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Arriving in Narva, Estonia, mid-June: This Ukrainian family from Mariupol had fled via Russia
Photo: AP
As Vyacheslav heads to the Russian-Estonian border with his wife Irina, he knows he will have questions to answer.
What he does not expect: that he could be sent back to Russia as a Ukrainian from Mariupol.
It is the evening of September 7th when the couple and their cat cross the bridge on the border river Narva.
The two show the Estonian officials their Ukrainian passports.
In addition, copies of the Russian migration cards that they had received when they fled to Russia like everyone else who had entered the country.
The Estonians questioned her for a long time and kept her waiting, the 28-year-old reported to SPIEGEL on the phone afterwards.
An official wanted to know why they only left Mariupol in mid-August.
Why they only now wanted to move from Russia to the EU.
Vyacheslav says they couldn't have done it sooner after weeks of fighting and all the uncertainty.
Then in Russia they would have had to earn money in order to be able to continue fleeing west.
The Ukrainian couple waited at the border for a total of more than ten hours, it says.
Late at night they receive a piece of paper.
It says: refusal of entry.
Two points are marked on the back as reasons.
First: invalid papers.
Second: no evidence of being in the war zone.
Vyacheslav and Irina are not the only Ukrainians who were sent back to Russia at the Estonian border. SPIEGEL now has a number of relevant documents.
Rumors have been circulating on social media for weeks.
On request, the authorities announced that they had actually refused entry to a total of 867 Ukrainians by September 18.
Tendency clearly rising.
The vast majority of rejections took place at the border crossing in Narva.
The Estonians assure us that there are good reasons for every rejection.
But the circumstances make that highly questionable.
The Baltic states have been pursuing a rigid line since the beginning of the Ukraine war, with Estonia often seeing itself as a pioneer.
Hardly any other EU country initially delivered armaments to Kyiv so diligently, and nobody took in more Ukrainians in relation to the population.
The country is pursuing a tough course against Russia.
An entry ban for Russians announced jointly with Poland only came into effect last week.
For a long time, the Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas has also been traded as the future NATO Secretary General.
"Every resident is responsible for the actions of their state, and Russian citizens are no exception," she said last week.
“That's why we don't grant asylum to Russian men fleeing their country.
You should rather oppose the war.« Several EU countries share this attitude, although it is hardly compatible with the fundamental right to an individual examination of an asylum application.
It is a course that is likely to generate much discussion in the coming weeks.
Rejected in Estonia, admitted in Latvia and Finland
But Estonia is going one step further by rejecting Ukrainians who want to flee to Europe via Russia.
Only those who come from the war zone get protection.
But even this basic agreement often seems not to have been kept.
The actions of the authorities not only call into question solidarity.
Human rights activists speak of arbitrariness and violations of fundamental rights at the EU's external borders.
The Estonians defend the refusals by saying that they mostly hit Ukrainians who lived in the aggressor's country before the war.
But refugee helpers on both sides of the border deny that. Archbishop Grigory of the independent Apostolic Orthodox Church in Saint Petersburg speaks of more than a hundred cases - all of them war refugees.
In not a single case had those affected previously lived in Russia, he says.
After the war began, the cleric began organizing help and escape routes for Ukrainian refugees to the west with Russian volunteers – despite the considerable risks.
Another problem, according to Tallinn, is the lack of biometric data.
When they arrive from Russia, some Ukrainians simply do not have enough evidence of escaping the war zone.
For others, the information is too unclear or documents are insufficient.
The Estonians also questioned the details of his wife and him, says Vyacheslav.
The date of the Russian entry stamp from mid-August does not match a Russian receipt in his pocket that is one day older, the accusation goes.
In addition, the stamp is not legible.
Vyacheslav says he tried to explain what chaos reigned in the border area.
In view of the long waiting times, an employee of the Russian border guard simply postdated the stamp.
Estonian and Russian refugee workers who support Ukrainians on their way out of the war zone describe the case of the couple from Mariupol as typical.
Their distrust of Estonia is reinforced by the fact that the Ukrainians who were turned away were often able to enter Latvia or Finland shortly afterwards without any problems.
So did Vyacheslav and his partner.
The number of rejections is so small that they are not really recorded, according to the Finnish border guard, who also grant entry to Ukrainians who previously lived in Russia and are now seeking refuge for obvious reasons.
“It is striking that no one who was banned from entering the country at the Estonian border and was looked after by us during his flight was turned away in Finland,” says Father Grigory.
Even the lack of biometric data should not be an obstacle to entry.
After the start of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, the European Union put the so-called mass influx directive into force for the first time.
Ukrainian women can thus settle anywhere in the EU without a complicated asylum procedure, receive social assistance and the right to work.
Apart from a passport and proof of having been in the country after the start of the war, no documents are required.
Only then could tens of thousands of Ukrainians travel to Estonia at short notice.
The country continues to take in many Ukrainian refugees, but the Estonians are tough as nails on the border with Russia.
In many cases, says the Estonian lawyer Uljana Ponomarjova, the fact that there is a fundamental right to a constitutional asylum procedure, independent of the EU directive, has been concealed.
People who came from a country at war were sometimes treated like unsuspecting tourists and turned away shortly afterwards.
Apparently they are suspect to the authorities.
It therefore assumes intent and political will.
According to Ponomaryova, it is unclear to many Ukrainians that they basically have the right to apply for asylum.
Estonia: All refusals legal
The Russian refugee helper Nina Pirozinsky from Saint Petersburg has now documented more than 50 cases with the help of other volunteers and forwarded them to the UN refugee agency UNHCR.
The rejections are vague and diffuse.
"In all the entry ban documents that I have seen, there is no precise information," says Pirozinsky, who asks that her real name not be published for security reasons.
For the Ukrainians, the insecure situation at the border is almost unbearable.
'They don't understand why they aren't let in.
That is enormous stress for people who are already traumatized.«
When asked, the UNHCR said it was now in contact with the Estonian authorities.
One is aware of the situation and insists on a "consistent application of the mass influx directive".
Lauri Läänemets, the Social Democratic Interior Minister who has only been in office since July, recently announced that he wanted to examine the incidents more closely.
Soon after, however, his ministry backtracked.
One is now certain that all refusals were lawful, according to a high-ranking official of the ministry.
An analysis of the situation is therefore not necessary.
Some decisions, however, seem simply arbitrary.
When Vyacheslav and his wife Irina tried to cross the border for the second time, they were again questioned for hours, he recalls.
After that, you suddenly wanted to let them pass – if they left the four-month-old cat behind.
"We canceled then."
"Some who are turned away in Narva get through on the second try," confirms Eero Janson, President of the Estonian Refugee Council.
"There seem to be very different interpretations of the same rules."
Officially, the Estonian government insists that it has not changed its admissions policy.
In fact, the harder pace was not unheralded.
Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said in June: “A lot is done to screen these people before they are admitted.
It is checked who they are, whether they are from Ukraine, where they want to go next.
Especially with men.” Basically, the question arises as to whether they shouldn’t rather fight, Kallas continues.
Three months later, this attitude obviously also determines how we deal with the Ukrainian refugees, especially if they increasingly come from eastern Ukraine and are now mostly male.
With the Finns, such thoughts played no role, says Vyacheslav.
They had to answer questions for about five minutes.
After that, luggage and papers were checked.
"Then we could pass - with our cat from Mariupol," says Vyacheslav.
He calls the experiences at the Estonian border "bitter."
Acquaintances were already waiting in Narva, they had accommodation and work in a factory.
In Finland they now have to organize everything from scratch.
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