‘I told my family, I’ll probably die’: US immigration sends Russian asylum seekers back to Moscow

A prominent Russian human rights activist says people ‘fleeing Putin’s war and dictatorship’ have been sent back to the country. Photograph: David Dee Delgado/Reuters

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.