The Danish Refugee Council has been implementing humanitarian assistance programs in the Russian Federation since 1999 as a response to the armed conflicts in Chechnya.
The Danish Refugee Council helps more than 250,000 IDPs, refugees and vulnerable citizens residing in the North Caucasus republics of Chechnya, Ingushetia, Dagestan and North Ossetia.
The long-term goal of DRC in the North Caucasus is protection and promotion of durable solutions to refugee and displacement problems on the basis of humanitarian principles and human rights.
Large-scale displacement
The second Chechen conflict between Russian federal forces and Chechen forces loyal to Moscow on the one side and Chechen separatists on the other, which commenced in 1999, resulted in a significant loss of life, wide-scale destruction of assets and livelihoods and large- scale displacement from and within the Republic of Chechnya. It exacerbated the situation in a region already marred by the consequences of three previous armed conflicts.
In 1999 and 2000, a sizeable international assistance effort got underway to deal with the flight of close to 250,000 individuals from Chechnya into Ingushetia (and to a lesser extent Dagestan). This effort first concentrated on Ingushetia, but gradually expanded into Chechnya, to mitigate the humanitarian consequences for the remaining population. The legal mandate for this international assistance effort, which continues to date, was an invitation from the Russian government to various agencies of the UN to assist in the mitigation of the humanitarian consequences of the second Chechen conflict.
Gradual improvements
Within the course of the years, the security and socio-economic situation has gradually been improving in Chechnya, thus leading to the return of people to the region. However, this category of people is still in need of assistance to achieve the durable solution to their displacement. Some 30,000 IDPs still remain in Ingushetia and Dagestan, hoping to return to Chechnya when the security and economic situation allows, or to integrate in the hosting communities.
Another target group of DRC assistance programs in the North Caucasus consists of forced migrants and refugees from Georgia who fled to North Ossetia during the 1991-92 conflict between Georgia and South Ossetia. These refugees, many of them South Ossetians, face problems related to the lack of appropriate permanent housing, employment and legal status.
Similar problems are experienced by ethnic Ingush refugees displaced from North Ossetia, mainly its Prigorodny district, to Ingushetia as a result of the Ingush - North Ossetian conflict in 1992. Part of these refugees still reside in substandard collective settlements with little prospect of permanent employment and adequate shelter.
Return or integration
The objective of the Danish Refugee Council is to contribute either to the return of the refugees and IDPs in the North Caucasus to their original places of residence or to their successful integration in the territories of displacement.
To achieve this aim, DRC is implementing relief aid programs (food, non-food, temporary shelter) as well as recovery and rehabilitation activities (reconstruction of houses and infrastructure, psychosocial rehabilitation, community development, mine risk education, higher education partnership, local NGOs development and capacity building).
Most Important DRC doners in the Russian federation
ECHO, UNHCR, UN WFP, UN FAO, UNDP, DC-Ireland, Danida, NRC, SIDA, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.
DRC Local partners in the Russian federation
The non-governmental organisation Memorial, branch Office in Nazran, Ingushetia.
Center for Humanitarian Assistance, Nazran, Ingushetia
Contact Information
Programme coordinators:
Pia Poulsen, Phone: +45 33 73 50 15,
email: pia.poulsen@drc.dk
Pia Tingsted, Phone: +45 33 73 50 22, email: pia.tingsted@drc.dk