Up to a thousand Andijan asylum seekers remain

Activists believe that more than 1,000 Uzbeks may still be in Kyrgyzstan and in need of assistance after fleeing from a violent government crackdown in the southeastern Uzbek city of Andijan on 13 May. More than 400 Uzbek refugees from Andijan recently left Kyrgyzstan under the protection of the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). "There are around 1,000 of them [people crossing illegally from Andijan following the violence] in southern Kyrgyzstan according to our estimates, staying with relatives, friends or simply compassionate people in [the southern city of] Osh, Karasuu, Uzgen districts and other border towns and districts," Izzatilla Rakhmatillaev, head of the local Law and Order NGO, said in Osh. According to Rakhmatillaev, most of them are males aged between 25 and 50, mainly builders, craftsmen, tradesmen, teachers and imams. "One of them had a serious bullet injury," he added. According to local analysts, many people crossed the porous border at various points following the Andijan violence. There are few guards or checkpoints on the section of the border close to Andijan. A total of only around 75 people reported to the legal assistance point for asylum seekers near the Dostuk border crossing point not far from Osh. The contact point was established by the local Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society, a local pro-democracy NGO, following the protests in Andijan. Hundreds of Uzbeks fled Andijan after Uzbek security forces violently suppressed protests in and around the city. According to rights groups, up to 1,000 people, mainly unarmed civilians, may have been killed. A group of around 500 crossed into Kyrgyzstan on 14 May, one day after the crackdown in Andijan. This group of asylum seekers were housed in a camp before eventually being relocated to Romania by UNHCR in late July. Many Andijanis wanted to join those who had already received asylum-seeker status in the Kyrgyz camp at Suzak. "Various bodies which they applied to did not give them a clear answer. After around 440 from the camp were moved for third country resettlement, many of those left behind became depressed and do not know what to do. Some of them told me that they would like to go to Tajikistan or Afghanistan," the activist maintained. Government bodies on the ground say, however, that there is no confirmed figure on the total number of 'informal' asylum seekers. "The rights groups and mass media talk about varying estimated numbers of Uzbek nationals who are staying in Kyrgyzstan illegally. However, I do not intend to exaggerate that figure and would not talk about a huge number," commented Nurilia Joldosheva, head of the regional migration office, speaking in Osh on Monday. But there may be hope for these people following a decision on Thursday by the southern office of the Kyrgyz migration department, to register the first three Uzbek nationals as asylum seekers. "We are starting to work with the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees [UNHCR] with regard to this group of people," Joldosheva said, adding that they would assess each case with UNHCR thoroughly. "As for these three persons who have been given asylum seeker status, now there will be standard procedures under Kyrgyzstan's legislation and the law provides that a substantial period of time for assessing the application for refugee status will be given," she explained. Sherali and Ikram are both from Andijan and are now living in the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh illegally following the killings in their home city. Both are in their 30s and while they agreed to speak to IRIN, they declined to give their real names, fearing for their own safety. "We went to the demonstration on that day [13 May] in Andijan with many other people. We thought that the authorities would listen to us and life would change for the better but a lot of blood was shed instead," Sherali said. "When the government forces started firing at people, we hid in a nearby house and went home keeping a low profile and from there, under the cover of night, made our way to Osh," Ikram said. "We crossed the border illegally. We did not have any identification and the Uzbek border guards would not have let us cross the border anyway," he explained. Ikram is unmarried but he left his elderly mother back in Andijan. His friend Sherali is missing his daughter and son, but neither of them want to return in the near future. "We are scared, the authorities will persecute us if we go back," Sherali claimed. "Why didn't we go to Suzak? [The camp in southern Jalal-Abad province where the camp for Uzbek asylum seekers was established] We would have been with the others in the camp and would now be in Romania," Ikram said bitterly. The two friends did try many times to join their fellow countrymen in the camp with the assistance of local rights activists but their efforts were futile. They were simply told 'to wait and see.' "We live keeping a very low profile and try not to be seen by people because we don't want to create any problems, either to ourselves or to the people who gave us refuge," the two friends explained. Rakhmatillaev said that most of the informal asylum seekers were making ends meet as best they could, either by working as masons or carpenters. One even managed to be hired as a driver for a local dignitary. Recently a group of them helped their landlord to harvest 30 hectares of wheat from a plantation in a suburb of Osh. "They do not want to be a burden to people who host them. It is not easy for people in Kyrgyzstan, who are not rich, to feed them," Rakhmatillaev noted.