Forced migrant is the citizen of the Russian Federation, who has left the place of his residence in the result of acts of violence or persecution made on his or his family part in any forms or as a result of real danger to become a subject of persecution on racial or ethnic ground, religion, language, as well as on the ground of belonging to a definite social group or political convictions, which became the cause for conducting hostile companies on the part of concrete person or group of persons, mass violations of pubic order.
Forced migrant status may be acquired by the citizen of the Russian Federation, who is forced to leave the place of his residence on the territory of the foreign state and arrived to the territory of the Russian Federation, or forced to leave the place of his residence of one subject of the Russian Federation and arrived to the territory of another subject of the Russian Federation (i.e. displaced within the territory of the RF) due to definite circumstances, which are stipulated for Point 1 of Article 1 of Law “On forced migrants”.
Which circumstances are necessary for recognizing you as a forced migrant.
The first necessary condition is presence of citizenship of the RF.
At the same time the law includes some amendments on terms of presence of Russian citizenship.
Foreign national or stateless person, permanently residing on legal grounds within the territory of the Russian Federation and displaced within the territory of the Russian Federation according to the circumstances, which are indicted in the law as grounds for acquisition of refugee status, has the right to obtain this states as well.
Citizen of the former USSR, permanently residing on the territory of the republic which had been the part of USSR, who obtained refugee status in the Russian Federation, can be regarded as forced migrant as well in the presence of circumstances, which prevent him during the period of duration of refugee status from settling dawn on the territory of the Russian Federation.
The second necessary condition is presence of circumstances, indicated in the law, in particular:
The third necessary condition, stipulated by the law for obtaining of forced migrant status is the condition of terms for applying of status. This term is 12 months from the moment of departure of the place of residence, and for refugees, acquired citizenship is one month from the day of loss of refugee status. If the term is omitted for good reason, it may be restored. It the member of one family leave the place of residence in different time, the term is calculated for each of them from the day of his/her departure.
Procedure of recognition as forced migrant.
Procedure of recognition as forced migrant is determined by the law “On forced migrants”.
The person, left the place of his residence under the circumstances, stipulated for Point 1 of Article 1 of the law “On forced migrants”, and appealing for recognition him as forced migrant should by his own or with help of his representative apply on recognizing him as forced migrant to the territorial department of the migration service at the new place of residence.
If you wish to acquire forced migrant status before leaving the place of your residence, you have the right prior to leaving the place of your residence to apply to the federal department of the migration service or territorial department of the migration service at the supposed place of residence, to diplomatic agency or consular office of the Russian Federation in the State of his residence for direction of this application to the federal department of the migration service or territorial department of the migration service at the supposed place of residence.
We would like to pay your attention to the fact that there are no indications in legislation that the citizen, applying for recognizing him as forced migrant, is obliged to present any evidences that he was violated or any other circumstances took place which can be recognized as the ground for granting forced migrants status. You are obliged to inform the facts which are necessary for solving the issue, and the agency, which is to make the final decision, is to conduct control examination and estimation of validity of rendered information.
While accepting application, the territorial agency of the migration service should make the decision on its registration within three days. If the decision on registration of application is positive one, each person applying for forced migrant status is issued or sent the certificate of registration of his application. The information of the members of the family, who are under 18 years old, is inserted into the certificate of one of their parents.
In case the person, applying for recognizing him as forced migrant, is refused in registration of his application, he is to be issued or sent written notification of the refusal with stated reasons of refusal and mechanism of appealing against the accepted decision. The term for making decision on recognizing you as forced migrants is three months, beginning from the day of registration of the application. You should be notified in written from on the results of examination of the application within five days, beginning from the day of ready-made decision.
A person who is recognized as forced migrants is issued corresponding certificate. The information of the members of the family, who are under 18 years old, is inserted into the certificate of one of their parents, when these persons become 18 years old they are given their own certificate.
While receiving the forced migrant certificate, the certificate on registration of the application is returned. Forced migrant status is issued for five years. If there are any circumstances that prevent forced migrant from settling down in the new place of residence, the term of validity of his status is prolonging by the territorial migration service agency for every next year on the ground of application of forced migrant.
The extension of the forced migrant status can be initiated by the will of a forced migrant to extend the status by lodging a relevant application no later than one day before the expiration of the validity of its status. The following documents must be attached to the application: a forced migrant certificate, a copy of his passport, a certificate that is issued by an authority conducting the state registration of real estate rights and real estate transactions and confirms that the applicant and members of his family have no dwelling as personal property at the place of their registration, a contract of lease (for forced migrants who are registered in a dwelling belonging to his relatives or other persons as their personal property), a contract of sublease (for forced migrants who are registered in a dwelling that was provided to him by his relatives or other persons leasing that dwelling), other documents supporting that a forced migrant is in the circumstances preventing him to settle down in a new place of residence.
