During the inter-ethnic strife in Chechnya and the

First First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

and

Second Chechen War The Second Chechen War (russian: Втора́я чече́нская война́, ) took place in Chechnya and the border regions of the North Caucasus between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, from August 1999 ...

s for independence hundreds of thousands of Chechen refugees have left their homes and left the republic for elsewhere in Russia and abroad.

In Russia

The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) reports that hundreds of thousands of people fled their homes in Chechnya since 1990. This included majority of Chechnya non- Chechen population of 300,000 (mostly

Russians , native_name_lang = ru , image = , caption = , population = , popplace = 118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 '' Winkler Prins'' estimate) , region1 = , pop1 ...

, but also

Armenians Armenians ( hy, հայեր, '' hayer'' ) are an ethnic group native to the Armenian highlands of Western Asia. Armenians constitute the main population of Armenia and the ''de facto'' independent Artsakh. There is a wide-ranging diasp ...

, Ingush, Georgians,

Ukrainians Ukrainians ( uk, Українці, Ukraintsi, ) are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine. They are the seventh-largest nation in Europe. The native language of the Ukrainians is Ukrainian. The majority of Ukrainians are Eastern Ort ...

and many more) who had left the republic in the early 1990s and as of 2008 never returned. Many ethnic

Chechens The Chechens (; ce, Нохчий, , Old Chechen: Нахчой, ''Naxçoy''), historically also known as ''Kisti'' and ''Durdzuks'', are a Northeast Caucasian ethnic group of the Nakh peoples native to the North Caucasus in Eastern Europe. "Eu ...

have also moved to Moscow and other Russian cities. According to the 2008 study by the

Norwegian Refugee Council The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC, no, Flyktninghjelpen) is a humanitarian, non-governmental organisation that protects the rights of people affected by displacement. This includes refugees and internally displaced persons who are forced to flee ...

, some 139,000 Chechens remained displaced in the Russian Federation.

Ingushetia

In the nearby republic of Ingushetia, at the peak of the refugee crisis after the start of the

in 2000, estimated 240,000 refugees almost doubled the Ingushetia's pre-war population of 300,000 (350,000 including the refugees from the

Ingush-Ossetian conflict The East Prigorodny conflict, also referred to as the Ossetian–Ingush conflict, was an inter-ethnic conflict in the eastern part of the Prigorodny District in the Republic of North Ossetia–Alania, which started in 1989 and developed, in 1992 ...

) and resulting in an

epidemic An epidemic (from Greek ἐπί ''epi'' "upon or above" and δῆμος ''demos'' "people") is the rapid spread of disease to a large number of patients among a given population within an area in a short period of time. Epidemics of infectious ...

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, i ...

. Estimated 325,000 was the total number of people that have entered Ingushetia as refugees in the first year of the

. Some 185,000 were in the republic already by November 1999 and 215,000 lived in Ingushetia by June 2000.Information on the Chechen refugee situation in Ingushetia in the late 2000
,

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Franci ...

, September 10, 2000 In October 1999 the border with Ingushetia was closed down by the Russian military and a refugee convoy bombed after being turned away. Thousands of them were pressured to return by the Russian military already in December 1999, and the refugee camps were forcibly closed after 2001 by the new Chechen government of President

Akhmad Kadyrov Akhmad-Khadzhi Abdulkhamidovich Kadyrov ce, Къадири Ӏабдулхьамидан кӀант Ахьмад-Хьажи, Q̇adiri Jabdulẋamidan khant Aẋmad-Ẋaƶi (23 August 1951 – 9 May 2004) was a Russian politician and revolutionar ...

and the new Ingush government of President

Murat Zyazikov Murat Magometovich Zyazikov (russian: Мура́т Магоме́тович Зя́зиков) (born September 10, 1957) is a Russian politician who was the second president of the southern Russian republic of Ingushetia. He was born in what is ...

. About 180,000 Chechens remained in Ingushetia by February 2002 and 150,000 by June 2002, most of them housed in a "

tent city A tent city is a temporary housing facility made using tents or other temporary structures. State governments or military organizations set up tent cities to house evacuees, refugees, or soldiers. UNICEF's Supply Division supplies expandable te ...

