Europe should stop deporting asylees to North Caucasus amidst war — Amnesty

European nations including France should stop sending refugees from the North Caucasus back to Russia as they risk being tortured or being forced to fight in Ukraine, Amnesty International has said.

The call on Thursday comes as France pushes to expel more people from Russia's Muslim-majority North Caucasus.

"It is scandalous that despite claims to have frozen all judicial cooperation with Russia following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, several European states are threatening to send people who fled persecution in Russia's North Caucasus back to the very place where those abuses have occurred," said Amnesty International's Europe director Nils Muiznieks.

The report said that authorities in a number of European countries including France, Germany, Poland, Croatia and Romania have or have tried to send back refugees or asylum seekers who had fled persecution in the North Caucasus.

Fighting in Ukraine

Amnesty referenced an asylum seeker as saying that people in Chechnya were being forced to fight for Russian forces in Ukraine.

After French teacher Bernard was murdered by a Russian-born in October, France's Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin vowed to defy European Court of Human Rights rulings blocking expulsions, saying "protecting the French public is more important than these rules".

The rights group also urged Interpol to suspend Russia, stressing that Moscow was abusing red notices.

The report cited the case of Magomed Zubagirov, who fled persecution in Dagestan in 2017. He settled in Ukraine but was forced to flee again when Moscow attacked.

Polish authorities refused him entry and deported him to Russia on the basis of an Interpol red notice from Moscow.