“We have a saying about the police in Russia: If someone reports a threat, they tell you: ‘Come back when you’ve been murdered’ – and, sometimes, it feels like the bureaucrats making asylum decisions [in the EU] work on the same principle,” said Oleg Ponomarev, a Russian dissident whose asylum request was rejected by Germany and who now risks jail or conscription if he is forcibly deported.
Russian refugee Nikita Belov, who faces deportation by Finland, also said he would be “arrested immediately on charges of high treason” if sent back.
And Artem Vovchenko, who went AWOL (absent without leave) from the Russian army, was already jailed when the US deported him to Russia, despite his medical problems, but later escaped again.
“After a few months in pretrial detention [in Russia], I couldn’t walk, sit, or stand [due to pain]. My left leg was paralysed, as my herniated disc was compressing a nerve, and I had gastric problems due to the cramped conditions and bad food … I fell into depression and waited for something, I didn’t know what,” he told EUobserver.
“I’m trying to get back on my feet now and I just need a little support from people who still believe in goodness and love”, Vovchenko said, speaking from hiding in a secret location outside Russia.
