Court bailiffs in the Siberian city of Irkutsk have deported a Ukrainian woman and her five children to the U.S., the RIA Novosti news agency reported Thursday, citing a statement from the region’s court bailiff service.
“Court bailiffs have executed an enforced deportation of six Ukrainian nationals living illegally in Russia. They were sent to the United States, where they lived for the last 15 years,” the statement said, RIA Novosti reported.
According to the authorities, the family had previously lived in the Nizhny Novgorod region, where they had unsuccessfully applied for temporary asylum.
They went to Irkutsk region in a bid to speed up the process of receiving Russian citizenship but since January have been living in the country illegally.
Plane tickets for the family were paid for by the husband of the deported woman, who lives in Chicago. The court also issued a fixed 2,000 ruble ($30) fine.
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