US immigration authorities have deported dozens of Russian asylum seekers to Moscow, including a serviceman wanted for desertion who has since been detained, the Guardian can reveal.
At least two deportation flights operated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) departed from the agency’s major detention hub in Alexandria, Louisiana and landed in Cairo, Egypt, where the asylum seekers were transferred to flights bound for Moscow with the cooperation of Egyptian and Russian authorities, according to interviews with passengers and human rights campaigners.
The first flight departed in mid-June and carried about 30 Russian citizens. The most recent, on 27 August, transported approximately 50 people.
“We were shackled and handcuffed, then forced on to an Ice plane to Cairo,” said one asylum seeker deported last week, who, like others, asked to remain anonymous to speak freely.
They said their documents were confiscated and that, after a two-hour stopover in Egypt, local authorities ordered them to board a flight to Moscow.
On arrival in Moscow, passengers were subjected to “filtration”: interrogations by Russia’s federal security services. Those without criminal convictions were released.
The exact number of Russians deported, and how many of them had applied for political asylum, remains unclear owing to the opaque and chaotic nature of US deportation practices.
Among those deported on 27 August was Andrei Vovchenko, a 25-year-old former Russian serviceman who deserted his post in October 2022. He was wanted for desertion, according to an official defence ministry notice sent to his family.
The charges against him carry a sentence of up to 10 years in prison. The Guardian was unable to reach Vovchenko, but witnesses who were on the same flight said he was detained immediately on arrival in Moscow.
“He begged not to be put on the plane to Moscow, but Egyptian police restrained him and tied him up,” said another person who was on the same deportation flight. “They tied him to his seat, and he cried the entire way from Egypt to Moscow.”
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not immediately respond to requests for comment and has not issued any official statement.
Russia’s coordination with Egyptian security forces raises questions over whether US immigration authorities were aware that Russian citizens would ultimately be returned to Moscow.
“Unfortunately, our worst fears are coming true,” said Vladimir Osechkin, a Russian human rights activist who operates the site Gulagu.net.
“People in need of protection, fleeing Putin’s war and dictatorship, FSB torture and repression, have ended up in US prisons, dressed in orange jumpsuits and shackled during transfers like criminals. Some of them have been handed over to the FSB and other security services. This is cruel and shameful,” Osechkin said.
“We appeal to the US authorities to halt these deportations and conduct a thorough review,” he added.
On Wednesday, the leading Russian opposition figures Yulia Navalnaya, Vladimir Kara-Murza and Ilya Yashin issued a joint statement calling on the Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, to grant asylum to Russians facing deportation from the US.
“People who fled Kremlin repression and Putin’s prisons are ending up in American prisons. This appears profoundly unjust. Worse still, US courts are increasingly issuing denials of asylum claims and granting the executive branch the authority to deport our compatriots back to Russia – where, as a rule, this means immediate arrest by Putin’s security services,” they wrote in a letter published by the Globe and Mail.
“We ask that Canada adopt a decision to grant asylum to those Russian citizens whose opposition and anti-war activities are beyond doubt, and who are subject to deportation orders by the US authorities,” the letter added.
Donald Trump campaigned on a platform of mass deportation and his administration has reshaped immigration enforcement across the country.
At least 195,000 people have been deported by Ice under Trump so far, according to a tally by the Guardian.
Russia has seen a sharp rise in asylum applications to the US since its invasion of Ukraine, as many Russians seek to leave the country and avoid being drafted into the military.
More than 8,300 Russian nationals have applied for asylum in the US since the start of the full-scale invasion, according to DHS data aggregated by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (Trac), a group that monitors immigration data. About 85% of Russians who applied for asylum were granted it in 2024, according to Trac.
During much of Joe Biden’s term as US president, Russian dissidents and other asylum seekers were typically granted entry into the US on parole while their cases moved through the system. But starting in 2023, that practice shifted: many applicants instead ended up in long-term detention, in some cases for more than a year, for reasons that remain unclear. The practice intensified significantly under Trump.
There have been widespread reports from asylum seekers of human rights abuses in US detention since Trump’s inauguration. Several Russian nationals who were later deported said they had endured repeated instances of inhumane treatment while in US custody.
One man, who applied for asylum on political grounds in May 2024, said he was soon detained and sent to Adams County Detention Center in Natchez, Mississippi. He described overcrowded, unsanitary conditions and a rapid decline in his health.
“I weighed 93kg before they placed me in a detention centre. A month and a half later, I weighed 69kg,” said the man, who was deported to Russia in June. “I called my relatives, telling them: I’m probably going to die.”
He said he had entered the US legally through the Mexican border and had been invited to an interview by immigration officials, but was instead taken into custody and placed in detention. He said conditions had grown harsher in the days before deportation.
“A group of Ice officials came in with guns. They shouted that anyone who resisted would face violence,” he said.
He recalled being shackled for hours, denied consistent medical care and given no information about his legal status or when he might appear before a judge. “It felt like we were being treated as criminals, not as people asking for protection from Russia,” he added.
Trump has vowed to step up deportations in the coming weeks and months, leaving many Russians still in the asylum process in the US living in fear.
“My husband was supposed to be deported on the flight last week but his lawyer managed to prevent that from happening,” said the wife of one asylum seeker, who added that her husband faced extremism charges in Russia for taking part in anti-government protests.
“I can’t even imagine what would have happened to him if he had been sent back,” she added.
