France: rights defenders demand to stop deporting Chechen natives

French authorities are deliberately violating international rules by deporting natives of Chechnya from France to Russia, where they are at risk of torture and ill-treatment, French human rights defenders have declared in their joint statement.

Three French human rights organizations – Amnesty France, French Human Rights League and Comite Tchetchenie – have issued a joint statement calling on the country's authorities to end the policy of extraditing Chechen refugees to Russia.

"French authorities are deliberately violating the international and European rules, which categorically prohibit the return of a person into a country where he is threatened with torture and ill-treatment," the French radio RFI has quoted today a translation of the joint statement of the above human rights organizations on its website.

The statement asserts that France is deporting not only the natives of Chechnya suspected of terrorist radicalization or links with terrorist movements, but also those who had been convicted under criminal charges or simply denied the right to asylum.

The joint rights defenders' statement presents several deportation cases of Chechen natives from France, in particular, the case of Mansur Ismailov. "On May 12, Mansur Ismailov, a father of four children, who had lived in France since 2008, was deported to Russia. In France, he underwent kidney transplantation and needs constant medication. Due to the 'abruptness' of the decision to deport him, Mansur Ismailov was left without the necessary drugs at Sheremetyevo Airport, where law enforcers kept him for 24 hours," the statement says.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on May 29, 2021 at 09:01 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.