Present Day Conditions For Asylum Seekers in Russia
The conditions for asylum seekers in Russia are generally very poor. Asylum seekers in Russia typically have to wait years to receive a decision from the FMS. During that time, they are typically living without proper legal documents – making it nearly impossible for them to find a job outside of the local food markets. According to the United Nations, until recognized as refugees by the state, asylum seekers cannot enjoy such rights as “legal employment, healthcare, housing assistance and social benefits” - and even the right to register marriages and births.
Asylum seekers in Russia are constantly in friction with the police. Amnesty International states that “asylum seekers are often harassed and ill-treated by law enforcement officers who feel they can abuse such people with impunity”. Amnesty International has received persistent reports of asylum-seekers from outside the territory of the former Soviet Union having their identity papers destroyed by police and being subjected to police harassment in the form of extortion, beatings and general intimidation. Many have been subjected to police raids or intimidated into leaving their homes.
Xenophobia, a fear or hatred of foreigners, is another problem that confronts asylum seekers and refugees. Xenophobia is of particular concern to those that look different than the local community. Such groups include specifically: Africans, Afghans, Iraqis, and Tajiks. There are many occurrences of asylum seekers being beaten by local gangs. In fact, some asylum seekers do not even report attacks for fear of police harassment, since many do not have official status.
Absence of legal documents resulting in problems with housing, employment, and health care, as well as ongoing harassment from the police make it extremely difficult for asylum seekers stressfully waiting for refugee status determination.
Read more about this topic: Russian Federation Law On Refugees
Famous quotes containing the words present, day, conditions, asylum, seekers and/or russia:
“There is not any present moment that is unconnected with some future one. The life of every man is a continued chain of incidents, each link of which hangs upon the former. The transition from cause to effect, from event to event, is often carried on by secret steps, which our foresight cannot divine, and our sagacity is unable to trace. Evil may at some future period bring forth good; and good may bring forth evil, both equally unexpected.”
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719)
“Between extremities
Man runs his course;
A brand, or flaming breath,
Comes to destroy
All those antinomies
Of day and night....”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“To get it right, be born with luck or else make it. Never give up. Get the knack of getting people to help you and also pitch in yourself. A little money helps, but what really gets it right is to never—I repeat—never under any conditions face the facts.”
—Ruth Gordon (1896–1985)
“The most threatened group in human societies as in animal societies is the unmated male: the unmated male is more likely to wind up in prison or in an asylum or dead than his mated counterpart. He is less likely to be promoted at work and he is considered a poor credit risk.”
—Germaine Greer (b. 1939)
“Quite apart from any conscious program, the great cultural historians have always been historical morphologists: seekers after the forms of life, thought, custom, knowledge, art.”
—Johan Huizinga (1872–1945)
“In my opinion it is harmful to place important things in the hands of philanthropy, which in Russia is marked by a chance character. Nor should important matters depend on leftovers, which are never there. I would prefer that the government treasury take care of it.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)