Russia denies the forced relocations and claims that more than a million Ukrainians entered the country voluntarily. However, according to the UN and the human rights organization Human Rights Watch, the displaced have not had a real option.
If you want to get out of the besieged and ruined city, you have to embark on a journey of occupiers. If your actions and opinions are not liked, you could end up in jail. If you pass the opinion screen, you may end up finding yourself in deep Russia without money, a passport or a phone, as cheap labor.
This is how Russia treats the inhabitants of the territories it occupies, such as the city of Mariupol. Ukraine claims that Russia has taken thousands of civilians to so-called filtering camps to find out if they are anti-Ukrainian and anti-Russian. Conditions in the camps are miserable, and people are being tortured during interrogations, Ukraine claims.
Russia denies the allegations, while the United States finds reports based on numerous eyewitness statements credible. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the human rights organization Human Right Watch say they have received credible information to support at least some of Ukraine’s claims.
The claims about opinion filtering camps are nothing new: Russia allegedly (moving to another service) used them in the two wars in Chechnya between 1994 and 2009 and already Joseph Stalin during the reign of the end of World War II.
More than a million were exported to Russia voluntarily or under duress
Both Ukraine and Russia have reported that more than a million Ukrainians have been deported to Russia during the war. However, countries disagree on how voluntary the departure has been.
Commissioner for Human Rights of Ukraine Liudmyla Denisova instead, he says, many have been taken against the will.
The OHCHR’s Human Rights Mission in Ukraine has interviewed several people evacuated from Russian-controlled areas or their families. These have said they left the midst of fighting in Russian-controlled areas because there was no other option to gain security.
The same is said by the human rights organization Human Rights Watch.
– Russian troops give those fleeing the fighting no choice but to go to Russia or stay in the middle of the fighting. The options are: go to Russia or die, says the organisation’s director of Europe and Central Asia Hugh Williamson Ylelle in a phone interview.
However, according to people interviewed by OHCHR and HRW, IDPs are not prisoners.
– They were allowed to keep their ID cards and move elsewhere, including outside Donetsk and Russia, if they were able to pay for their trip, says the communications assistant Kateryna Girniak From the OHCHR Representation in Ukraine to by e-mail.
Girniak says they have no information that the movement of Ukrainians in Russia has actually been restricted. However, some have not been able to leave because they do not have money or identity papers.
Some have been able to leave Russia for other countries or the territory controlled by the Ukrainian government.
“Leaving Russia is not easy and can be dangerous, but they have not been physically arrested,” says Williamson.
There is also no significant evidence that there are large numbers of people taken away (move to another service) From the Ukrainian border, Williamson says. According to the OHCHR, people have been offered the opportunity to go to remote areas in Russia and some have seized it.
“Civilians must have the right to escape wherever they want”
Williamson stresses that civilians fleeing war zones should have the right to go where they want.
According to the rules of warfare, international humanitarian law, civilians should not be forced to go to a certain place, Williamson notes.
– They should not be forced into Russia or anywhere else.
The fate of those who repulsed the opinion poll is worrying
US Ambassador to the OSCE Michael Carpenter says (switch to another service)that the United States estimates that Russia has taken at least several thousand people to camps and evacuated at least tens of thousands more to Russia or the Russian-controlled area.
According to Denisova, the Ukrainian Commissioner for Human Rights, before the transfer to Russia, it will be investigated whether the civilians have contacts with the Ukrainian government or army or with pro-Ukrainian views and actions. Among other things, the interrogators check for any tattoos and the information on the phones. Everyone is being asked about Russia’s “special operation”, which the country calls its offensive war in Ukraine.
The UN is very concerned about the data generated by the filtering. People are being physically examined, stripped naked and some have been sexually abused. People’s backgrounds, family ties, political views and loyalties are carefully investigated, their property confiscated, photographed and fingerprinted, says OHCHR’s Girniak.
The OHCHR is aware of a number of cases in which those who have not passed the filtering have been arrested. Their exact number or exact situation is not known.
Carpenter says numerous eyewitness accounts say some of the interrogators are being beaten and tortured.
So far, Human Rights Watch has only received fragmented information about the use of brutal means, such as force or torture, in interrogations, Williamson says.
The OHCHR has tried unsuccessfully to meet the detainees. In addition, the organization demanded to meet those who are said to have passed the filtration but are still being held at the Bezimenne filtration camp, Girniak says.
“Why would this be an exception?”
Program Director of the Finnish Foreign Policy Institute Arkady Moshes considers the information to be credible, although not everything should be taken into account.
– This is a war where we have seen brutal attitudes and atrocities, so why would this be an exception, Moshes tells in a telephone interview.
He also recalls that illegal arrests and detentions have been reported in the Donbas region over the past eight years.
Moshes believes some of those exported to Russia have gone there voluntarily, but it is not known how many.
– It is a fact that Donetsk and Luhansk were favorable to Russia before the attack. Many wanted to be Russian.
According to Moshes, many in Donetsk and Luhansk still have a pro-Russia view. In other parts of Ukraine, such as those living in Kherson and Kharkov, it is harder to believe that they would go to Russia voluntarily, he says.
What is Russia’s motive?
Arkady Moshes of the Foreign Policy Institute believes that camps and taking people to Russia have both a military and a political goal.
In the 1990s, the goal in Chechnya was military. There was a desire to isolate those who felt sympathy for the rebels.
In Ukraine, he believes the goal is primarily political: a message to both the Russians and the international community that a “special operation” in Ukraine has been launched to help the people.
– When you can say that you have evacuated a million people voluntarily, you can say that you are helping and protecting people.