Filtration was used in the aftermath of the second world war and during the Chechen wars of the 1990s. We explain why the camps have reappeared after Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine
began, hundreds of thousands of people have been forcibly deported to Russia by occupying forces. The exact number is unclear: on April 21st Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, put the figure at half a million. Russian officials have claimed that 420,000 civilians have been “voluntarily evacuated”. Many passed through Russian “filtration camps” on their way out of Ukraine.
There are disturbing parallels in Ukraine. Before Russia’s invasion, American officials said that Russian forces were creating lists of people to be killed or sent to camps if Russia occupied parts of the country. Likely targets included Russian and Belarusian dissidents in exile, anti-corruption activists, members of religious and ethnic minorities and LGBT people.
According to the UN, the deportation or transfer of people from an occupied territory constitutes a war crime. Russia insists that the relocation of civilians by its armed forces is benign and voluntary. But filtration camps appear to be a tool of war, used to erase Ukrainian identity.
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