13 April 2004, 23:41

Svetlana Gannushkina: "The closure of the Danish Refugee Council is a real disgrace"

We call your attention to some extracts from the statement by head of the Migration and Law Network of the Human Rights Center Memorial, chair of the Civic Assistance Committee, and a member of the Presidential Human Rights Commission Svetlana Gannushkina:

(...) The Stavropol Regional Court made the decision: the Danish Refugee Council must stop its activity on the territory of Russia. (...) The Council is accused of its directors' not notifying the Ministry of Justice of changes in the governing body of the organization and changes in its legal address.

The Danish Refugee Council is the oldest refugee agency. Its closure on such a minor ground is a real disgrace.

This organization implements a program of providing help to internally displaced persons (IDPs) from Chechnya and in Chechnya. Its work is financed for the most part by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. The Council performed this work perfectly. It created a database on inhabitants of camps and temporary accommodation centers in Chechnya. This data was always the most accurate, and the organization readily shared its information with colleagues, in particular, with our offices in Nazran and Chechnya. When Russian migration agencies stopped providing aid [to IDPs] by various reasons, only food parcels and clothes delivered by the Council saved them.

(...)

Now the representative office of the Danish Refugee Council is slapped in the face in spite of being given thanks.

What explanation can be provided for it except the aspiration to remove from Russia all those who, occupied with humanitarian activity, cannot but see the violations of international standards that accompany the return of IDPs to Chechnya?

Editors note: See also the article "Danish Refugee Council liquidated in Stavropol".

Author: Svetlana Gannushkina, chair of the Civic Assistance Committee, director of the Migration and Law Program, board member of the Human Rights Center Memorial

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