Monitoring Centre.  Citing information from the 
Russian Federal Statistics Service, the IOM report noted that 
the average number of months spent searching for a job in the 
Chechen Republic is 13.1, the highest of all Russian regions. 
 IOM plans to assist returnees from Austria in the pilot 
project with job placement, and selected returnees will 
receive small business set-up grants.  Asked about the dire 
economic situation in Chechnya, Julia Zelenskaya, IOM's 
Readmission Program Assistant, told us November 5 that 
Chechens are "very inventive." 
 
MOSCOW 00000063  003 OF 003 
 
 
 
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Comment 
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¶11. (C) Given current conditions in the eastern North 
Caucasus, it is risky for IOM's institutional credibility for 
the Moscow mission to undertake a project focused on 
facilitating returns to Chechnya.  (Note:  IOM Movement 
Management Department Chief Michel Tonneau, who is based in 
Geneva, acknowledged to Refcoord at a meeting in Washington 
December 2 that he was not even aware of the IOM Moscow 
project -- his ignorance suggesting a lack of headquarters 
oversight.  Tonneau expressed surprise that his colleagues in 
Russia would pursue returns where there is no IOM monitoring 
capacity.  End note.)  We believe it is not advisable to 
promote returns to Chechnya until the insecure political and 
economic climate improves and monitoring capacity increases 
substantially.  The international community should hold IOM 
accountable if any of the participants in its return program 
to Chechnya suffers extrajudicial loss of life or liberty. 
Rubin