Ingush authorities promise to suspend demolition of resettlers' barracks

The head of Ingushetia, Yunus-Bek Evkurov, has ordered to inspect, by June 20, the places of compact residence of forced migrants and to update the lists of those who claim to get the state support. There is no plan to urgently resettle the barracks in Nazran, said Timur Akiev, a representative of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial".

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in April, 2019, 15 families of forced migrants from the Prigorodny District of North Ossetia, living in three barracks on Fabrichnaya Street in Nazran, received prescriptions from Mayoralty officials to move out. In their turn, the tenants complained that they had nowhere to go.

Mr Evkurov has instructed his government to conduct, by June 20, an inspection of the housing problems of resettlers from the Chechen Republic and North Ossetia. "In view of the upcoming inspection, the demolition of the barracks is temporarily suspended," said the message posted on June 3 on the website of the head of Ingushetia.

Timur Akiev, the head of the Ingush branch of the HRC "Memorial", has expressed hope that everything declared at the sitting on June 3, will be a guide for officials' actions.

"But it also happens differently. A fresh example: when in early May they began demolishing barracks in Fabrichnaya Street, a delegation of women went to Magas. They managed to meet Evkurov and tell him about their housing problems. In their presence, he told the official on Nazran Mayoralty to stop demolishing the barracks. However, a day later, workers came back to Fabrichnaya Street and continued demolishing these dilapidated structures," Mr Akiev said.

According to his story, there is no clear plan yet on where investors will build houses for forced migrants, and for how long they will have to wait for their housing.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on June 4, 2019 at 10:29 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.