Deportation of Ukrainians | |
---|---|
Part of 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine | |
Location | Russia and Russian-occupied Ukraine |
Date | February 2022 - present |
Target | Citizens of Ukraine |
Attack type | population transfer |
Filtration camps, also referred to as concentration camps,[1][2][3] have been reported to be used by Russian forces in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[4][5][6][7]
A month in the conflict Ukrainian Deputy PM Iryna Vereshchuk said 40,000 people had been moved from Ukraine to Russian-held territories without coordinating with Kyiv.[6] More than 400,000 Ukrainians have been 'forcibly displaced to Russia', according to Ukraine's ombudswoman for human rights Lyudmyla Denisova on March 30 2022.[8]
Mikhail Mizintsev, chief of Russia's National Defense Management Center, said on 8 May that 1,185,791 people have been moved to Russia.[9] Ukrainian officials have compared the actions to filtration camps in Chechnya.[6] Ukrainian officials said the FSB "works" with Ukrainians in filtration camps in Krasnodar and Taganrog are offered jobs in Sakhalin, the far east of Russia.[10][6]
The Russian government denies it is forcibly removing Ukrainians to Russia[6] and calls the deportations "evacuation".[11] According to the Byline Times filtration camps in Ukraine are being used as a means of re-stocking Russia's labour force.[12]
Mariupol
The Guardian UK reported that witnesses have said that Russian troops have ordered women and children out of a bomb shelter in Mariupol on 15 March 2022.[5] One witness said they were forcibly bussed with two or three hundred others to Novoazovsk, where they had to wait for hours inside the buses until they were ordered to go through a group of tents to what was called a filtration camp.[5] Satellite imagery showed a group of tents in Bezimenne, near Novoazovsk.[5] Representatives of Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic said they had set up a "tent city of 30 tents" with a capacity for 450 people.[5]
Russian government newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta said 5,000 Ukrainians had been processed in the Bezimenne camp and that they had run checks to prevent "Ukrainian nationalists from infiltrating Russia disguised as refugees so they could avoid punishment."[5] One witness said she was extensively questioned by men who said they were from the FSB.[5] She was questioned about her background and described the questioning as "very degrading".[5] The group was then taken to Rostov.[5]
Men reported being strip-searched by Russian soldiers looking for tattoos, and asked about their political views and any ties to the Azov Regiment.[13]
Reactions
Tanya Lokshina, director of Human Rights Watch for Europe and Asia, said: "Under international human rights law, forced displacement or transfer doesn’t necessarily mean people were forced into a vehicle at gunpoint, but rather that they found themselves in a situation that left them no choice."[5] She pointed out that the Geneva Convention prohibits "individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory, are prohibited, regardless of their motive".[5]
Human rights activist Svetlana Gannushkina said that she had received dozens of requests from people who were stranded in Russia, mainly around Rostov.[7]
United States ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said "I do not need to spell out what these so-called 'filtration camps' are reminiscent of. It's chilling and we cannot look away".[7] She cited reports that FSB agents confiscated passports, IDs and mobile phones, as well as reports of Ukrainian families being separated.[7] The US envoy to the OSCE, Michail Carpenter, told the organization's permanent council that according to credible reporting, Ukrainian civilians in the filtration camps were interrogated and those suspected of ties to independent media or the military were beaten or tortured before being transferred to the Donetsk region, "where they are reportedly disappeared or murdered."[14]
See also
References
- ^ Dean, Kirby (2022-05-19). "Thousands of Mariupol survivors being detained and 'tortured' in Russia-controlled prisons in occupied Ukraine". MSN. Retrieved 2022-05-19.
- ^ Toby Luckhurst & Olga Pona (2022-04-25). "'You can't imagine the conditions' - Accounts emerge of Russian detention camps". BBC News. Retrieved 2022-05-19.
- ^ "Ukraine calls on UNSC, UN Secretary General to ensure evacuation of wounded from Azovstal". Interfax-Ukraine. 2022-05-12. Retrieved 2022-05-19.
- ^ Vlachou, Marita (2022-04-05). "Mariupol Women Report Russians Taking Ukrainians To 'Filtration Camps'". HuffPost. Retrieved 2022-05-02.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Sauer, Pjotr (2022-04-04). "Hundreds of Ukrainians forcibly deported to Russia, say Mariupol women". The Guardian. Retrieved 2022-05-02.
- ^ a b c d e Peter, Laurence (2022-03-27). "Russia transfers thousands of Mariupol civilians to its territory". BBC News. Retrieved 2022-05-02.
- ^ a b c d Mackintosh, Eliza; Ochman, Oleksandra; Mezzofiore, Gianluca; Polglase, Katie; Rebane, Teele; Graham-Yooll, Anastasia. "Russia or die". CNN.
- ^ "More than 400,000 Ukrainians 'forcibly displaced to Russia'". euronews. 2022-03-30. Retrieved 2022-05-09.
- ^ "Over 19,800 people evacuated from Ukraine, DPR, LPR to Russia in past day". TASS. 2022-05-08. Retrieved 2022-05-09.
- ^ "Ukrainians, Who Were Deported to Russia, Are Offered Employment in Sakhalin". gur.gov.ua. Retrieved 2022-05-09.
- ^ "Минобороны отчиталось об эвакуации более 500 тыс. человек в Россию".
- ^ Blitz, Brad; Lewis, Alexandra (31 March 2022). "Putin's Gulag-Based Empire of Abduction, Deportation, and Modern Slavery". Byline Times. Byline Times. Retrieved 8 May 2022.
- ^ "Russia's humiliating 'filtration' of civilians fleeing occupied Ukraine: The Russian army has set up so-called filtration camps in the Donbas to screen civilians for political views before they are evacuated. DW spoke to three people who were able to get out of Mariupol". Deutsche Welle. April 28, 2022.
- ^ "OSCE Envoy Says Evidence Of 'Filtration Camps' Emerging From Areas Of Ukraine Claimed By Russian Forces". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. April 28, 2022.