" camps, abandoned

farm A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used ...

s and

factories A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. T ...

and disused

train In rail transport, a train (from Old French , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles that run along a railway track and transport people or freight. Trains are typically pulled or pushed by locomotives (often ...

s, or living with sympathetic families. As of early 2007, less than 20,000 Chechens remained in Ingushetia and many of them were expected to integrate locally rather than return to Chechnya.

Chechnya

As of 2006, more than 100,000 people remain

internally displaced person An internally displaced person (IDP) is someone who is forced to leave their home but who remains within their country's borders. They are often referred to as refugees, although they do not fall within the legal definitions of a refugee. ...

s (IDP) within Chechnya, most of whom live in substandard housing and poverty. All official IDP centers in the republic were closed down and the foreign NGO aid severely limited by the government (including the ban of the

Danish Refugee Council Danish Refugee Council (DRC) ( da, Dansk Flygtningehjælp) is a private Danish humanitarian nonprofit organization, founded in 1956. It serves as an umbrella organization for 33 member organizations. Formed after the Second World War in response ...

Abroad

Since 2003 there is a sharp surge of Chechen asylum-seekers arriving abroad, at a time when major combat operations had largely ceased. One explanation is the process of " Chechenization", which empowered former separatists Ahmed Kadyrov and his son

Ramzan Kadyrov Ramzan Akhmadovich Kadyrov ce, КъадаргӀеран Ахьмат-кӏант Рамзан, translit= (born 5 October 1976) is a Russian politician who currently serves as the Head of the Chechen Republic. He was formerly affiliated to the ...

as the leaders of Chechnya (indeed, Chechen refugees indicated that they feared Chechen security forces more than Russian troops). Another explanation is that after a decade of war and lawlessness, many Chechens have given up hope of ever rebuilding a normal life at home and instead try to start a new life in exile.

European Union

In 2003, some 33,000 Russian citizens (over 90% of them presumed to be Chechens) applied for Asylum in the European Union (EU), according to the

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency mandated to aid and protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people, and to assist in their voluntary repatriation, local integrati ...

, making them the largest group of new refugees arriving in

developed nation A developed country (or industrialized country, high-income country, more economically developed country (MEDC), advanced country) is a sovereign state that has a high quality of life, developed economy and advanced technological infrastruct ...

s. According to unofficial reports from January 2008, the number of Chechens in Europe may reach 70,000. According to another estimate from March 2009, there were some 130,000 Chechen refugees in Europe, including former fighters. In September 2009 Kadyrov said that Chechnya would open representative offices in Europe in an attempt to convince the Chechen migrant communities living there to return to their homeland.Chechnya Wins Right to Open Offices in Europe
''

The Moscow Times ''The Moscow Times'' is an independent English-language and Russian-language online newspaper. It was in print in Russia from 1992 until 2017 and was distributed free of charge at places frequented by English-speaking tourists and expatriates s ...

'', 14 September 2009 Austria granted asylum rights to more than 2,000 Chechen refugees in 2007, bringing the total number to 17,000 in January 2008, the largest diaspora in Europe then.Chechnya's Exodus to Europe, North Caucasus Weekly Volume: 9 Issue: 3,

The Jamestown Foundation The Jamestown Foundation is a Washington, D.C.-based conservative defense policy think tank. Founded in 1984 as a platform to support Soviet defectors, its stated mission today is to inform and educate policy makers about events and trends, wh ...

, January 24, 2008 As of 2018, there were some 30,000 Chechens residing in Austria. As of early 2008, some 7,000-10,000 Chechens live in Belgium, many of them in Aarschot. At least 2,000 of them were granted political asylum in 2003. In 2003, refugee camps in the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

were said to be "overwhelmed" due to an overwhelming number of Chechen refugees. As of 2009, Denmark is one of the six countries in Europe with the biggest Chechen disasporas. As of early 2008, about 10,000 Chechens live in France. The largest Chechen communities in France exist in

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard dialect, Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department in France. The Nice urban unit, agg ...

