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Train refugees finally granted asylum

By Liz Fekete

1 March 1997

More than 100 asylum-seekers from the Middle East and Asia, mostly Kurds, who embarked on a remarkable voyage to escape persecution only to be detained in a Latvian prison, have finally been granted asylum in Sweden and other Nordic states after a protracted struggle as to which country was responsible for them.

The refugees travelled to the Baltics via Moscow, having paid thousands of US dollars to smuggling gangs. Detained in Latvia in 1995, they were shunted back and forth by train to Russia and Lithuania. No country would accept responsibility for them until the UN High Commissioner for Refugees intervened.

Sweden has agreed to take 52 of the 108 refugees, with Denmark, Finland and Norway accepting 25, 20 and 11 apiece.

Independent 6.12.96

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