Tajik repatriation continues

Nurali Honov wants to return to his country. Having fled civil war and conflict in his native Tajikistan, the 27-year-day labourer from the southwestern Hatlon province is among the hundreds of Tajik refugees a year repatriating from Turkmenistan. Working on a construction site outside the Turkmen capital Ashgabat, he told IRIN he was ready to return. "I want to go back, I miss my country," he said. Of the 14,000 refugees in Turkmenistan today, an estimated 12,000 are Tajiks, the vast majority of whom are of Turkmen ethnicity. Most fled the civil war in neighbouring Tajikistan in the early 1990’s and settled in the rural areas of eastern Lebap province and the southern provinces of Ahal and Mary. Integrated locally in the country of asylum, the Tajiks hold Turkmen residence permits and have access to land, as well as state education, health, medical and employment services. Many of these refugees are now seeking to obtain Turkmen nationality, having fulfilled the necessary criteria. But a number of them – principally ethnic Tajiks – continue to return to their country of origin and are being assisted by UNHCR to do just that. The refugee agency pays for their return passage, arranges transport - generally by train - and obtains travel documents and exit visas from the Turkmen authorities. While their reasons for wanting to leave Turkmenistan vary, most cite a cessation of hostilities and the prevailing stability in their country. Many are looking for increased employment opportunities or like Honov – have a strong desire to reunite with families still living in Tajikistan. "The number of Tajik voluntary repatriates totals approximately 200 to 300 persons a year," UNHCR country representative, Ruven Menikdiwela told IRIN on Thursday in Ashgabat. Since the commencement of the voluntary repatriation programme for Tajik refugees in Turkmenistan in 1999, approximately 500 to 600 have returned to their country or origin, she maintained. Menikdiwela noted that while Tajik refugees of Turkmen ethnicity generally returned to the Jilikulskiy region of Hatlon province, those of Tajik ethnicity returned to places throughout Tajikistan. In terms of composition, approximately 75 percent of the Tajik refugees in Turkmenistan are single men, many of whom send money back to their families in Tajikistan. However, more than 40 percent of these same men have taken Turkmen wives during their stay here, leaving agency officials wondering if they might return. Arriving in 1994, Faizali Ahenov, also from Hatlon Province, told IRIN as his wife was Turkmen he would prefer to remain in Turkmenistan, but lacked an official passport to secure a visa. "I want to leave so I can get a visa and come back," the 27-year-old trader maintained. "I cannot leave my wife here," he explained. Many of those returning lack proper documentation altogether and are asylum seekers who have been recently denied refugee status by UNHCR. Since 1999, Ahenov had been able to remain in the county after being issued an asylum seekers certificate by the refugee agency, but had recently been rejected after screening for not fulfilling the necessary refugee criteria. Commenting on the status of refugees in the Central Asian country of five million, Menikdiwela noted that Turkmenistan, which had acceded to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol, had enacted national refugee legislation. "The government has illustrated its commitment both to international humanitarian principles and to its obligations under the aforementioned international treaties by granting asylum to a large number of refugees on its territory, and by providing them with a means to integrate locally in the country," she said.