RUSSIA'S BROKEN ASYLUM SYSTEM

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 MOSCOW 013124

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/27/2016
TAGS: PREF PREL PHUM RS
SUBJECT: RUSSIA'S BROKEN ASYLUM SYSTEM

REF: MOSCOW 11778

Classified By: Political Minister-Counselor Alice G. Wells.
Reasons 1.4 (b and d).


1. (C) SUMMARY: Asylum seekers in Russia face legal and
bureaucratic obstacles in obtaining protection from the GOR,
as well as a growing backlash against migrants in general.
For many, the only workable solution is resettlement to a
third country, as the GOR has yet to devote sufficient
attention and resources to its asylum system. While UNHCR
has improved its relationship with the Federal Migration
Service and has had some success in working through the court
system, the recent deportations of Georgians and detentions
of several Uzbeks have put many asylum seekers on edge.
Although there are some signs the GOR wants to improve its
asylum system, these are overshadowed by an increasingly
xenophobic climate, in which the threat of violence adds to
the difficulties asylum seekers face in Russia. We have
conveyed our readiness to assist FMS in improving its system,
and we continue to look for other avenues to engage with the
GOR on this issue. END SUMMARY.

SYSTEMIC FLAWS AND A BAD ATTITUDE
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2. (C) During the recent visit of PRM/ECA Deputy Director
Nancy Iris and in other meetings over the past several weeks,
our contacts have increasingly called attention to the plight
of asylum seekers in Russia. Primarily, Russia's asylum
system is predisposed to reject asylum seekers. This
tendency is attributed to systemic flaws, but also to a rise
in anti-migrant political rhetoric and intolerance among
certain elements of the population.


3. (C) UNHCR Senior Protection Officer Gang Li told Iris
that UNHCR has seen a steady decline in the number of asylum
seekers it has registered. The number is now about 3,000,
down from more than 5,000 two years ago, but few if any will
be accepted into Russia. Li said Russia's asylum system has
problems both in the law and its implementation. Legally, it
places undue burdens on asylum seekers to file requests with
the Federal Migration Service (FMS),while giving FMS
officers wide latitude to refuse an asylum request.
According to UNHCR data, FMS has granted refugee status to 10
people since January 2005. Those who manage to file a
request with FMS are given interview dates years later in
Moscow, or several months later in other parts of the
country. Those requesting asylum in Moscow now, are
scheduled for interview in 2009, for example.


4. (C) In the interim, FMS provides no legal protection for
asylum seekers. Those able to submit their requests to FMS
are given an appointment slip but nothing else. Lacking any
document giving them legal status in Russia, they cannot
legally work or obtain residency permits that allow them
access to schools, medical care and other social services.
They are often stopped by police, usually with a demand for a
bribe under threat of arrest or potential deportation. Li, a
Chinese national who is occasionally stopped by police, said
UNHCR has begun distributing an identification card to
refugees it registers, and although it is not officially
recognized by the Russian government, it is often enough to
satisfy police. Police harassment of asylum seekers in
Moscow is acute enough, however, that UNHCR also employs a
full-time police liaison.


5. (C) Sergey Yagodin, an advisor to Human Rights Ombudsman
Vladimir Lukin and former head of FMS' legal department, said
during his meeting with Iris that the problems of the asylum
system were as much to do with the mentality at FMS as gaps
in the law. Yagodin said that FMS' bureaucracy left asylum
seekers with little option but to enter and stay in Russia
illegally.


6. (C) FMS has become more focused on law enforcement since
being merged with the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) in
2003 and resurrected as a quasi-independent agency in 2004.
The prevailing attitude is that asylum seekers and refugees
are illegal migrants and potential criminals, Yagodin said.
While FMS claims there are a small number of refugees and
asylum seekers in Russia, its statistics only include those
it has officially recognized. The actual number is thought
to be much higher. Most asylum seekers and refugees never
apply to FMS because of its slow processing and low
acceptance rates, he said. FMS statistics showed that there
were 418 officially registered refugees in Russia and about
officially registered 500 asylum seekers. At the same time,
FMS claimed there were 15 million illegal immigrants in
Russia. Yagodin estimated the number of illegal immigrants
to be about half FMS' estimate but did not provide a

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methodology for his calculation.

THE POLITICAL ATMOSPHERE
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7. (C) As illegal immigration has become a more prominent
political issue, there is little distinction between asylum
seekers and economic migrants. More frequent attacks on
dark-skinned "foreigners" by skinQads and the lack of
response by law enforcement agencies have added to the
vulnerability many asylum seekers say they feel.


8. (C) Attendees at a roundtable organized by the Russian
Red Cross in St. Petersburg said it was almost impossible for
asylum seekers to legalize their status. For many asylum
seekers, resettlement through UNHCR was the only long-term,
durable solution. One Afghan woman told us she had been in
Russia for 21 years and still was without status. (NOTE:
Many Afghans were brought to Russia during the Soviet
occupation in the 1980s to be educated as a new nomenklatura
for the Soviet-backed government there. Sometimes known as
"Lenin's orphans," they could not return to Afghanistan
because of their ties to the Soviets, yet they have no status
in Russia. END NOTE.)


9. (C) Roundtable participants also expected a broader
crackdown in the aftermath of the arrests and deportations of
Georgians. Separately, UNHCR told us recently that police
conducting document checks in a Moscow market where there had
been a large number of Georgian vendors told Afghans and
others recognized as refugees by UNHCR that they would no
longer be permitted to work there. Another group of 200
Afghans in Moscow were recently declared illegal migrants by
FMS and forced out of work. They in turn filed asylum claims
to avoid deportation.

THERE IS SOME HOPE
--------------


10. (C) UNHCR's Li and other contacts have told us that
beyond the structural problems with FMS, FMS officers, judges
and lawyers lack sufficient understanding of international
and national law pertaining to asylum seekers and refugees.
Compounding the problem was FMS' lack of adequate staff and a
high turnover rate.


11. (C) Li said that UNHCR believed that Russia's asylum
system could be improved, and that Russian officials want to
improve it, but that progress would be slow. FMS had begun
to implement some changes UNHCR recommended, and it had
allowed UNHCR to comment on draft amendments to the Law on
Refugees which may be introduced in the Duma during its next
session. In light of the recent wave of deportations,
including one in which an Uzbek was deported despite having
an appeal before the courts, UNHCR had pressed to include
language requiring immediate suspension of any deportation
proceedings as long as an asylum request was in process.


12. (C) Li was complimentary about the independence of
Russian courts, noting that UNHCR had been successful in
working with local NGOs to sue FMS and have its decisions
overturned. These decisions, along with international
interest in high profile cases, strengthened the rule of law
and suggested that progress was not impossible, but it would
require a sustained effort, starting with a commitment from
senior levels of the GOR, he said.

COMMENT
--------------


13. (C) Russia's asylum system is plagued by problems, and
the GOR's treatment of refugees and asylum seekers is
adversarial. Together, these factors combine to deprive
hundreds of people adequate protection and access to basic
services, leaving UNHCR and resettlement to a third country
as the best available alternative for many. Although there
are some slight signs of improvement, many positive trends
are mitigated by an increasingly xenophobic climate, in which
the threat of violence adds to the difficulties asylum
seekers already face in Russia. We have conveyed our
readiness to assist FMS in improving its system, along with
an offer from the Department of Homeland Security to host FMS
Director Konstantin Romodanovskiy or his staff in Washington
(reftel). We continue to look for other avenues to engage
the GOR on this issue.
BURNS