France

The French authorities must ensure the protection of a Ukrainian political refugee who sustained a horrific attack in his home in Strasbourg earlier this week, said Amnesty International.

Andrei Fedosov, a human rights activist reported that he was attacked on Monday night by an unknown Russian native speaker.  He told Amnesty International that the masked assailant bound his hands and feet with tape and stabbed him in the stomach and the leg with a Stanley knife and a razor.  

The attacker interrogated Andrei about his human rights activities and stole the hard disc from his computer.

“This is an extremely worrying development. During the EuroMaydan anti-government protests activists have been abducted and tortured by unknown assailants in Ukraine, and at least four protestors have died. This is the first time that someone has been targeted across international borders,” said Heather McGill, Amnesty International’s expert on Ukraine.

“There is a real perceived risk to Andrei Fedosov’s life and the French authorities must do everything in their power to protect him.”

The French government has failed to end the vicious circle of repeated forced evictions of Roma which have now reached record numbers, Amnesty International said in a report published today. The organization is calling for a ban on all forced evictions.
 
More than 10,000 Roma were evicted from informal settlements during the first half of 2013.  

“France makes no provisions for effective protection against forced evictions. In most cases they take place in a climate of hostility with no alternative housing proposed. Roma people are condemned to a life of constant insecurity, and forced to wander from one of makeshift camp to another. Forced evictions should be banned in law,” said John Dalhuisen, Europe and Central Asia Program Director at Amnesty International.
 
There are some 20,000 Roma migrants living in France mostly from Romania, Bulgaria and former Yugoslavia. Almost all of them are fleeing the chronic poverty and discrimination they face in their home countries.

The authorities in France must ensure that Mukhtar Ablyazov has a full and fair extradition process and that he is not sent to any country that may return him to Kazakhstan where he will be at risk of torture and an unfair trial, Amnesty International said today.

Kazakhstani national Mukhtar Ablyazov, a fugitive banker, recognized refugee and key political opponent of the country’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev, was apprehended by French police on 31 July during a house raid in Mouans-Sartoux, near Cannes. It has been reported that the police were acting upon an extradition request from the Ukraine, where Ablyazov has been accused of financial crimes by the Ukrainian authorities.  

Amnesty International believes there is a high risk that if extradited to Ukraine Ablyazov would be subjected to onward transfer to Kazakhstan where he would face an unfair trial and possible torture and other ill-treatment.

“The Kazkhstani authorities want Mukhtar Ablyazov at all costs,” said John Dalhuisen, Director of Amnesty International’s Europe and Central Asia Program.

Over 200 people, mostly Romanian Roma, were forcibly evicted this morning from an informal settlement in greater Paris in a move Amnesty International has labelled shameful and callous. 

Police evicted around 230 people at 7:00 am from their huts and caravans in Ris-Orangis on the outskirts of Paris, citing public health and safety concerns. It is the latest in a resumed wave of forced evictions of Roma across France over the past few weeks.

“Evicting hundreds of people without offering any adequate alternative housing or support is a shameful and callous action that totally ignores France’s international human rights obligations,” said Marek Marczyński, Europe and Central Asia Program Deputy Director.

The community were given 24 hours notice to leave the site, despite the lack of adequate housing being offered. 

According to reports, only 38 had previously been offered any assistance with accommodation or employment. Local activists reported that the only alternative emergency accommodation offered required families to be separated, which the residents refused to accept.