17:53, 15 July 2023

Chechen refugee goes on hunger strike in Swiss deportation centre

Ali Bataev. Photo: https://www.kavkazr.com/a/chechenskiy-bezhenets-obyavil-golodovku-v-deportatsionnom-tsentre-shveytsarii-v-rossii-emu-grozit-presledovanie/32503470.htm

The authorities of Switzerland have considered illegal the stay in the country of Chechen native Ali Bataev, who arrived from Ukraine, and intend to deport him to Russia. Ali Bataev went on a hunger strike, as he believes that he will be persecuted by the authorities of Chechnya.

40-year-old Ali Bataev has been continuing his hunger strike for 30 days in a deportation camp in Switzerland, the “Kavkaz.Realii”* reports.

“Ali Bataev believes that if extradited to Russia, he will face death, as he is an opponent of the Ramzan Kadyrov’s regime in Chechnya,” said Lachin Mamishov, a spokesperson for the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria** abroad in Switzerland, as quoted by the “Kavkaz.Realii”*.

Ali Bataev lived for a long time in Ukraine, where he had a residence permit and was married to a citizen of the country. After the start of the special military operation in Ukraine, Ali Bataev moved to Europe as a refugee. In September 2022, the Swiss authorities detained him, considering his stay in the country illegal.

As a result of his 30-day hunger strike, Ali Bataev started to face health problems, while complaining about insufficient medical care.

On April 16, it became known that in Croatia, a court had refused to grant international protection and political refugee status to five natives of Chechnya. The court motivated the refusal by stating that they could be “Islamic extremists.” On May 24, it became known that in Croatia, a court found one of the refugees from Chechnya not guilty of involvement in extremism and decided to release him from a deportation camp.

*Included by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) into the register of foreign agents.

**The Chechen Republic of Ichkeria is an unrecognized separatist state formation existing in 1991-2000, created after the collapse of the Soviet Union on part of the territory of the former Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and liquidated by the Russian army during the second Chechen military campaign. Ichkeria was not recognized by any of the UN member states.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on July 14, 2023 at 04:22 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.

Source: Caucasian Knot