Forced migrants from Chechnya remind authorities of their housing problems

Forced migrants from Chechnya living in Ingushetia have asked authorities to solve their housing problems by the 30th anniversary of the First Chechen War – to index payments due to them or return the status of forced migrants.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in the summer of 2021, forced migrants from Chechnya living in Ingushetia complained to the Russian President that Ingush authorities had failed to provide them with housing and ignored their complaints about the unresolved housing problems. As explained by human rights defenders, after amending the law on forced migrants in 2015, the Russian state relieved itself of all the obligations to provide these people with housing.

The forced migrants have proposed to index the payments due to them, since the present sums make it impossible to buy housing and property, which was confirmed by the decisions of the Russian Supreme Court from 2000 to 2002, the "Memorial" Centre for Human Rights Defence (CHRD)* has reported.

The CHRD's website states that after the 2019 decision of the Constitutional Court of Ingushetia, authorities have failed to fulfil their duty to the internally displaced persons and even suppressed new initiatives to help the victims.

Let us remind you that on December 11, 1994, Russian troops began to invade Chechnya, which marked the start of the first military campaign (First Chechen War). 25 years later, eyewitnesses of those events said that the invasion of federal troops did not look like the start of a full-scale war; and people had hoped for a peaceful resolution to the situation until the very end.

*As reported on the website of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), the reason for including on March 1, 2024, the unregistered "Memorial" Centre for Human Rights Defence (CHRD) into the roster of foreign agents was the spread of "inaccurate information aimed at creating a negative image of the Russian Federation, as well as the Russian Armed Forces."