DUSHANBE, August 12, 2013, Asia-Plus — Moscow police have detained thousands of suspected irregular migrants since late July 2013, for alleged violation of migration and employment regulations. Hundreds are in custody, including in a makeshift tent camp in inhuman conditions, a statement released by Human Rights Watch (HRW) on August 9 said.
Russia should immediately halt these arbitrary detentions and the degrading treatment of migrants, the statement says.
At the end of July, Moscow police opened a massive campaign in Russia’s capital against irregular migrants, sweeping through street markets and other places where many migrants gather, and detaining people based on their non-Slavic appearance. According to media reports, over 4,000 people have been taken into custody, including nationals of Vietnam, Syria, Afghanistan, Egypt, Morocco, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan.
“Everything about this massive sweep violates Russia’s obligations under international law,” said Tanya Lokshina, Russia program director at Human Rights Watch. “Prolonged detention without counsel, ethnic profiling, inhuman conditions – it should stop now.”
The migrants are being held in police detention centers and holding centers for foreign nationals, with courts ordering their deportation based on perfunctory, rubber-stamp hearings. The government should guarantee the fundamental rights of anyone taken into custody and provide detention conditions that meet international standards, Human Rights Watch said.
Undocumented migration and crime in Russia’s capital are high on the political agenda in the lead up to the September mayoral elections. Concerns about rising migration and “ethnic” crime have become a dominant feature of official pre-election rhetoric.
With police facilities and holding centers full to overflowing, the authorities built a makeshift camp in the eastern part of Moscow, herding hundreds of people into tents with no electricity, no communications, appalling sanitation conditions, inadequate food, and lack of access to potable water.
Migrants detained during police raids typically have had no access to legal counsel or translators. They have not been able to inform family members of their fate and whereabouts, and were not allowed to pack any belongings or retrieve documents they were not carrying at the time they were detained. Some who are awaiting deportation are asylum seekers or have lawful residence permits, and thus have a legal right to be in Russia.
Systematically detaining people who appear to be of different ethnic or racial background without a reasonable suspicion of individual wrongdoing is discriminatory and constitutes arbitrary deprivation of liberty in violation of national and international human rights law, Human Rights Watch said.
According to media reports, some of those detained are taken to police precincts across Moscow, where the holding conditions are even more problematic than at the Golyanovo camp.
Svetlana Gannushkina, head of the Civic Assistance Committee, a human rights group that provides legal assistance to migrants and asylum seekers, said that under Russian law, foreign nationals subject to deportation can be held only in specialized holding centers. “Golyanovo is essentially an unlawful detention facility,” Gannushkina told Human Rights Watch. She said that three of her group’s pro bono clients – two Syrian nationals and an Afghan national – being held in the camp awaiting deportation are asylum seekers protected by international law.
The absence of phones and translators has worsened the problem of lack of access to counsel, leaving the detainees facing great obstacles in challenging the legality of their detention or requesting asylum, Human Rights Watch said.
In the detentions Human Rights Watch observed on August 8, some of the people targeted were apparently taken into custody for being unable to answer questions because they did not speak enough Russian and police officials had no translators with them. Five Tajikistan nationals detained by police in July reportedly spent 14 days at the temporary detention center of a police precinct, in inhuman conditions.
Russian law does not allow police to hold people at police precincts for longer than 48 hours. The cells are not designed for longer stays, and the precincts do not have adequate sanitary facilities. The Civic Assistance Committee also told Human Rights Watch that they are aware of dozens of people who were unlawfully held at police precincts for three to five days awaiting court hearings.
