Rights defenders criticize Ingush authorities for unresolved migrants' problems

About 150 families of forced migrants from North Ossetia live in Ingushetia in difficult conditions; but instead of providing them with new housing, authorities are making attempts to evict them from emergency barracks, human rights defenders assert.

Despite the fact that 28 years have passed since the arrival of forced migrants from North Ossetia to Ingushetia, regional authorities are still raising the issue of providing them with housing, said Timur Akiev, the head of the Ingush branch of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial".

Despite the difficult migrants' situation, there were authorities' attempts to evict them to nowhere. Such a signal was received by the HRC "Memorial" from Gamurzievo, where local authorities attempted to evict refugees from their barrack, Mr Akiev has noted.

"Disabled persons, old and lonely people live there, who have no relatives. <…> They have nowhere to go. They simply have no other housing but this emergency barrack," the rights defender has explained.

If there is some help for those living in barracks, it is one-time one. "Yes, I understand that the republic has a small budget. But the authorities found 55 million roubles to organize two concerts; and this was done in the days when the quarantine was not lifted. They also found 158 million roubles to improve the city pond. For this money they could have provided housing for everyone whom we treat as forced migrants," said Mr Akiev. According to his story, about 150 migrant families still live in barracks.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on October 31, 2020 at 06:34 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.