UZBEKISTAN: UNHCR assists in the resettlement of Afghan refugees to Canada

TASHKENT, 31 Jan 2005 (IRIN) - The office for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Uzbekistan has started resettling 237 Afghan refugees to Canada following an agreement with Ottawa reached late last year, a UN official said on Monday.

Those who are to be resettled in Canada were selected because they were considered to be at risk if repatriated to Afghanistan. "Of the persons referred for resettlement to Canada in August 2004, 237 persons were accepted, 113 persons were rejected and the decision regarding 29 persons was put on hold," Abdul Karim Gul, head of UNHCR, in Uzbekistan told IRIN.

Under this year's resettlement programme, the UNHCR plans to submit details of another group of 400 Afghan refugees to the governments of Canada and the USA. "Given the positive outcome of the 2004 resettlement programmes, signalled by high a acceptance rate both by the USA and Canada, the UNHCR expects similar results for the forthcoming 2005 submissions," Gul said.

Uzbekistan, Central Asia's most populous state, fearing a flood of refugees from conflicts in neighbouring Afghanistan and Tajikistan, effectively sealed its borders to stop refugees entering. Contrary to international convention, Tashkent has never granted refugee status to those escaping persecution who managed to enter the country between 1993 and 2001.

According to UNHCR estimates, in 2003 more than 6,000 Afghans were living in Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan is one of the few former Soviet states that has not joined the Convention of 1951 and Protocol of 1967 concerning refugee status.

Since Uzbekistan is not a party to these conventions, those who entered the country and are now under UNHCR's protection are not officially recognised by the Uzbek government. As a consequence, their living conditions remain extremely difficult, with no legal access to work, education or health care.

Most refugees are dependent on material aid provided by the UNHCR and local charities. Until recently, the lack of legal status in authoritarian Uzbekistan means refugees had to live under constant threat of arrest and deportation.

"Afghan refugees always face great difficulties in Uzbekistan, unlike in neighbouring countries like Kyrgyzstan, where they have legal refugee status," an Afghan refugee who will soon will be going to Canada told IRIN under condition of anonymity.

"Though documents given by UNHCR now protect them [refugees] from police arrest and deportation which used to be very common in recent years, it remains extremely difficult to find a job here, where you have to always bribe someone even to push a handcart in bazaars to earn a little money," he continued.

The UN agency is also implementing a voluntary repatriation programme for Afghan refugees who wish to return to their homeland.

"Since the beginning of the voluntary repatriation programme in 2002, a total of 501 Afghans have returned to Afghanistan via Uzbekistan. Out of them, 285 returned from Uzbekistan, [the] other 216 returned from other former Soviet republics via Uzbekistan," Gul said.

[ENDS]