The Austrian national public service broadcast service “ORF” has reported that 13 Chechen asylum seekers were extradited directly from Austria to Russia.

According to the information, on the evening of November 28, 13 Chechen asylum seekers who had been detained earlier at different times, were sent directly back to Moscow via charter flight from Vienna. There are no names in the ORF publication, but Waynakh Online was able to confirm that Salman (Danial) Mamaev was among the extradited asylum seekers. So far there has been no news on the fate of the group of extradited Chechen asylum seekers.

It must be noted that this is the first direct extradition from Austria to Russia; earlier, Austrian authorities had extradited Chechen asylum seekers to safe countries, such as Poland or other neighboring nations first, as per the Dublin-II Regulation.

Officers from the Austrian Interior Ministry refused to comment on the extradition, but they believe that there is no risk in extraditing the Chechen asylum seekers to Russia because they signed a readmission agreement with Russia. They want to believe that this agreement will prevent persecution of the deportees by Russia!

We must note that the mass extradition is a clear violation of the “non-refoulement” principle which was stated at the 1951 and 1967 Conventions relating to the Status of Refugees.

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