Syrians Have No Chance Of Asylum In Russia

Sky News has discovered the extraordinary lengths to which Russian President Vladimir Putin's administration is going to keep out Syrian asylum seekers.

Russia has granted two Syrians full asylum status since the conflict began in 2011.

In comparison, Germany is currently accepting about 35,000 people per month.

Makhachkala, the biggest city in the Russian state of Dagestan, is a chaotic spot - with half-built apartment blocks and partly paved roads fanning out, spaghetti-like, from the western edge of the Caspian Sea.

Among the 600,000 people who live here, there is just one man - a solicitor called Shamil Magemadov - who is willing to work with refugees.

"That's surprising, I know," says the 37-year-old.

"Syrians who come here (seeking asylum) share the same religion as the residents, but it doesn't seem to make a difference."

As Makhachkala goes, so does the rest of Russia.

It may be the principal military backer of the Syrian regime but that does not mean Russia is willing to accept its citizens fleeing war and terror.

We joined Mr Magemadov as he made his way to the local lock-up where five Syrian asylum seekers are being held indefinitely.

They have all applied for refugee status but lack the proper paperwork permitting them to stay.

As a consequence, each one has spent more than a year behind bars - and human rights groups believe there are Syrians in similar circumstances sitting in just about every detention centre in the country.

"They are very depressed," said Mr Magemadov, when I asked about their mental state.

"They have been in there a long time and they don't know if they're ever getting out."

What is clear is that these men have no chance of getting asylum.

Nonetheless, the 'Makhachkala 5' did leave the detention complex in February, when Russian migration officials tried to secretly deport them back to Syria.

A decision, says Mr Magemadov, that could have cost them their lives.

When he got wind of what was going on, he immediately tried to block it at the European Court of Human Rights.

"They were waiting at Moscow airport (to be deported) and I filed a petition to the court," he said.

"We had no time to lose. If the court sided with me after the government put them on the plane, we knew we would never get them back."  

Sky News has learned that such deportations are common.

According to the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) and other civil society groups operating in Russia, at least 18 Syrians have been sent back directly to Syria, contravening the 1951 Refugee Convention (of which Russia is a signatory) and the Russian Constitution.

Sky News has been told the total number of Syrians deported is "almost certainly far higher" but this number represents those cases they have heard about and can confirm.  

The lives of the five men in Makhachkala may have been saved but they told us they have little, or nothing, to live for.  

Zacharia Berri, from Aleppo in Syria, has spent almost a year inside and during that time, he has twice tried to take his own life.

The second attempt was made in February, just before Russian migration officials tried to take them all to the airport.

In a message recorded on a telephone inside the detention centre, Mr Berri told Sky News: "I don't want to go to Syria, I oppose the regime.

"I am a wanted man. The security services are waiting for me to send me to the army. I don't want to go."

We have obtained this picture of the 24-year-old after he tried to slash his left wrist two months ago. 

Sky News also received this picture, in the past few days, of another inmate called Rebar Kasar.

The young Syrian has taken a chunk out of his own arm because, after 14 months inside he says he is "going insane".   

Aleppo native Sabri Koro has spent 16 months inside and told us it has been particularly difficult because he has a Russian wife and child who he is not allowed to see.

Migration officials rejected his asylum request on the basis that he has failed to provide his family with "manly and fatherly care".

The registration of his marriage, which took place after he had been detained, was proof, said officials, of paternal negligence.  

Mr Magemadov chuckles when the subject of the migration service's 'rejection notices' is raised.

The Russian migration service uses - and reuses - the same templates when issuing these rejections, telling failed applicants they are "in no more danger than other citizens living (in Syria)".

The country is safe, add the templates, because the regime is "in control of about 50% of the territory".

For the troubled-looking refugee lawyer, in the sprawling city of Makhachkala, the arrests and detentions, the deportations and the rejection slips, are simple proof of an unacknowledged yet active government policy. 

"I think there are unwritten rules regarding Syrians," he said.

"Why do citizens of Ukraine get asylum without problems (in Russia), but citizens of Syria do not?"