Uzbeks Impose Tougher Border Regulations

In an attempt to tighten border controls, the Uzbek authorities have substantially increased the fines imposed for crossing the frontier or remaining in the country illegally. NBCentralAsia commentators say the measure will affect the thousands of ordinary people who cross the border every day.



A law signed by President Islam Karimov and promulgated in mid-December means that anyone found breaking the rules for entering or leaving Uzbekistan, or staying in the country illegally, will be fined the equivalent of between 2,000 and 4,000 US dollars, instead of 500 to 1,000 dollars as used to be the case.



Uzbekistan has borders with the four other Central Asian states and with Afghanistan. The frontiers with Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan, where visa regulations are in force, are all but sealed. There is no visa requirement for Kazakstan, and the Uzbeks have recently reached an agreement with Kyrgyzstan to allow visits of up to 60 days without a visa. The densely-packed Fergana valley is largely surrounded by Kyrgyz territory.



As well as the many ordinary people who cross the border illegally for one reason or another, the higher fines will hit traders, who often break customs regulations as well as border procedures.



“Now we have to give bigger bribes to frontier and customs officials,” said a trader from Uzbekistan, who smuggles Chinese-made goods from Kyrgyzstan. This man said the main result of the higher fines would be to increase the bribes that had to be paid, which would be passed on to customers in the form of higher prices.



Commentators agree that the change will simply breed more corruption. “Tougher, more rigorous frontier controls will only benefit [state] organisations that are already mired in corruption,” said human rights activist Bakhtior Hamroev.



Meanwhile, Tashkent-based political observer Vladimir Nikitin points to another consequence of the new rules. “The introduction of more stringent regulations is also motivated by a desire to reduce the international contacts of human rights defenders, NGO activists and journalists to a minimum,” he says. “It no secret that some of them visit neighbouring countries by quasi-legal means - crossing without registering at the frontier and so on. Now they will be face tougher punishment for this.”



Apart from being fined, people who break frontier regulations can also be imprisoned for three to five years.



However, Hamroev believes the Uzbek authorities are not in a position to enforce all these border regulations too strictly, since they affect the lives of millions of people. Doing so could provoke a major protest. Thus, the authorities have gone no further than increasing the financial penalties for breaking the rules.



(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)



(NBCA предоставляет комментарии и анализ широкого круга политических обозревателей со всего региона.)