Russia Distances Itself from Neighboring Afghan Refugees: Part Two

Despite Russia signing the 1951 UN Convention, an international treaty establishing the legal protection, rights and assistance of refugees, the current de facto policy of Russian authorities is “doing everything” to deny refugee status. There are merely 455 refugees in Russia. A coordinator for one of the few NGOs in Russia assisting migrants and refugees, Fahim Feroz, says “Russia is not a country for refugees.” He emphasizes that he only received refugee status “with great difficulty” after 15 years, and that it took more than 20 years to get citizenship. 

Russia’s demographic transition to a dwindling population and labor shortage can be supplemented by migration. Immigration would aid in economic recovery as it did in the 2000s when the Russian population began declining in 1991. According to Migration Policy Institute, the Kremlin has “struggled to develop a clear and consistent migration policy.” Refugee status is difficult to obtain in Russia, and temporary asylum status is not easily granted. In 2018 only 30 people were granted refugee status. Russian migration policy should embrace Afghan refugees and provide permanent residence for refugees and migrants, who empower their labor force and benefit their economy.

Putin sees an influx of refugees as a burden. In 2021, at another meeting between Russia United members, Putin declared that the West:

“Thinks they can send them without visas to our neighbors [Central Asian states], but refuse to receive them in their own countries without visas? What a humiliating approach to solving this issue is it?”

Back in 2001, Russia’s Foreign Minister at the time, Igor Ivanov, said Russia “prided itself on being the only state with a fully-fledged program of humanitarian aid in operation” in Afghanistan, meeting with President Karzai and announcing that Russia would “play an active role in developing Afghan and re-building the economy.” In 2021, when asked whether Russia is ready to receive Afghan refugees, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia will be “guided by its liabilities in what concerns receiving refugees,” implying his country should not accept refugees since their liabilities were not comparable to the failure of the United States. Lavrov says “it is crucial to engage the capabilities of all the countries involved, first of all, those whose policies in Afghanistan have resulted in this sad turning of events.” To drive the point home, he called for “efforts of…primarily those that let the humanitarian crisis erupt in Afghanistan, [who] are required to find a solution to the refugee issue,” to acknowledge the unfairness of a “threat of an increasing influx of refugees into neighboring states.”

Ebadulla Masumi, head of an Afghan community group in Stavropol, says that prior to the current migration policy, The Ministry of Internal Affairs often extended the permission to stay in Russia for three months, then for a year, and so forth. Masumi says “there was practically no need to go to court [to appeal] because there were few refusals.”

But that trend has now rotated “180 degrees -- and it’s unclear why,” Masumi said.  In recent years, according to the NGO Grajdanskoe Sodejstvie, one of the only organizations that provide assistance to refugees in Russia, 2,585 people from Syria have requested refugee status but only two of them received it.  According to estimates by the Federal Office of Immigration, between 2009 and 2016, 293,652 non-citizens applied for refugee status or temporary asylum. Afghan applicants comprised 6,742 of these individuals. Even former chief of the Afghan General Staff Army General Haybatullah Alizai, described as “enemy number one of the Taliban,” was refused entry to Russia in the fall of 2021.

Between 2007 and 2011 Russia gave temporary asylum to more than 1,000 Afghans per year on average, more than to refugees from any other country.  This approach needs to be reinstated, which would require providing far more Afghans with temporary asylum and permanent residence.  At the very least, Russia and Central Asia should employ the controversial “safe third country” principle.  This would at least provide temporary protection to fleeing Afghans who apply for asylum, before they reach the intended third country to settle.  The asylum system in Russia needs to build capacity and return to a policy of welcoming Afghan refugees.

Author: Charlotte Kropf

Managing Editor: Alex Sarchet

Web Editor: David Kobylka