Tent camp "Bella" is under threat of closure

On September 1, 2003, the administration of the Chechen refugees' camp "Bella" situated on the outskirts of the Ordzhonikidzevskaya village in the Sunzhensky region of Ingushetia made an announcement. The announcement read, "According to the edict of the Federal Migration Service of the Russian Interior Ministry, the place of temporal residence "Bella" is closed since September 1".

It became known later that the edict had already been signed on August 1, 2003 by First Deputy Head of the Russian Federal Migration Service Yunash. The residents of the camp learned about it only the very day when the camp was to be eliminated. 

Besides, the representative of the Russian Federal Migration Service Pomeshchenko and Deputy Head of the Ingush Interior Ministry's Migration Department Parchiyev arrived at the camp on September 2. Pomeshchenko demanded that the tent camp residents should leave the camp territory within a week.

Meanwhile, some migration officials assert that no actions of violation against the camp residents will be carried out. As the Migration Service's officials said, all the forced migrants temporarily living in the tent camp will be transferred to three other camps for refugees - "Satsita", "Sputnik", and "Alina".