More Andijan victims seek asylum

At least 14 Uzbek nationals have applied for refugee status in the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh in the past few days, the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and local migration officials have confirmed. “They are seeking refugee status in Kyrgyzstan and their applications have been duly registered,” officials at the Kyrgyz Migration and Employment Agency in Osh said on Friday. The agency said the group arrived in Kyrgyzstan from the eastern Uzbek city of Andijan last year because they feared government repression. Uzbek security forces suppressed protests in Andijan on 13 May 2005 killing up to 1,000 – mainly unarmed - civilians, according to rights groups. The Uzbek government said 187 were killed. Hundreds of protesters fled Andijan for neighbouring Kyrgyzstan following the crackdown. More than 400 of them were granted the status of UNHCR-mandated refugees and airlifted to Romania in July 2005. Tashkent had been pressuring the Kyrgyz government to extradite them for alleged terrorist activities. “There are secret police informants everywhere in Andijan. We were even afraid of the head of our local makhalla [neighbourhood] committee,” one of the Andijan victims told migration officials. The refugees had been living and working in southern Kyrgyzstan illegally, trying to keep a low profile, officials said. They remained afraid of ID checks, increased interest from law-enforcement bodies and repatriation back to Uzbekistan. Mulusew Mamo, head of the UNHCR office in Osh, said it had not yet spoken to the group. “The whole process is just starting. What I can add is that the number of people seeking assistance is rising,” he said. Local civil society groups said that heightened security measures in the area had pushed more Andijan Uzbeks to come forward and seek a legal solution to their plight. “The introduction of a passport control regime and the recent detention of a group of Uzbek nationals living in the south illegally have prompted them to legalise [their status] in the country,” Rustam Mamazakirov, a lawyer with the Osh Adilettuulugu NGO, which provides legal help to asylum seekers and refugees, said. “Every day three to four people [Uzbek nationals] are coming to us in search of legal assistance,” Mamazakirov said. Four Uzbeks at the NGO’s office on Thursday declined to be interviewed. “They are very scared and try to avoid any contacts with strangers, seeing a potential threat in any person,” Mamazakirov said. “This group was requested to report to the local police department and I am accompanying them as a lawyer,” he explained. Once a person has submitted his or her application for refugee status in Kyrgyzstan, a special ID is issued conveying legal protection and certain rights, including the right of residency and the ability to work. Nurilia Joldosheva, head of the migration agency’s Osh office, said that under Kyrgyz law the assessment of a refugee application could take from six months to a year. Over the past year it had registered 44 Uzbek nationals seeking asylum in the country. MH/GS/DS