In the early morning, a group of about twenty refugees from two predominantly Muslim Russian republics – Chechnya and Ingushetia – descends in a column from Velika Kladusa towards the Maljevac Border Crossing, between Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and Croatia. Men, women, and children are moving at an accelerated pace and in silence towards the last obstacle, after which they will find themselves in the territory of the European Union (EU), where they will officially request asylum.
”I don’t want to end up in Ukraine,” says one of the few who agreed to speak to the media, anonymously and without taking photos.
Velika Kladusa, due to its geographical position right next to the border with Croatia, is once again a gathering place for groups of refugees and migrants. This time they are people from Russia, while in the past five years, tens of thousands of people from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Morocco, and Syria have passed through here…
Lists for mobilization
The interlocutor from Ingushetia in the Caucasus explains that there are lists for mobilization.
”I know my name is on them. That’s why I left the country and took advantage of the opportunity that was presented to me. After making the lists, the services go from door to door to get people, and by then it’s already too late. When they come to the door, from that moment on you can’t get away from the front anymore,” he says as he shows a video clip on his cell phone showing uniformed people knocking on the doors of his country’s residents with the intention of handing them a call for mobilization.
”The day before departure, I bought a plane ticket to Istanbul. A return ticket, so it wouldn’t be suspicious. The same evening, the security service called me to ask me where I was going. I lied that I had to go to Turkey for treatment and that I would return. A voice on the other side told me that they knew I was not sick. I was very scared that I would be able to get out. I kept praying to God. Thankfully I made it,” says the twenty-three-year-old, and added that his cousin tried to take a plane to Istanbul the day after him, but he was turned back.
He says that in a day or two he will leave for Croatia with a group of refugees from the motel and ask for asylum. He wants to go to Germany, where he spent several years but returned to Ingushetia three years ago. Now is the time for him to go again.
Fear of the media and of returning to Russia
Most Chechens, Ingush, and others avoid speaking, especially to the media.
They explain that they are afraid because they are worried that if they fail to reach the EU or are returned home for some reason, then these statements could be used against them, and the fact that they are running away from mobilization is enough to end up in prison.
They are mostly transferred by plane from Chechnya to Istanbul, then by plane to Sarajevo, and to Velika Kladusa by bus or taxi vehicles that do not have any visible markings, Radio Slobodna Evropa reports.
E.Dz.
