14 August 2007, 13:04
Father of the illegal boy who suffered in France escaped from Chechnya in order not to become a militant
Father of Ivan Dembskiy, 12, illegal immigrant to France, who fell down last week from a balcony in the French city of Amiens, had run away from Chechnya because of his unwilling to become a militant, the "Izvestia" has informed today.
Ivan was born in Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, in 1995, the full swing of the first Chechen war. His father, Andrei Dembskiy, 33, is a Ukrainian by nationality, and his mother, Natalia Abueva, 29, is a Chechen. It is known that her father is a dedicated separatist. It was the reason of the Dembskiy family's runaway to France: Natalia's father demanded her husband to take a machinegun and leave for the mountains to fight against federal troops.
Ivan's parents applied for political asylum in France twice, but both times were rejected.
On August 9, the police came to detain the "illegal aliens." Father and son tried to run away through neighbouring balconies, but the boy fell down from the height of the fifth floor. Now, he remains in coma, but his condition gradually improves.
"For humanitarian reasons," the authorities gave a 6-month temporary residence permit to Ivan's father and mother, letting them to legally stay with their injured child.
In Amiens, about 200 human rights activists held a demonstration. They protested against "the policy of the French authorities on toughening measures against illegal immigrants."