An application submitted by a person after the expiration of his forced migrant status may be considered if the person has valid reasons for the late submission of that application.
A relevant entry on the extension of the forced migrant status is made in the forced migrant certificate. The entry is certified by the signature of the head of the territorial migration agency or of his deputy as well as by an official stamp.
The territorial migration agency conducts a re-registration of forced migrants every year. The re-registration is conducted by questioning the forced migrant; a re-registration card is filled.
A relevant note certified by the signature of an official and a stamp of the territorial migration agency is made in certificates of re-registered forced migrants.
If a forced migrant moves to a new place of residence to another RF subject, he is obliged to get struck of the register of the territorial migration agency before his departure and get registered in the territorial migration agency located in the place of his new residence during a month.
When the forced migrant moves to a new place of residence, he is issued an order and a certified copy of his registration card or an extract from it which should be submitted to the territorial migration agency at the new place of residence.
A forced migrant shall not be returned against his will to a territory (a settlement) that he left under the circumstances according to which he was granted the forced migrant status later on. The forced migrant shall not be resettled to another location without his consent.
In order to get registered at the territorial migration agency at the new place of residence, the forced migrant must lodge an application with the order and the copy of his registration card (or the extract from it). An official of the territorial migration agency at the new place of residence must fill in a new registration card in the presence of the arrived. The new registration card is given a registration number of that RF subject.
A forced migrant loses his status not only on the expiration of its validity, but also when ceasing Russian citizenship or when moving to another country to reside there permanently.
The deprivation of the forced migrant status should be distinguished from the loss of the status. The deprivation of the status is a sanction for the unlawful conduct of a person. According to the Law “On Forced Migrants”, the deprivation of the status is allowed only if the person deliberately reported false information or presented false documents that served as a ground for recognizing him as a forced migrant.
Losing the status by a family member or depriving him of his status do not entail an automatic loss of the forced migrant status by other family members or depriving them of that status, or any other adverse consequences.
According to Paragraph 4 of Article 1 of the Law “On Forced Migrants”, a citizen of the former USSR who was granted the refugee status in the Russian Federation and naturalized later on (naturalization leads to the loss of the refugee status) may also be granted the forced migrant status “if there are circumstances that prevented him in his settling down during the period of the validity of the refugee status”. For this purpose it is necessary for him to lodge an application to the FMS Department during a month from the day of the loss of his refugee status.
If your application on recognizing you as forced migrant is refused to be accepted, you nave the right to appeal against this decision in court.
In accordance with Article 254 of the Civil Legal Procedure Code of the RF citizen or organization has the right to appeal against actions (absence of actions) of the government authorities, local authorities, official, government or municipal representative, if they consider their rights and freedoms to be violated. Citizens have the right to apply to court and to the superior supervisory government agency, local agency, official, government or municipal representative.
In accordance with Article 254 of the Civil Legal Procedure Code you cam appeal against the decision of the Administration for Migration, applying to recognize the decision of the Administration for Migration as unlawful and oblige it conduct the required actions (e.g., register the application, issue forced migrant status, etc.). This application is handed in the court at the place of your residence.
In accordance with Article 6 of the Law “On appealing against actions and decisions, violation the rights and freedoms of citizens” you are not obliged to prove unlawfulness of the appealed actions, but you are to prove that your right is violated.
The term for applying to a higher organization or to court shall not exceed: one month from the day when the person received a written notification of the passed decision or from the day of the expiration of a month period after the submission of a complaint if the person has not received a reply to it in a written form; three months from the day when the person became aware of the violation of his right.
Free grant for building or acquiring of housing of forced migrants.
The law “On forced migrants” (Point 1 of Article 7) provides forced migrants the right to get free grants for building (acquiring) of housing. The process of providing forced migrants with free grants for building or acquiring of housing is regulated by the Order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the RF of October 9, 2002 №971 “On establishing the order of rendering free grants to forced migrants for building or acquiring of housing”. Free grant is rendered to forced migrants in turn by the department of the Ministry for Migration of the Interior Department, head administrations, administrations of interior department of subjects of the Russian Federation in accordance with the list of forced migrants, registered in the self-government agency as needy people waiting for improvement of their housing (permanent residence).
