| UNHCR helps Afghan asylum seekers to return home |  |
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BISHKEK, KYRGYZSTAN – On July 2, the UNHCR office in Bishkek in cooperation with colleagues in Dushanbe and Kabul helped 23 Afghan asylum seekers return to their home country. Four families were brought to Manas Airport by a UNHCR bus in the early morning and will be received by UNHCR staff on arrival in Dushanbe. From there, they will continue their onward journey to Kabul by plane on Saturday. The costs of the repatriation are borne by the UNHCR office in Kabul, whose staff will also receive the returnees in Afghanistan and provide them with further assistance. “Our application for refugee status was rejected,” explains Shekeba Mohammad Nazar, who returns to Kabul together with her husband and seven sons, “it is therefore very difficult for my husband and our eldest sons to find work. We decided to ask UNHCR for repatriation to Afghanistan.”
Over 200 Afghan refugees have integrated very well into Kyrgyz society, but more than 300 are still waiting to be allowed to stay as recognized refugees in Kyrgyzstan. Indiscriminate violence is widespread in most parts of Afghanistan, and returning to another area, where they have no relatives to protect them, is too dangerous. As a result only a few Afghan asylum seekers will be able to repatriate home soon. During recent discussions on Afghanistan by G8 Foreign Ministers, which were also attended by the Foreign Minister of the Kyrgyz Republic, Mr Kadyrbek Sarbaev, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres underlined states’ obligations to protect Afghan refugees: "The better the access to asylum, the less asylum seekers will pursue irregular movement." For further information please consult www.unhcr.org or Mrs. Cholpon Sultanova under Tel: (996-312) 611264 /65 /66 /67, Extension 183; Fax: (996-312) 611271; Email: kgzbi@unhcr.org |
During its 14-year-presence in Bishkek, the UN Refugee Agency has assisted close to 7,000 refugees and asylum seekers to return safely to their home countries.
