UNHCR opens new office in Astana

In a further effort to help some 16,000 refugees and asylum seekers in the country, the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has opened a new office in the Kazakh capital Astana. "This field office will strengthen our relations with the government as well as our ongoing efforts in Almaty," Yasuku Hanyu, UNHCR's chief of mission in Kazakhstan told IRIN from the former capital of Almaty on Thursday. His comments came one day after the official opening of the office in the capital, attended by diplomats, UN and senior government officials. Speaking at the ceremony, Hanyu noted that since 1996 when the UN refugee agency first established its presence in the former Soviet republic, they had been working closely with the Kazakh authorities to establish a functioning asylum system. "In the year ahead, UNHCR expects to build further partnerships with the relevant government and educational institutions dealing with refugee and migration matters as well as establishing firm linkages with non-governmental organisations and civil society throughout the various regions of Kazakhstan," he maintained. Until recently, UNHCR in Kazakhstan had worked primarily in providing direct material assistance to refugees and asylum seekers in Central Asia's largest state. Hanyu noted, however, that the situation had been changing, with a greater emphasis now on protection and legal aspects. This did not mean UNHCR would no longer be providing direct assistance, he added. And while Kazakhstan ascended to both the 1951 Refugee Convention and the 1967 Protocol related to the status of refugees in 1999, more needs to be done in putting these international agreements in practice. "If you wish to implement your promise to the international community, you must have the domestic law as well and this has not yet been enacted," Hanyu said, noting they were currently working with the authorities on doing just that. With a lack of domestic refugee law, refugees could sometimes face problems in terms of their status with the authorities, the UNHCR official maintained. Of the 16,000 refugees and asylum seekers in Kazakhstan today - primarily from Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries and Afghanistan - only 600 are officially recognised as refugees. As a signatory of the Minsk agreement of 1993, Kazakhstan allows nationals of CIS countries to enjoy the same privileges as other CIS countries, accounting for why most of UNHCR's current caseload in Kazakhstan does not have official refugee status.