Azerbaijani asylum seeker commits suicide

Azerbaijani refugee Fikrat Makhmudov committed suicide in a camp in the Netherlands as he did not want to return to his homeland. Mahmudov was previously rejected political asylum in Germany. Netherlands, where he tried next, turned him away as well, and so he slit his veins to avoid deportation, his neighbor in the camp shared.

As reported by Meydan.TV, this is not the first time when migrants from Azerbaijan go to extreme measures to avoid returning. For example, in February of this year, Kamal Imamalieva tried to commit suicide in order to avoid deportation from Germany. Earlier, in January, a man whose family was also going to be deported from Germany shot back at a police officer after getting a hold of his weapon in a scuffle.

Germany and the Netherlands are the most popular destinations for Azerbaijani migrants. According to the German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, from January to April 2018 alone, 1 564 Azerbaijani citizens attempted to obtain refugee status in that country, of which 857 applications were refused.

Most Azerbaijani refugees apply on grounds of persecution due to political views or sexual orientation. Sometimes these stories are truthful, though other times the claims are a fabrication.

Nargiz Sultanova’s asylum claim was recognized as genuine. She spent about a year in a Dutch camp. Recalling this time, she says that the most difficult part was the atmosphere of never ending and tormenting expectation:

“You are always waiting for something: a meeting with a lawyer, an interview, a decision. And this can last forever. There were people who waited for 12 years. Waiting is the regular state in the camp, everyone is trying to somehow cope with this. And everyone thinks about what they will do after they receive a positive response.”

There was another unspoken rule in the camp: to not ask campmates how they ended up there.

Nargiz now lives in The Hague and works in a veterinary clinic. Her brother however, who applied for asylum at the same time as Nargiz, was refused and returned to Azerbaijan.