UNHCR voices concern for rising number of attacks against foreigners in Moscow

The United Nations refugee agency today voiced great concern over what it said was a growing incidence and viciousness of racists attacks in Moscow against foreigners, including many refugees and asylum seekers.

The agency has asked Russian authorities to intervene immediately to increase security and prevent further attacks, a spokesman with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in Geneva.

A violent attack earlier this week by skinheads wielding metal bars left one man – a Russian citizen of Afghan origin – dead, and a second – a Congolese asylum seeker – hospitalized from his injuries, according to spokesman Kris Janowski. Both victims worked as interpreters for the Moscow Regional Migration Service.

“The brutal attacks create an environment of fear and insecurity for refugees and asylum seekers in Russia,” the spokesman said at a press briefing.

Asylum seekers in Moscow have reported to UNHCR as many as 10 racist attacks per month over the past eight months, with several victims needing hospitalization following beatings, Mr. Janowski said. An Angolan refugee died in early September following injuries sustained in a gang attack outside the agency’s refugee reception centre in Moscow in late August.