Extra people

The attitude towards refugees in Russia and in Europe is a multidirectional process. The main flow of refugees to Europe is people who just want to live a normal life. But I also understand those who openly say that multiculturalism is good when it does not go beyond certain limits. In Europe there are several tens of millions of Muslims. Many Europeans are afraid of the emergence of new Muslim ghettos, they are not enthusiastic about the emergence of refugee enclaves, where people begin to live according to their own, and not European, secular, Christian laws. If our governments are so generous and humane, ask the inhabitants of the Old World, then why not expand assistance to the inhabitants of the Middle East or North Africa on the spot, in their countries, including the fight against terrorism.

While Europe - both the authorities and numerous volunteer organizations - are thinking about how to accept, resettle, feed hundreds of thousands of refugees, who are now mostly saving their lives from the militants of the "Islamic State"

* * An organization banned in Russia. , in Russia there is a certain reverse process. Russia is getting rid of refugees.

The Russian borders are well protected - our state does not save on this, and refugees from the Middle East come to us mostly legally - receiving a Russian visa. Our embassies and consulates know that they issue visas to refugees, but at the same time they give visas - because they bring foreign currency to the treasury. But when refugees cross the Russian border—according to my estimates, there are now 5,000–10,000 of them in the country—everyone instantly forgets about them. Our state does not want to take responsibility for these people.

When the war broke out in Syria and the first migrants from there came to us, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees gave a clear statement: the Syrians must be accepted, they cannot be sent back. The Russian Foreign Ministry agreed with this. However, the status of a refugee in Russia is practically not given to the Syrians, whose government we so ardently support, or to anyone else.

* Nikolai Smorodin, Deputy Head of the Federal Migration Service of the Russian Federation, refutes the information about the mass refusal of the Syrians in the opportunity to stay in the country. According to him, since the beginning of the armed conflict in Russia, 2,000 people have received temporary asylum, and in total there are 12,000 Syrian citizens in the country. . At the end of last year, only 800 people had this status, 250 of them were former employees of the Ukrainian prosecutor's office and Berkut fighters. In total, according to data at the end of last year, 214,000 refugees from Ukraine received temporary asylum in Russia. Now there seems to be a truce in the Donbass, and the noise around them has subsided - they have played their propaganda role.

And something else began: since the beginning of 2015, refugees from far abroad have been openly squeezed out of Russia - even those who received temporary asylum from us. They are massively expelled from the country, refusing to extend temporary asylum, which is usually given for a year. And the judges who decide on deportation do not hide the fact that they are acting on orders from above. Whether a person remains in Russia or not is now a political question.

Russia cannot refuse to accept refugees. We join international conventions not just to be a member of the club of civilized countries, but to fulfill our international obligations. If you don't want to, withdraw from the 1951 Convention. When asked why we signed a document that we frankly do not respect, they answered me: “We just wanted to look civilized.”

The problem has another side: the flow of illegal refugees from Russia to Europe. This flow is very weak, and mostly consists of our citizens - Chechens, who are fleeing from the regime of Ramzan Kadyrov: they go to Germany through Poland, to Norway - through Murmansk. Once there was a rumor - apparently, this legend was dismissed by carriers of illegal immigrants - that Germany was ready to accept 20 thousand Chechens. And people were inspired simply because they cannot believe that their fate is not interesting to anyone in this world.