MINELRES: Caucasus Reporting Service No. 171: Caucasian migrants face deportation from Krasnodar

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WELCOME TO IWPR'S CAUCASUS REPORTING SERVICE, No. 172, March 27, 2003.

Caucasus Editor Tom de Waal will be in the USA from April 4-17,
launching his new book on the Nagorny Karabakh conflict and talking
about Chechnya. For more information on speaking events, please contact
tom@iwpr.net

CAUCASUS NEWS UPDATE MARCH 27

JUDD: CHECHEN DIALOGUE MUST GO ON In his first interview since stepping
down as Council of Europe rapporteur on Chechnya, Lord Judd tells IWPR
the political dialogue sponsored by the body must continue. By Thomas de
Waal in London

GEORGIA GRANTS US MILITARY PRIVILEGES Tbilisi is dramatically shoring up
its military alliance with the United States. By Irakly Aladashvili in
Tbilisi

SOUTHERN RUSSIA'S MIGRANTS FACE DEPORTATION The authorities in Krasnodar
are planning tough new measures against south Caucasian immigrants. By
Mikael Nersesian in Sochi

KARABAKH: SEEKING A NORMAL CHILDHOOD Day care centres struggle to
rebuild young lives blighted by war. By Ashot Beglarian in Stepanakert

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SOUTHERN RUSSIA'S MIGRANTS FACE DEPORTATION

The authorities in Krasnodar are planning tough new measures against
south Caucasian immigrants.

By Mikael Nersesian in Sochi

The Krasnodar regional authorities plan to open a new centre in the
Black Sea port of Sochi to enable them to deport hundreds of foreigners
as part of an ongoing crackdown on immigrants in southern Russia.

Alexander Sidorenko, deputy governor of Krasnodar, said in an interview
that 15 million roubles (around half a million US dollars) had been
allocated to build a new centre to house around 100 "illegal immigrants"
- most of whom arrive from the South Caucasus - prior to their
deportation.

While declining to name an actual date, Sidorenko said he hoped the new
centre would start operating "within the next two months, at the end of
April or the beginning of May", adding that the centre's inmates would
be given "acceptable living conditions".

The authorities in Krasnodar, taking their lead from outspoken governor
Alexander Tkachev, frequently lash out at the tens of thousands of
foreigners who have settled in the southern Russian region, claiming
that they pose a political and economic threat.

"Around one million people have arrived in our region between 1990 and
today," Tkachev told regional television viewers last December. "In some
places there will soon be more migrants than native inhabitants and we
are beginning to face the prospect of Krasnodar becoming the Russian
Kosovo."

These remarks have worried representatives of the dozens of different
ethnic communities living in the region, although they refuse to comment
publicly on the issue for fear of antagonising the authorities.

Immigration control has now become a national priority. Moscow's federal
migration service announced recently that between three and a half and
five million migrants enter the country every year. The head of the
migration service Andrei Chernenko said that while Russia has more than
500 border crossings, only 114 of them have strict immigration controls.

"In some areas illegal immigration has risen to alarming levels,"
Chernenko said recently. "Migrants are taking jobs which Russian
citizens could be holding."

Taking his cue from Moscow, deputy governor Sidorenko announced that,
"The most effective way of solving the problem is deportation. And by
building a deportation centre in Sochi we confirm our firm intention to
impose order."

A campaign of deportation will hit hundreds of unregistered immigrants
in the Krasnodar region, many of whom have fled the conflicts of the
south Caucasus, very hard. In Sochi they are several thousand Georgians
from Abkhazia, most of whom have nowhere to go back to until a political
settlement is reached between Tbilisi and Sukhumi.

The Shengelaya family fled Abkhazia in October 1993 at the end of the
war. In Soviet times they were well off, owning a two-storey house and a
citrus orchard, which gave them a good income. Nowadays Revaz Shengelaya
cooks Georgian food for a tiny caf� in Sochi market.

"My tangerine orchard used to produce a harvest of 25 tonnes,"
Shengelaya recalled. "We had enough money to buy a new car and live well
to the next season.

"And now we're just vagrants. At every step the police ask us to show
our passport with the Sochi stamp or temporary registration. It's
impossible to get citizenship or get registered without any money
because of corruption - and where can we find the cash?"

Asked if he fears deportation, Shengelaya's nostalgia turns to anger.
"Where will they send me? Georgia? But I'm not a citizen of that country
as I still have my old Soviet passport. To my old address in Abhazia? My
house has been burned down and they will shoot me for fighting against
the Abkhaz during the war.

"It won't be easy to deport me - but let them try! I'd rather be in a
Russian jail than in my grave!"

However, the Krasnodar authorities are indeed targeting people such as
Shengelaya. "If we are talking about Georgians, who fled Abkhazia and
did not receive Russian citizenship in the last few years, then it's
quite likely they will be deported to Georgia, as many of them are
citizens of that country," Alexei Zakharenko, head of the Sochi
migration service said in an interview.

Deportation of immigrants in fear of persecution could put Russia in
contravention of several of the international agreements it has signed.
But Zakharenko said this concern did not fall "within our obligations".

"When it comes down to it, we can't and shouldn't be responsible for the
consequences of all the conflicts in the Caucasus," Zakharenko said.

"Why should our pensioners, government employees have to bear the cost
of this? All those citizens could live better if the state was not
losing money because some people live here illegally, pay no taxes and,
quite probably, send the money they earn out of Russia?"

The status of most ex-Soviet migrants is something of a lottery,
depending on what documents they have. Nabi Suleimanov from Azerbaijan
is one of the luckier ones. His brother, who lives in Dagestan, has
registered him there and he also has a document saying that he is in the
process of receiving Russian citizenship. "It means I am half a citizen
of the Russian Federation," he joked.

Sochi remains a popular location for foreigners partly because they can
easily slip across the border into Abkhazia and re-enter Russia. In this
way they get round the regulations which forbid them from staying on
Russian territory for more than six months at a time.

The border with Abkhazia on the Psou River is just south of Sochi and it
is easy for a foreigner whose temporary registration documents are due
to expire to make the trip across. He can then return within one hour,
receiving a stamp in his passport that he is entering the Russian
Federation and re-apply for registration.

But for many, even this short trip is too much. Official statistics
suggest that around 40 per cent of foreigners registered in Sochi stay
on in the city illegally when their registration runs out.

Mikael Nersesian is a journalist with Nash Dom newspaper in Sochi

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