The amount of free grant is calculated by the departments for migration of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Head Administration of Interior Department, and administrations of interior departments of subjects of the Russian Federation, which deal with rendering free grants. To make the calculation of amount of free grant more adequate, the amount of average market price of 1 squire meter of the total area of housing is taken in accordance with standard, which is approved quarterly by the State Committee of the RF for building, housing and communal services of the subjects of the RF and in accordance with the direction of the Government of the RF of March 16, 2000 №394-р6. The family staff of the grantee should include members of the family, who are registered with him in the consolidated list of forced migrants, who have forced migrant status, as well as under aged children, regardless of whether they have forced migrant status or not.
The grantee has the right to acquire or build a housing which can cost more the amount of the grant he received. He may use the money of his own and (or) the borrowed funds to pay for the housing the cost of which exceeds the amount of the free grant. Grantee is not allowed to acquire or build housing, the total area of which The grantee can not acquire or build housing , the total area of which is less than the standard total area of housing (the calculation should be made per each member of the family), accepted by the subjects of the Russian Federation, which deal with registration of citizens for improving of their housing. Forced migrants who made use of the grant, are stricken off the register and are exclude from the list of needy people waiting for improvement of their housing.
Provision of forced migrants with housing
Today the basic normative and legal acts regulating the provision of forced migrants with housing include:
RF Law of February 19, 1993 No.4530-I “On Forced Migrants” (as amended on October 16, 2010);
RF Government Resolution of March 21, 2006 No. 153 (as amended on December 21, 2009) “On Some Issues of the Implementation of the Subprogram “Fulfillment of State Obligations on Providing Housing to Individuals Established by Federal Legislation” of the Federal Target Program “Housing” for 2002-2010”;
RF Government Resolution of December 17, 2010 No. 1050 “On Federal Target Program “Housing” for 2011-2015”.
Today the procedure for acquiring housing by some categories of people including forced migrants is regulated by RF Government Resolution of December 17, 2010 No. 1050 “On Federal Target Program “Housing” for 2011 – 2015”.
At the same time the production and issue of state housing certificates within the framework of the above subprograms is conducted in accordance with
— The Rules of the Production and Issue of State Housing Certificates within the Framework of the Implementation of the Subprogram “Fulfillment of State Obligations on Providing Housing to Individuals Established by Federal Legislation” of the Federal Target Program “Housing” for 2002 – 2010, which were approved by RF Government Resolution of March 21, 2006 No. 153 “On Some Issues of the Implementation of the Subprogram “Fulfillment of State Obligations on Providing Housing to Individuals Established by Federal Legislation” of the Federal Target Program “Housing” for 2002 – 2010”;
— The Rules of the Production and Issue of State Housing Certificates within the Framework of the Implementation of the Subprogram “Fulfillment of State Obligations on Providing Housing to Individuals Established by Federal Legislation” of the Federal Target Program “Housing” for 2011 – 2015, which were approved by RF Government Resolution of March 21, 2006 N 153 “On Some Issues of the Implementation of the Subprogram “Fulfillment of State Obligations on Providing Housing to Individuals Established by Federal Legislation” of the Federal Target Program “Housing” for 2011 – 2015 (as amended on October 13, 2012)
The rules of the production and issue of the state housing certificates determined a uniform format of state financial support of forced migrants for the purpose of acquiring housing at the expense of the federal budget in a form of providing them with the funds of the federal budget for acquiring housing. The right to those funds is certified by the state housing certificate.
The RF Government entrusts bodies of local self-government in the territory of which forced migrants are living, with a duty to issue the state housing certificates (the certificate on a subsidy). In this connection the FMS Department must pass the extracts from consolidated lists of forced migrants registered at bodies of local self-government as standing in need for housing to relevant bodies of local self-government for the purpose of organizing the work on the issue of the state housing certificates.
RF Government Resolution of August 3, 1996 No. 937 “On Provision of Citizens of the Russian Federation Who Need Improved Housing Conditions with Grants for the Construction or Purchase of Housing” from which the FMS of Russia took guidance when solving housing problems of forced migrants, was declared invalid.
At the same time every forced migrant has the right to participate in the subprogram “Fulfillment of State Obligations on Providing Housing to Individuals Established by Federal Legislation” of the Federal Target Program “Housing” for 2011 – 2015”.
In order to participate in the subprogram forced migrants must lodge a relevant application to bodies of local self-government at which they are registered as standing in need for improved housing conditions. The following documents must be attached to the application:
The norm of the total area of the living accommodation for the calculation of the amount of the subsidy is fixed at the following rate:
— 33 square meters – for a person who lives alone;
— 42 square meters – for a family consisting of 2 persons;
— 18 square meters for each family member if the family consists of 3 persons or more.
