Yakunina: refugees from Chechnya and other Caucasian regions live worse than refugees from CIS countries

Forced migrants from Chechnya and other regions of North Caucasus face much more problems in Russia than resettlers from CIS countries. Alla Yakunina, chair of the "Compatriots" Russian Foundation for helping refugees, told about it to the correspondent of the "Caucasian Knot." In her words, the main problem is that after receiving compensation, which in several times smaller than what is required to buy some housing; forced migrants lose their status, thus, loosing also the state support.

Vyacheslav Postavnin, deputy director of the Federal Migration Service (FMS), has reported at today's press conference that now we already have some results of addressing the problem forced migrants. In his words, the notion of a forced migrant will be cancelled, and a system of migratory accounting will be created, allowing working with particular people and families.

Answered the journalists' question why the number of "official" refugees does not match the number of refugees with unawarded status, Vyacheslav Postavnin has explained that the notion of a "refugee" covers mainly citizens of Afghanistan and Chechnya, while the term "forced migrant" is covering a broader range of people, including the so-called Abkhazian Georgians.

According to FMS of Russia, in 2007 the government will allocate one billion roubles to build housing facilities for forced migrants. On the average, it means 1200 apartment certificates versus some forty thousand families on the waiting list. "We now strive to achieve that, firstly, forced migrant could take a loan or a credit, and, secondly, that prices for housing for them could be market ones, not commercial," Alla Yakunina added.