Uzbek asylum seekers move to a new camp inland

Hundreds of Uzbek asylum seekers who fled violence in the eastern city of Andijan in May have been relocated farther inland within southern Kyrgyzstan. They have no wish to return to their homeland after government security forces reportedly killed up to 1,000 people in Andijan.

"The Uzbek asylum seekers have been moved farther into the country, to the Shor-Bulak area in the Suzak district of the [southern] Jalal-Abad province, some 50 km from the provincial capital," Zafar Khakimov, head of Kyrgyzstan's migration department, told IRIN from the provincial capital Jalal-Abad on Monday. "The new camp is up and running and all 466 Uzbek asylum seekers are now there," Khakimov said.

The new camp is supported by the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees [UNHCR] and the local migration department. It provides improved living conditions, with each tent accommodating five people and electricity supplies will be connected in the next few days.

The old camp was located in an area called Teshik-Tash, just metres away from the Uzbek border. It was seriously overcrowded with up to 500 people living in 10 tents each designed to shelter only 10. It also lacked basic amenities and the area was prone to flooding.

The asylum seekers had fled from Andijan on 13 May after Uzbek security forces reportedly opened fire on thousands of unarmed protesters in the city square. They killed up to 1,000, according to local rights groups, but the Uzbek government claimed the death toll was 173.

Carlos Zaccagnini, head of the UNHCR mission in the country, welcomed the move.

"[Uzbek] asylum seekers now have more room and they are not very close to the border as they were previously, so their security has improved as well," he told IRIN from the capital, Bishkek. "This is in line with what [the Kyrgyz] government was committed to doing," the UNHCR official added.

Also on Monday, the Kyrgyz foreign ministry announced that all the Uzbek asylum seekers in the country would be formally registered as such. They had previously been registered as displaced persons with only limited permission to stay in the country.

"They [the Kyrgyz authorities] announced their intention to register them as asylum seekers, which according to their national law implies a subsequent refugee status determination process," Zaccagnini explained, noting that Kyrgyz law stipulated that it could take up to six months for the authorities to determine whether they qualify for the refugee status or not.

"Until that time they will enjoy asylum seeker status, which may in many ways provide the same rights and obligations as would the refugee status," Zaccagnini added.