You may be forgiven for thinking this headline is decades old. Unfortunately, the reports of a torture camp holding gay men in Chechnya are recent and real.

It has now been confirmed by multiple news sources that three men have died at the hands of a homophobic concentration camp in the Russian federal region of Chechnya.

Despite the camps opening up 'three or four weeks ago,' reports have been few and far between, due to the society of fear surrounding homosexuality in that part of the world.

Indeed, the first journalist, who can be seen in the Tweet below, to report on the problem, is now apparently in hiding.

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The New York Times appears to have been the first western outlet, on 1st April, to confirm the story of hundreds of 16 to 50 year-old men being arrested by Chechen authorities and taken to a concentration camp to be tortured with electrocutions and beatings.

A Russian Newspaper Novaya Gazeta said the men were detained 'in connection with their nontraditional sexual orientation, or suspicion of such' also on the 1st April.

A spokesman, called Alvi Karimov, for Chechnya's leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, denied the allegations in the fairly unconvincing way, suggesting that there are no gay people in the area, since their families would kill them before the police got to them.

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Ramzan Kadyrov

He said, 'You cannot arrest or repress people who just don't exist in the republic.'

'If such people existed in Chechnya, law enforcement would not have to worry about them, as their own relatives would have sent them to where they could never return.'

The remote nature of the mountain villages means that getting information in and out of the area can be difficult. Though reports suggest men are being caught unwittingly through fake dating profiles.

Pink News reports that LGBT activist Svetlana Zakharova said, 'Gay people have been detained and rounded up and we are working to evacuate people from the camps and some have now left the region.

'Those who have escaped said they are detained in the same room and people are kept altogether, around 30 or 40. They are tortured with electric currents and heavily beaten, sometimes to death.'

Since all of these reports have come to light, Amnesty International has started a petition to take to the Chechen government.

The charity outlines the sense that although some men have been released because their captors could not ascertain their sexual orientation, this does not ensure the safety of the men since honour killings are still frequent in the area.

"Honour killings" are still practiced in the North Caucasus, particularly in deeply conservative Chechnya. Men deemed to have 'tarnished' the family's honour are often killed by a family member.

Kheda Saratova, a member of the Human Rights Council, has commented that Chechen society and Chechnya's "whole justice system" would treat anyone who kills a gay relative "with understanding".

'She later claimed that she had been misunderstood and that the revelation that there were gay men in Chechnya had shocked her so much that she was unable to think clearly,' says Amnesty.

Many people have noted how little press the terrifying news has gotten and have resolved to have a march in London to demonstrate their concern.

But if you can't get down to the demo, people are urging others to spread awareness of the Human Rights issue.

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Daisy Murray
Digital Fashion Editor

Daisy Murray is the Digital Fashion Editor at ELLE UK, spotlighting emerging designers, sustainable shopping, and celebrity style. Since joining in 2016 as an editorial intern, Daisy has run the gamut of fashion journalism - interviewing Molly Goddard backstage at London Fashion Week, investigating the power of androgynous dressing and celebrating the joys of vintage shopping.