Week-ending 8 October 2021
On 2 October migrant rights defender Valentina Chupik was released from detention at Sheremetevo airport in Moscow. She boarded a flight to Armenia the same day. As Amnesty International reported, Chupik had been held in the transit lounge of the airport since 25 September, stripped of her refugee status in Russia and threatened with imminent forcible return to Uzbekistan, where she would have been at risk of human rights violations.
Sources:
RFE/RL. 2 October 2021: A noted migrant rights defender who was being held at a Moscow airport and faced deportation to Uzbekistan says she has left Russia on a flight to Armenia. In a brief interview before her flight departed on October 2 from Sheremetyevo airport, Valentina Chupik told RFE/RL that she was unsure of the legal details of her case, but that she unexpectedly received an Uzbek passport this morning, and then got a PCR test for COVID so she could board a flight.
Amnesty International, 4 October 2021: Migrant rights defender Valentina Chupik was released from detention at the Sheremetevo airport in Moscow and was allowed to board a flight to Armenia on 2 October. She had been held in the transit lounge of the airport since 25 September, stripped of her refugee status in Russia and threatened with imminent forcible return to Uzbekistan, where she would have been at risk of human rights violations.