(where there were reports of sharp conflict with the immigrants from North Africa), Strasbourg and Paris (the home of the Chechen-French Center). Chechens also live in

Orléans Orléans (;"Orleans"
(US) and Le Mans,

Besançon Besançon (, , , ; archaic german: Bisanz; la, Vesontio) is the prefecture of the department of Doubs in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. The city is located in Eastern France, close to the Jura Mountains and the border with Switzer ...

, Montpellier,

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Pa ...

and

Tours Tours ( , ) is one of the largest cities in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the prefecture of the department of Indre-et-Loire. The commune of Tours had 136,463 inhabitants as of 2018 while the population of the whole metro ...

. As of 2008, thousands more are trying to get to France from Poland. As of early 2008, approximately 10,000 Chechens live in Germany. In Poland, almost 3,600 Chechens have applied for refugee status in the first eight months of 2007 alone and over 6,000 in the next four months.O azyl prosi coraz więcej Czeczenów
''

Wprost ''Wprost'' (, meaning "Directly") is a Polish-language weekly news magazine published in Poznań, Poland.

'', 2008-03-10 07:13 As of 2008, the Chechens are the greatest group (90% in 2007) of refugees arriving in Poland, on the eastern border of the EU. Spain has granted hundreds of Chechen families asylum since 1999. Thousands of others settled in the other EU countries, such as Sweden or Finland.

Other countries

Of 12,000 Chechen refugees who arrived in

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of t ...

, most moved on to Europe later (leaving some 5,000 in 2003, 2,000 in 2007, 586 in 2014, and 377 in 2019). As of early 2008, several hundred people live in the

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

community. Of some 4,000 Chechens who have sought safety in neighbouring

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

, the majority have settled in

Pankisi Gorge Pankisi ( ka, პანკისი) or the Pankisi Gorge (, ''Pankisis Kheoba'') is a valley region in Georgia, in the upper reaches of River Alazani just south of Georgia’s historic region of Tusheti between Mt Borbalo and the ruined 17th ...

and over 1,100 registered refugees remain there as of 2008. Some 3,000 to 4,000 Chechens arrived in

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

, of which most also moved on further, but as of 2005 some 1,500 stayed. Many of the Chechen refugees in Turkey are yet to be given official refugee status by the Turkish government, without this status they will be unable to legally attend school or have jobs. is the main transit country for Chechen refugees traveling to Europe (some others travel through

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by ...

). There is also a small number of Chechens settled in

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...

. Since Yanukovich was elected, he has begun harassing the Chechen refugee settlements through police raids and sudden deportations, sometimes even separating families. As of early 2008, some 2,000-3,000 refugees live in the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia ( The Middle East). It is located at t ...

. In the United Kingdom there is a large number of Chechen refugees. Some of them are wanted by Russia but the UK government refuses to extradite them on grounds of concern for

human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

. Some of the original Chechen separatist government figures, such as

Akhmed Zakayev Akhmed Halidovich Zakayev ( ce, Заки Хьалид кlант Ахьмад, Zaki Halid-khant Ahmad; russian: Ахмед Халидович Закаев, Akhmed Khalidovich Zakayev; born 26 April 1959) is a former Deputy Prime Minister and Pri ...

relocated to the UK. A small, but growing Chechen community exists in the United States, in particular

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

and

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

. Both Azerbaijan and Georgia have

extradited Extradition is an action wherein one jurisdiction delivers a person accused or convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, over to the other's law enforcement. It is a cooperative law enforcement procedure between the two jurisdi ...

some Chechen refugees to Russia in violation of their obligations under

international law International law (also known as public international law and the law of nations) is the set of rules, norms, and standards generally recognized as binding between states. It establishes normative guidelines and a common conceptual framework for ...

. The

European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights. The court hears applications alleging that ...

has ruled that Georgia violated their rights. During the

2008 South Ossetia war The 2008 Russo-Georgian WarThe war is known by a variety of other names, including Five-Day War, August War and Russian invasion of Georgia. was a war between Georgia, on one side, and Russia and the Russian-backed self-proclaimed republics of Sou ...

