People Seeking Asylum In Russia Still Face Problems Despite Legal Improvements - UNHCR

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st September, 2018) People seeking asylum in Russia still encounter serious problems, despite noticeable improvements, particularly in the legal sphere, over the past two and half decades, Madina Chedzhemova, the assistant legal officer at the representation of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Russia, said on Friday.

"In Russia, asylum can be sought while at the checkpoint on the state border and being in the territory of Russia ... We would like to note that of course we still have a very large field of work.

And for 25 years of our presence in Russia, we have certainly been seeing some improvements, of course, the legislation is developing, but in practice the amount of problems for some reason does not get any smaller," Chedzhemova said at a panel session of the "Migration and International Law" conference.

The UNHCR official added that people seeking asylum on the Russian border very rarely achieved this legal status.

Chedzhemova also stated that other asylum seekers were very often stuck in the transit zones of airports for protracted periods of time.