Norway refused asylum to a Russian fleeing mobilization

Norwegian authorities refused political asylum to Pavlo Suetin, a resident of Severomorsk. In September 2022, he left Russia, fearing to be drafted into the war in Ukraine due to mobilization. The Barents Observer writes about it.

According to Suetyn, he decided to leave Russia after he saw people in uniform near the door of his apartment. He assumes that they wanted to hand him a summons to the military enlistment office. Suetyn claims that he “does not support the war and does not want to kill Ukrainians.” At the end of September 2022, he went to Norway, where his mother lives. There he requested political asylum, writes Sever.Realii.

In mid-September 2024, the Norwegian migration agency UDI informed Suetin that he does not have the right to asylum and must leave the Schengen zone within three weeks.

The Barents Observer writes that the refusal of the department states that the applicant can apply for asylum if he is exposed to the risk of persecution due to his origin, political views, skin color, religion, nationality, belonging to a certain ethnic group or social group. Or – if there is a real threat to him, he will be subjected to the death penalty, torture or other inhuman or degrading treatment. According to the UDI, none of the above threatens Suetin.

The refusal also states that mobilization in Russia is not currently underway. The agency refers to the words of Vladimir Putin and Sergei Shoigu, who announced in October 2022 that the call for mobilization was over. In addition, the document states that in Russia there is no ban on leaving for men of conscription age, and no cases of arrest of people who left the country during the mobilization and then returned.

However, the decree on mobilization in Russia continues to operate, and theoretically the call for mobilization can be renewed at any time, without an additional decree. This allows the authorities not to release those mobilized from the service for more than two years. Putin himself said that those mobilized will remain in the army until the end of the war against Ukraine.

In addition, an electronic register of subpoenas should be established in Russia in the near future. People to whom subpoenas have been sent will be barred from leaving Russia from the moment the subpoena appears in the register, that is, they will no longer be able to avoid mobilization if they left the country, as hundreds of thousands of people did in September 2022.

“I am confident, I know that I will be taken to the war. I am of draft age, I am not married, I have no children, I served in the army. Now even a summons is not necessarily served, it is enough to send it to the State Service – and the person immediately loses the opportunity to leave If I return to Russia, I will end up either in the army or in prison, both options are equivalent to death,” says Suetyn. He did not tell the publication what his future plans are.

• Vladimir Putin announced mobilization on September 21, 2022. At the end of October of the same year, the president announced its completion. At the same time, Putin did not sign the decree on the termination of mobilization.
• In different European countries, there is a different approach to Russians who requested political asylum due to mobilization.
• According to Yle, by July 2024 there were more than 700 men from Russia waiting for asylum in Finland. By May of this year, the Migration Service of Finland had issued 232 positive asylum decisions and 95 negative ones. Another 262 people withdrew their applications and left the country.
• France recognized the right of Russians to receive asylum due to mobilization. The National Court of France on the issue of the right to asylum refers to the legislation of the European Union: it says that persons fleeing war crimes have the right to asylum.
• Germany also provides asylum for refuseniks, but with one condition: the applicant must receive a summons in Russia. Otherwise, the migration agency may consider the risk that this specific applicant will be sent to war to be insignificant. With the introduction of the electronic registry, however, it will be impossible to legally leave Russia after receiving a summons.