Refugees thrown out

The eviction of people with a refugee status from the halls of residence of various higher education institutions in North Ossetia has started. The management says these people have lived there without a legal ground. The higher education institutions in question include the North Ossetian State Medical Academy and the State Metallurgical Institute of North Ossetia.

There are invalids and small children among those evicted; most of them have no other place to live in. Their incomes prevent them from finding one. Natella Bichikoyeva who lives in the State Metallurgical Institute's hall of residence says authorities promised not to evict refugees, but now they have not kept their promise.

Alikhan Khugayev, chairman of the executive committee of the public organisation For United Ossetia, links the eviction of the refugees from the halls of residence of the higher education institutions with the fact that most higher education institutions in the republic are now going to be funded from the republican budget. "The halls of residence will soon start to be privatised and that would be difficult with the refugees. Entire storeys in the nine-storey building of the Medical Academy's hall of residence are vacant, while they bother these several families," he says.