In case of the formation of several families of forced migrants from one family of forced migrants (for example, when children attain their majority), the amount of the subsidy will be calculated depending on the fact if forced migrants are on the waiting list as one family or as several families.
The right to the improved living conditions with the use of federal funds which is certified by the state housing certificate is granted only once.
In its turn, the body of local self-government creates a list of forced migrants wishing to receive the housing certificate. The list is formed in the chronological order in which the forced migrants (the participants of the subprogram) were registered as standing in need for housing. The participation in the subprogram is voluntary.
In order to get included in such a list the person participating in the subprogram should submit an application for the housing certificate to a body of local self-government in which his registration card is in the period from January 1 to July 1 of the year preceding the planned one.
In accordance with Article 56 of the RF Housing Code, persons are struck off the register as standing in need for housing if they move to another municipality to reside there, with the exception of cases of the change of the place of residence within the federal cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg. Forced migrants have the right to get included in the relevant waiting list at the new place of their residence, but the number of their queue will not be reserved.
The organization of the work on the verification how the lists of forced migrants for the reception of the housing certificates are formed by bodies of local self-government is placed on the Ministry of Housing and Communal Services, Construction and Architecture of the subject of the Russian Federation.
Compensation for the housing and/or property lost by citizens who became affected by the solution of crisis of the Chechen Republic and left if irrevocably.
In accordance with Article 7 of the law «Оn forced migrants» federal agencies of executive authorities render assistance to forced migrant in restoring of the property of his own left on the territory of the. If the property can not be returned back, compensation is paid off. In accordance with the order of rendering compensation to citizens who became victims in the result of the settlement the crisis in the Chechen Republic and left its territory for good, ratified by the Government of the RF of April 30, 1997 № 510, citizens who lost their housing on the territory of the Chechen Republic can get compensation for housing of any kind of ownership and independent of the degree of caused damage, as well as compensation for property lost on the territory of the Chechen Republic, in case these citizens left the Chechen Republic since December12, 1994 and all the members of the family were taken off the books of the registration at the former place of residence and refused their housing on the territory of the Chechen Republic.
In accordance with Point 9 of the order of paying off compensations the following documents should be enclosed:
While applying fro compensation for housing and/or property lost you may face the problem of confirmation of taken your name of the books of registration account in the Chechen Republic.
The great number of forced migrants applying to passport and visa services on registration at the place of residence, was not able to present the required lists of departure of the Chechen Republic. Appealing to the Chechen Republic for taken citizens of the books of registration account and having received no answer, Passport and Visa Services registrated citizens at the place of residence without making any note on taking the person off the books of registration account in the Chechen Republic. In such cases Administration for Migration of the Head Interior Department of the Stavropol Region demand to present evidence of taking off the books of registration account without taking into consideration the fact of presence of registration at the place of residence which exclude any possibility of registration at the former place of residence.
Such actions on presentation of the list of departure should be appealed against in court.
The other obstacle you may face with while applying for compensation is absence of legally relevant facts on your housing.
To overcome this obstacle you should appeal to court at the place of location of your housing with application on establishing the fact of usage and ownership of the housing. First of all, you should find out who is the owner of your flat at the moment, since flats were used to be registrated as property of other people. In such a case you should apply to the Public Prosecutor’s office of Grozny for conducting examination of the fact of acquisition of your flat by the others. To find out who is the owner of your flat at the moment you should apply in writing to the enterprise “Kraytehinventarizatsiya”, to the Administration of the region, to the enterprise of housing service of Grozny. If you are registrated at the moment as the owner of your flat, you have the right of establish legally relevant fact as the owner of housing in court. According to Article 266 of the Civil Code of the RF cases on application of citizens on establishing legally relevant fact of ownership and usage of immovable property are examined by the court at the place of location of immovable property, in other words you are to apply on establishing the fact to the district court of Grozny. Persons who will be interested in examination of such cases are the Administration of the district of Grozny. As evidences on your part you should present the answers of the corresponding services on impossibility of restoring of legally relevant facts, all the written evidences at your disposal of ownership of the flat and residing in it till the moment of departure of the Chechen republic, as well as two witnesses, who can testify your words. In accordance with Article 62 of the Civil Legal Procedure Code of the RF the court, examining the case, in case of necessity to get additional evidences, located in other city or district, can entrust the corresponding court to conduct definite procedure actions. Thus, the court, examining the case, can draw up court assignment on questioning the witnesses, if they reside outside Grozny, and send it to the court at the place of residence of witnesses.
