Filtration camps, also referred to as concentration camps, are camps used by Russian forces during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine to register, interrogate, and detain Ukrainian citizens in regions under Russian occupation before transferring them into Russia, sometimes as part of forced population transfers. Filtration camp detainees undergo a system of security checks and personal data collection. Detainees are subject to widespread torture, killings, rape, starvation and other grave human rights violations.
The number of Ukrainian citizens relocated to Russia cannot be independently verified. According to the Ukrainian government, some 1.6 million Ukrainians have been forcibly relocated to Russia, with about 250,000 of these being children. The Russian government denies it is forcibly removing Ukrainians to Russia and calls the deportations "evacuation".
According to a leaked Russian occupation plan, "filtration" was to represent the foundation of their counter-insurgency and pacification strategy, with Russian occupation authorities planning to pass large portions of the Ukrainian population through the "filtration" process after occupying the entire country.
Overview
Occupying powers in international conflicts have the right to register persons within their area of control or even detain civilians under certain circumstances, however, Russia's filtration system violates multiple elements of international humanitarian law and may involve multiple grave human rights abuses.
Ukrainians in Russian-occupied zones are often left unable to flee into Ukrainian-held territory, having to either stay in areas experiencing unliveable conditions or flee to other areas under Russian control or into Russia itself. To enter Russia, many Ukrainians are forced to undergo "filtration", a process during which they are interrogated, and their biometric data is taken. While awaiting "filtration", Ukrainians are settled in so-called "filtration camps", set up ad hoc in various public buildings where the "filtration" takes place. After passing "filtration", Ukrainians are reportedly often forcibly transferred to the Russian Far East.
According to Meduza, filtration most likely occurs either at "filtration posts" which are essentially border crossing points where people have been obliged to voluntarily wait their turn due to the large influx of people trying to cross, or at actual filtration camps where people awaiting "filtration" are temporarily detained.
According to a leaked Russian occupation plan, "filtration" was intended to serve as pacification and counter-insurgency strategy following Russian occupation of the entirety of Ukrainian territory. According to the occupation plans, large portions of the Ukrainian populations were to be rounded up during door-to-door sweeps and passed through "filtration" in order to compile comprehensive counter-intelligence files: "Filtration would be used to intimidate people, to determine whether they needed to be displaced into Russia, and to lay the groundwork for records to monitor and disrupt resistance networks."
Location of the filtration camps
As of June 2022, most filtration camps were attested to be located in towns and villages across the puppet quasi-state Donetsk People's Republic. Filtration camps have been set up in what had previously been public buildings like schools, cultural centres, sports halls, community centres, police stations, and makeshift camp areas.
In a July 2022 statement to the OSCE, a U.S. diplomat stated that the U.S. had identified at least 18 filtration camp sites set up by Russia both in Ukrainian and Russian territory, with preparations of filtration camps having been undertaken even before the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The filtration camps had been set up in Ukrainian territory that had recently come under Russian occupation by Russian officials working alongside proxy groups, the U.S. diplomat said. The U.S. diplomat said the filtration camps were set up in what had been schools, sport centres, and cultural institutions. An article published by the Polish Spokesman for the Minister Coordinator of Special Services found and published the location of six such camps "where there are Russian torture chambers used against Ukrainians."
