Local sources have stated that on April 25, a group of local officials arrived at the temporary residence camp in Promzhilbaza, Karabulak in Ingushetia where a total of 85 Chechen refugee families live. It has been demanded that residents leave within three days.

“At 10:00am local time, Akhmed Kolonkoev, deputy head of Karabulak city administration, and six other officials came to Promzhilbaza. They demanded that we leave from the camp within three days. After the announcement from the officials, the residents were shocked, because most of us simply have nowhere to go. I’ve lived here since 1994, since the beginning of the first Russian military aggression in Chechnya. I wanted to extend my refugee status and I got it from the Supreme Court. However for the officials, the court’s decision isn’t an order. My refugee status hasn’t been renewed by the local authorities. It means that in three days I will be stranded on the streets with my family,” said Malika Dzhikhaeva, a resident from the camp who has four children.

“I am still in shock after the visit of a delegation from the city administration. They told us: ‘You have no right to be here. You have to leave the territory of Promzhilbaza in three days’. I don’t have refugee status here. Probably, at the end of the three days, I will go out with my children and we will put up a tent on the route of Baku, then we will try to survive,” said Larissa Gadzhiyeva, another resident in the camp who has three children.

Maret Yevloeva, who has to care for her sick parents, links the sharp deterioration in their physical situation. “In three days, we have to leave. If something happens to my mother or father, I will sue these people,” said Yevloeva.

“I am raising a child who is 12 year old now. I have refugee status, but I have nowhere to go,” said Elsa Dikaeva, a disabled mother who may move only with the help of prosthesis. “I cannot walk 50 meters independently, now I must leave here with all my staves,” added Dikaeva.

The refugees repeatedly stated that the authorities try to drive them from Ingushetia to Russian occupied Chechnya. Contrary to claims from the pro-Russian regime in Chechnya, Chechen refugees say that the pro-Russian authorities of areas, cities, and villages in the Russian occupied Chechen Republic Ichkeria do not render any help to the refugees, who have returned to the republic. Moreover, the refugees mention that there is a chronic security problem in the Russian occupied Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. Thus, they would like to stay in Ingushetia. Even recently, at least six Chechen families who had gone back to Chechnya returned to Ingushetia. But after the recent advances they don’t know what to do.

*Text was written by Waynakh Online and edited by Michael Capobianco