23:14, 23 April 2003

More than 200 thousand people has left Chechnya irretrievably

More than 200 thousand Russian citizens have irretrievably left the Chechen Republic irretrievably over the period of time since 1994-1995. It was reported by the First Deputy Head of the Federal Migration Service of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs Igor Yunash, who spoke yesterday at the session of the Duma Commission on Assistance in Political Regulation and Observance of Human Rights in the Chechen Republic. At the same time he admitted that there is no data bank of forced migrants from Chechnya, it is just being created.

According to the data given, since 1993 1,7 thousand families from Chechnya have been rendered state assistance in arrangement of living. Last year 250 families got gratuitous subsidies for building or acquisition of habitation.

He noted that 655 million rubles were marked in the federal budget for arrangement of living of forced migrants in 2003, and the draft budget for 2004 provides for assignation of 2,5 milliard rubles.

Source: ITAR-TASS News Agency