On the 7th of December, the British media BBC reported that Russia is recruiting asylum seekers detained near its border with Finland for military service in Ukraine by forcing those in pre-deportation centres to sign military service contracts. According to the BBC, this practice is not new, but it has intensified as more and more foreign migrants have arrived at the Russian-Finnish border.
Finland temporarily closed its border crossing points with Russia, claiming that it was driving migrants to the border with Finland to destabilise the country after Finland’s accession to NATO.
According to the BBC, an analysis of court hearings in Karelia, one of the three Russian regions bordering Finland, shows that 236 migrants have been detained in Karelia in the last three weeks – a similar picture has also been seen in Leningrad and Murmansk – for staying in Russia without valid visas and are to be deported.
The detention centres followed the standard procedure for anyone without a proper visa: fines and detention until deportation.
Detainees in Russian pre-deportation centres were offered “work for the state”.
They were promised good pay, medical care, and permission to stay in Russia if they signed a one-year contract.
One of the migrant detainees, Somalian man, contacted by the BBC said that the documents offering the job were shown in Russian, which none of the group understood. He added that the documents were not given to the detainees and “properly shown” and that, fearing for their lives in their country of origin, the detainees signed the job offer without a clear understanding of what the job was, thinking it would be an army-related job inside Russia.
Detained migrants were sent to a military camp near the Ukrainian border,
where they realised that, contrary to promises of “a one-year contract with training and opportunities, good pay and care”, they were being forced to fight in the war, according to a man contacted by the BBC.
After the migrants demanded the annulment of their contracts, military camp officials initially threatened them with prison sentences, but later indicated that if the job offers were cancelled, deportation procedures would resume. They are currently in a military camp awaiting further developments.
A Somalian man detained near the Finnish border claims that he was tricked into joining the Russian army and claims that he did not understand the offer because it was in a language he did not understand. He insists that he is an “asylum seeker, not a soldier”.
The BBC has asked the Russian Interior Ministry for information on allegations that detained migrants are being offered army contracts in exchange for their release but has yet to receive a reply.
It should be noted that human rights activists have also received complaints from an asylum seeker that he is being pressured to sign a military contract, thus nullifying the deportation order, writes the BBC.
Read also: Ten people arrested in Nepal for recruiting local youth into the Russian army
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