Amnesty International: Russia least welcoming country for refugees

LONDON, England – Russia is the least welcoming country to refugees, according to a survey commissioned by Amnesty International and conducted by consulting firm GlobeScan.

The survey created a Refugees Welcome Index that ranks countries on a scale from zero to 100, where zero means that all survey respondents would refuse refugees entry to their country and 100 means that all respondents would accept refugees into their neighborhood.

Russia was given an index score of 18, the lowest. China was the most welcoming country for refugees — scoring 85. The median index score was 52.

The first part of the survey asked respondents whether people should be able to take refuge in other countries to escape from war or persecution. Thirty-nine percent of Russians said they somewhat disagree or strongly disagree. Fifty-three percent of Russian agreed with the statement.

When asked whether their government should do more to help refugees fleeing war or persecution, 58 percent of Russians thought that their government should not do more. Only 26 percent thought the Russian government should do more — placing Russia at the bottom of the list of 27 countries.

The second part of the survey asked whether respondents would accept refugees in their own household, neighborhood, city, country or refuse them entry to their country altogether.

Sixty-one percent of Russian respondents would not accept refugees into their country. In Poland, the second-least welcoming country, 29 percent of respondents had the same response. The global average was 17 percent.

Only 1 percent of people in Russia would accept refugees into their household. The average recorded internationally was 10 percent.

GlobeScan spoke by telephone with 1,020 Russians aged 18 and older from March 9-21, 2016. The margin of error does not exceed 3.7 percent.