Refugees Still Face Uncertainty in Kazakstan

New legislation which should be in place by the end of the year is designed to bring Kazakstan into full compliance with international conventions on the treatment of refugees. But some experts doubt it will substantially improve the treatment of people, especially from the former Soviet Union, who claim asylum in Kazakstan.



Kazakstan ratified the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees in 1998, and drafted national legislation in 2002.



The country’s parliament has only just started hearings on a bill which incorporates international standards for granting refugee status, for example a guarantee that people will not be deported, permission for separated families to be reunited, and accessible and transparent procedures.



Pending approval of the law, which is expected to come into force next January if all goes well, the policy in Kazakstan seems to be to grant refugee status only to people from Afghanistan.



That leaves other asylum-seekers, particularly Chechens from Russia, Uighurs from China, and people from Kazakstan’s neighbours in Central Asia out in the cold, with no legal protection against deportation.



Rozlana Taukina, who heads the Journalists in Trouble foundation, believes that Kazakstan currently provides no protection for asylum seekers, so that they have no recognised status, no access to benefits, and no guarantee of safety.



“There have been some cases where Uzbek citizens with refugee status were deported to their home country,” she said. “Kazakstan needs to resolve such issues and provide appropriate conditions for refugees. Ours is a more democratic country than Uzbekistan or Turkmenistan.”



GAP IN CURRENT LEGISLATION



The status of refugee applies to people fleeing persecution or conflict and seeking sanctuary in another state. As well as freedom from deportation to their home country, or “refoulement” as it is known, the 1951 UN convention says they should receive the same education and social benefits as nationals of the state concerned, and recommends that they be allowed to earn a living, does not come automatically and has to be granted by the host country.



In Kazakstan, the lack of national legislation means that many people remain asylum-seekers – people who have claimed but not received refugee status – and therefore find it hard or impossible to claim these rights.



According to the Kazak Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, there are 580 officially-recognised refugees, most of them are immigrants from Afghanistan.



As well as a general law on immigration, Kazakstan has regulations on political asylum-seekers – a subcategory of would-be refugees – which were set out in a presidential decree from 1996 making provision for individuals facing persecution on political grounds.



According to Yevgeny Zhovtis, head of the Kazakstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law, there is currently no such thing as a refugee under present laws.



“In our country, a refugee is viewed as an illegal immigrant,” he said. “Only if one proves that one really is seeking asylum will the relevant legislation [i.e the presidential decree on political asylum] be applied to his case”.



The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees grants refugee status to individuals in Kazakstan, and according to Zhovtis, “the Kazak authorities do not hinder their departure for third countries.”



POLITICAL SENSITIVITIES TRUMP OTHER CONSIDERATIONS



Zhovtis argues that the concept of asylum is excessively bound up with Kazakstan’s external political relationships. “This is the reason why asylum claims filed by Uzbeks, Turkmens, Tajiks, Chinese, Chechens, and Turkish Kurds are usually ignored. They are denied asylum on different pretexts,” he said. “There have been several cases [in the past] where Kazakstan deported Chinese Uighurs and Uzbek citizens who were facing the death penalty in their home countries.”



The Kazak authorities have been concerned not to upset Russia by accepting people fleeing the Chechen war and its aftermath.



They are also sensitive to the concerns of another great neighbour, China, which takes a hard line on separatism among the ethnic Uighurs of its western province of Xinjiang. There are longstanding Chechen and Uighur diasporas in Kazakstan, which explains why asylum-seekers would choose to gravitate there in particular.



Within Central Asia, the main source of Kazakstan’s refugees is Uzbekistan, from where there is a steady flow of asylum-seekers claiming they face arbitrary arrest and the risk of torture if they remain.



In recent years, Kazakstan has been accused of sending Uzbek nationals back home even when they have claimed asylum.



This particularly concerns people who fled after the Andijan violence of May 2005, in which security forces opened fire on a crowd of protestors. The government in Tashkent portrayed the action as legitimate suppression of an Islamic uprising, and went on to pursue journalists and human rights activists who witnessed the shootings, as well as people suspected of taking part in the protests, or in armed attacks on a garrison and a prison the day before.



Unlike the international community, neighbours were reluctant to condemn the state’s actions. Kyrgyzstan’s security service was accused of quietly allowing its Uzbek counterparts to enter the country and snatch people on the wanted list. The Kazakstan authorities were accused of extraditing Uzbek nationals without going through due process.



Nine Uzbek nationals, four of whom had claimed political asylum, were reported missing in Kazakstan in November 2005, and were reportedly sent to Uzbekistan without publicity. In November 2007, Khurshid Shamsutdinov, another man wanted by the Uzbek authorities for alleged involvement in the Andijan violence, went missing in the southern town of Shymkent. Friends believe he was abducted by Uzbek security officers.



Since last year, the Kazakstan authorities have appeared more willing to adhere to rules governing the treatment of Uzbek refugees.



Denis Zhivaga, coordinator of a UNHCR project providing legal assistance to refugees, says that in 2008, Kazakstan refused to extradite several refugees accused of terrorism in Uzbekistan. They were place under arrest and a request was submitted to Tashkent to provide full documentation relating to their cases. When this failed to materialise within the required three months, the refugees were released.



Zhivaga says the Kazak authorities acceded to the UNHCR’s request to move these individuals to other countries. “The Uzbek authorities were informed that the wanted persons had left Kazak territory”, he said.



NEW LAW MAY FACE RESISTANCE



Not everyone in Kazakstan favours the introduction of a refugee law.



“If the law is passed, Kazakstan will turn into a cesspit,” Ayan Asanov, deputy head of the Almaty of the immigration police service told IWPR. “Anyone who comes to Kazakstan illegally will then be regarded as a refugee. It is the Criminal Code that needs to apply to such people, as they have broken the law not only of the country they left, but also that of Kazakstan”.



Zhovtis welcomes the law as it will bring Kazakstan into compliance with international best practice and should improve things overall. But he remains sceptical that it will bring rapid change to the treatment of refugees from Uzbekistan and other Central Asian states, and from Chechnya and China.



“I wouldn’t jump to hasty conclusions about Uzbek, Turkmen or Tajik citizens, Chechens or Chinese Uighurs,” he said.