Tajik refugees should repatriate or naturalise - UNHCR

Hundreds of Tajik refugees in Kyrgyzstan need to either go home or naturalise by the end of June, according to the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). "Tajik refugees in Kyrgyzstan need to either voluntarily repatriate or seek another durable solution, including naturalisation, by 30 June 2006," Carlos Zaccagnini, UNHCR's country representative, said from the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, on Friday. "This is what we term a cessation clause and it applies to all Tajik refugees in the world. It just signals a UNHCR decision to stop recognising Tajik citizens [who fled the civil war] as refugees [from that date]," Zaccagnini explained. The UN 1951 Refugee Convention stipulates that cessation clauses can be invoked when due to a change of circumstances in their home country, refugees no longer require international protection. Whenever the conditions that forced refugees to flee their home country no longer exist - in the case of Tajikistan the civil war that ended nine years ago and development work is underway - their refugee status is no longer recognised, experts say. According to UNHCR, Kyrgyzstan, once host to over 16,000 Tajiks escaping conflict in their homeland, is still home to 2,000. "The majority [of the Tajik refugees] have already obtained Kyrgyz citizenship and it is a remaining minority that is in the process of applying," Zaccagnini noted. "We have alerted them with regards to the cessation clause that those who still have not applied should do so." As of 1 April 2006, 8,000 Tajik refugees became Kyrgyz citizens. Alternatively, they are encouraged to repatriate voluntarily, which the UN refugee agency would fund, Zaccagnini added. Thanks to the UNHCR-assisted voluntary repatriation programme, over 6,000 Tajik refugees returned to their homeland from Kyrgyzstan after the civil war ended in 1997. but recently voluntary repatriation has been limited. "One has to recall that Tajik refugees in Kyrgyzstan are for the most part of ethnic Kyrgyz origin. They speak Kyrgyz and have been welcomed to Kyrgyzstan through a presidential decree which has made their citizenship possible," the UNHCR head of mission explained. "So returning to Tajikistan it is not really the durable solution they are seeking. Nonetheless when and if there are refugees willing to return we will support them," he said.