Kyrgyz Passport Fiasco

Monday, 21 February, 2005

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Sultan Jumagulov

A delay in reissuing Kyrgyz passports has left tens of thousands of people unable to travel abroad, and may even exclude them from upcoming parliamentary elections.

Official figures suggest that more than 120,000 people - around five per cent of registered voters - do not have valid Kyrgyz passports, which are currently being replaced for security reasons.

A shortage of old-style passports, which could have been issued as a stopgap measure while the new system is put in place, has added to the crisis.

Kyrgyzstan gained its independence when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, and issued its first ten-year passports as a sovereign state three years later.

However, in early 2004, following a number of security fears raised by the United States and the European Union, the authorities decided to replace all existing passports with a new tamper-proof design which met international standards.

It was hoped that this would reduce the number of alleged religious extremists travelling on Kyrgyz passports, which were considered to be very easy to alter or forge.

The authorities requested assistance from the International Organisation for Migration, and announced that the new documents would be issued by summer 2004.

But problems soon surfaced in the process, which was tendered out to a Moldovan company.

This summer, some 200 young people who had secured places at universities in the US, Russia, Turkey and other European countries were refused airline tickets and visas after their passports expired and replacements were not available.

Following angry protests from the parents of those affected, officials requested that all its embassies send back any old-style passports in their possession, and the would-be students were issued with the appropriate papers.

The crisis has also affected businessmen such as Azimjan Abdraliev, who relied upon his small company in the Sverdlovsk region of Russia to support his large family and elderly parents.

“I have knocked on almost all doors in an attempt to get my passport renewed, but with no success. I’ve been stuck in Kyrgyzstan for the past three months and, as a result, have fallen into enormous debt,” Abdraliev told IWPR.

And those already working in Russia and elsewhere – an estimated 300,000 people – will also face difficulties trying to get back into the country if their Kyrgyz passport has expired or been lost.

Jypar Momunalieva from the Kyrgyz region of Talas told IWPR that many such people – herself included – are forced to break the law when they travel to and from Russia.

Kazak border guards will not let her cross with an expired passport, so she is forced to use dangerous mountain passes to sneak through illegally.

“Many people from Talas [who travel to Russia] try to use valid passports issued to close relatives to avoid the high-risk mountain crossings, but they are often found out by the Kazakstan border guards,” she said.

Unexpired old-style passports are still valid while the new issues are being prepared, but there is confusion over their whereabouts.

Interior ministry official Erkin Arapbaev told IWPR that they had simply run out, but deputy Iskhak Masaliev claims that a parliamentary probe suggested that as many as 200,000 of them have “disappeared without a trace”.

It has also caused concern among opposition deputies and civil rights activists, as citizens without a valid passport will be unable to cast their votes in next February’s parliamentary election and the presidential ballot in October.

More than three-quarters of those without valid passports are secondary school graduates – who opposition deputies claim might be expected to back their candidates.

Masaliev told IWPR that the passport issue could become “a real national disaster”, adding, “The elections aren’t far away, and many of my young voters are still waiting to be given passports.”

And prominent opposition deputy Azimbek Beknazarov, chair of the parliamentary committee for legal issues, told IWPR that the results of the February poll could be skewed if such a large number of people were excluded. “One hundred and twenty thousand people is a very large figure, which may seriously influence the results of the upcoming elections,” he said.

However, the authorities deny that the delay is in any way linked to the elections.

Deputy Foreign Minister Lidiya Imanalieva said that the new design was awaiting approval from western countries that had urged Kyrgyzstan to change the documents.

She denied opposition claims that thousands of voters may lose their chance of taking part in next year’s elections, saying, “The new passports will probably be issued after the New Year.”

Sultan Jumagulov is a BBC correspondent in Bishkek.