The Global Story: They fled Russia. The US sent them back
From Global News Podcast
Transcript
Apparent. Right. That if people understand that they will be deported back to the fsb, back into really serious peril, then they perhaps might not attempt to come to the US and claim asylum. But as I say, that's. That's a theory. Speculation. We don't know. What we do know is that there doesn't seem to be any sort of official kind of agreement between Moscow and Washington that, oh, you go, you send these guys back to me, and I'll do this for you. There's no evidence of that. Well, which brings us back to Katya, who we left being interrogated by the FSB in Moscow airport. What happened to her next? Well, she and many of the other deportees on board were taken into a special part of the airport terminal building that was closed off to other passengers. And there, one by one, they were interrogated by the security service officers for many hours. In some cases, they questioned me for a very long time, about two hours. They mocked me, made fun of me. They asked her all kinds of personal questions about her life, about why she left Russia, about why she went to the US and claimed asylum there, and about her political activity in Russia. At one point, they found incriminating information on my phone. Their faces changed in a second. I. But they released us. But she said the police continue to harass her. After I returned home, the police came and questioned me again. Because of the nervous stress, my hair had started falling out. Whenever I see a police car, I feel terrified and start thinking, what if they're coming for me? She's certain that her mobile phone is being monitored. She says it keeps on doing very strange things. I feel as if I'm in a cage, like in a zoo. She lives in fear in her hometown, but she's still in Russia, and that's why we have to protect her identity. How typical is Katya's experience, being left in this. This kind of limbo? It's almost like a limbo under surveillance, it sounds like. But how typical is that? Well, there's. There's no typical scenario. It really depends on people's circumstances. So some of those who are deported are wanted. Wanted.