, many of the more than 1,000 Chechen refugees in Pankisi Gorge fled towards Turkey along with their Georgian neighbours.Chechen refugees in Pankisi Gorge resume normal life after Georgia scare

UNHCR The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency mandated to aid and protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people, and to assist in their voluntary repatriation, local integrat ...

, 1 October 2008

Chechen refugees and exiles

Ilyas Akhmadov Ilyas Khamzatovich Akhmadov ( ce, Ilyasaŋ Aẋmad-k̇ant Ẋamzat/Ильясан Ахьмад-кlант Хьамзат, russian: Ильяс Хамзатович Ахмадов; born December 19, 1960) served as the foreign minister of the Cheche ...

Khassan Baiev Khassan Zhunidovich Baiev (; born 4 April 1963) is a Chechen-American surgeon who performed numerous operations under critical conditions during the Second Chechen War. He is mostly known as author of two memoirs, ''The Oath: A Surgeon Under ...

* Murat Gasayev * Umar Israilov *

Mamed Khalidov Mamed Khalidov ( rus, Мамед Магомедович Халидов, Mamied Magomedowicz Chalidow, mɐˈmʲɛt maɣɔmʲɛdɔvʲit͡ʂ xɐˈlʲidəf; pl, Mamed Chalidow ; born 17 July 1980 in Grozny) is a Polish mixed martial artist of Chech ...

* Timur Mutsurayev *

Milana Terloeva Milana Zaydinovna Bakhaeva (russian: Милана Зайдиновна Бахаева) (born 30 December 1979 in Orekhovo, Chechnya), better known by the pen name Milana Terloeva, is a Chechen journalist and author of the 2006 French bestselle ...

* Sulim Yamadayev *

Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev Zelimkhan Abdulmuslimovich Yandarbiyev ( ce, Яндарбин Абдулмуслиман-кIант Зелимхан, romanized: ''Yandarbin Abdulmusliman-khant Zelimxan''; russian: link=no, Зелимхан Абдулмуслимович Я� ...

References

External links

Guidelines on the Treatment of Chechen IDPs, Asylum Seekers& Refugees in Europe

European Council on Refugees and Exiles Established in 1974, ECRE is a European network of 105 NGOs in 39 European countries. In 2011, the council raised concerns regarding planned repatriations of Afghan asylum children. In 2014, the council was critical of EU cutbacks of migrant r ...

Georgia: UNHCR closely monitoring Chechen refugees' situation

Blasts in Chechen Capital Unleash New Wave of Refugees
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', October 23, 1999
Chechen Refugees Fast to Decry War

The Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newsp ...

, June 22, 2001
The Plight of Chechen Refugees in Georgia

Islamic Human Rights Commission The Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) is a non-profit organisation based in London. Its stated mission is to "work with different organisations from Muslim and non-Muslim backgrounds, to campaign for justice for all peoples regardless of ...

, 17 June 2003
The right not to return: the situation of displaced Chechens dispersed in the Russian Federation

Chechnya Advocacy Network Chechnya Advocacy Network (CAN) is a United States-based non-government organization that conducts research, awareness, and advocacy on Chechnya and the Chechen people. It is the largest Chechnya-specific organization in North America. Its headqu ...

, August 2003
The Plight of Chechen Refugees revisited

, 21 March 2005
Poland: Chechen Refugees Grateful for Protection but Need Integration Support
Refugees International, 12/06/2005
Refugees and Diaspora

, 2007
The burden of "Euro-tourism"

Prague Watchdog Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

, September 14, 2009 (discussing the consequences of the

Dublin Regulation The Dublin Regulation (Regulation No. 604/2013; sometimes the Dublin III Regulation; previously the Dublin II Regulation and Dublin Convention) is a European Union (EU) law that determines which EU Member State is responsible for the examina ...

for the refugees)
"Brothers, Bread and the Bosphorus"
Al-Jazeera, May 13, 2010 (discussing the status of Chechens in Turkey's Bosphorus region)
Chechnya Day
website run by Chechen diaspora as well as others aimed at raising awareness to the 'tragic and genocidal events' beginning on February 23, 1944, Aardakh. {{DEFAULTSORT:Chechen Refugees Chechen diaspora Chechnya Refugees by ethnicity Refugees by war