Refugees - The Times Of Central Asia

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UNHCR Again Urges Tajikistan to Stop Deporting Afghan Refugees

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has called on Tajikistan to immediately halt the deportation of Afghan refugees, following reports that dozens were forcibly returned to Afghanistan last month. According to UNHCR, at least 80 Afghan refugees were deported from Tajikistan in December 2024, despite many holding valid refugee documents. The agency warned that such actions violate international protection standards and could put deportees at risk. By the end of 2024, around 9,000 Afghan refugees were residing in Tajikistan. UNHCR has expressed concern that further deportations could endanger many more lives. Regional Context and Increasing Deportations Tajikistan is not the only country tightening its stance on Afghan refugees. Iran and Pakistan have also intensified deportations in recent months. Reports indicate that Iran has expelled 586,000 undocumented Afghans since the start of the current solar year. Meanwhile, the Taliban’s Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation stated that nearly 12,000 Afghan migrants have returned from Pakistan, Iran, and Turkey in the past three weeks. The rise in deportations has added pressure on Afghan refugees, many of whom are already struggling due to Afghanistan’s worsening humanitarian crisis. UNHCR has reiterated its appeal for international cooperation, urging host countries to balance national security concerns with humanitarian obligations. Previously, Mosawer Bahadori, head of Afghanistan’s Migration Committee (Aryana) in Tajikistan, urged Tajik authorities to respect refugee rights and uphold their international commitments in protecting displaced Afghans.

Palestine Refugees

28 Citizens of Kazakhstan Evacuated from Gaza Strip

According to the representative of the Embassy of Kazakhstan in Egypt, 28 citizens of Kazakhstan have been evacuated from the Gaza Strip to Egypt. According to preliminary data, there are still estimated to be ten Kazakhstan nationals trapped there. “Regarding their evacuation, everything depends on the current military situation, and on whether they will be able to reach Egypt," said Sanjar Ualikhanov, Adviser to the Embassy of Kazakhstan in Egypt. Oksana Helles, a citizen of Kazakhstan who had been living in Palestine addressed the situation: “Recently, we had been living in the Gaza Strip. My husband is still there, and I take this opportunity to ask for help so that he can also come to me and reunite our family. He works as a doctor, and I also worked as a nurse. We had five children, and about two weeks ago my daughter was killed; she was 19-years-old and six months pregnant. She died along with her husband, his nephews and parents.” “I am a Palestinian, but I studied in Kazakhstan, graduated from a medical university there, and married a Kazakh, so I’m also a citizen of Kazakhstan,” said another evacuee, Elyanakh Akhmet. “Since the war began, it’s been a frightening ordeal for us. We had been building our lives for so many years, and everything was destroyed in an instant.” All the evacuees expressed their great gratitude to the President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Egypt, and asked for further help.

Refugees Iran Migration Afghanistan

Up to 10,000 refugees return daily from crisis-hit Iran to Afghanistan

KABUL (TCA) — The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said this week that the number of Afghan refugees returning home from Iran has doubled recently as Iran’s currency loses its value against the US dollar unprecedentedly, Afghan broadcaster TOLOnews reported. Continue reading

Afghanistan Refugees Migration Turkey

Turkey deports hundreds of Afghan migrants back to Afghanistan

KABUL (TCA) — Turkey is deporting hundreds of Afghans back to Afghanistan in a major operation after thousands of them allegedly illegally entered the country in recent weeks, RFE/RL reports. Continue reading

Refugees Opposition Human rights Islam Tajikistan

For Tajikistan’s asylum seekers, Poland is a dead end

DUSHANBE (TCA) — The ban of the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan and subsequent persecution of the opposition party activists by Tajik authorities has forced many of them to seek political asylum in the European Union, where they often get unwelcome reception. We are republishing this article on the issue by Agnieszka Pikulicka-Wilczewska, originally published by Eurasianet: Kalandar Sadurdinov, a 70-year-old from Tajikistan, is one of thousands wanted back home for his opposition activism. He spends much of his time these days getting treatment for an array of ailments, ranging from liver trouble to brain damage. His wife and six children wait for him at the refugee facility in Biała Podlaska, on the far eastern edge of Poland, where the whole family now lives. And earlier this month, Polish authorities informed Sadurdinov, who is worn down by months of bureaucratic wrangling and has trouble speaking and can barely walk, that they have rejected his application for asylum. Sadurdinov is among a growing number of Tajik political refugees to find Poland an unwelcoming haven. He arrived in September 2017 through a border crossing near the Belarusian city of Brest. That crossing presents a natural approach point for Tajiks making their way across Russia and Belarus toward the relative safety of the European Union. Remaining in Russia, or even traveling to other once-secure locations like Turkey, leaves political figures open to murder and assaults at the hands of agents for the Tajik government. In some instances, governments in those countries have actively abetted Tajikistan in effecting extralegal extraditions – kidnapping, to all intents and purposes. The wave of Tajik flight began in the fall of 2015, when Tajikistan summarily banned the Islamic Renaissance Party, or IRPT. The existence of the opposition group had long been warily tolerated, but President Emomali Rahmon’s regime brought that to an end with a spate of arrests and the decision to dub the IRPT a terrorist organization. No country in the West endorses that decision, which is almost universally accepted as being politically motivated. In 2016, 882 Tajiks applied for asylum in Poland. With the exodus having attenuated, the number of applications is falling. Last year, only 154 Tajiks formally sought haven in the country. The number of rejections, meanwhile, is rising. According to the Office for Foreigners, 153 Tajik citizens were denied asylum last year. That number was 109 in 2016. Fleeing Poland Around 100 or so IRPT members have received asylum in Poland. Another 25 cases are pending review following initial rejections. Prolonged waiting generates anxiety. Fear of potential deportation to Tajikistan, where IRPT members face imprisonment and possible torture, compels many to try their luck in other EU nations like Germany, Austria and France, before they complete the asylum-seeking procedure in Poland. It isn’t just the specter of deportation that informs this strategy. “In other countries, like Germany, France and Austria, there are more migrants, people are used to different cultures and asylum seekers can meet people from their countries,” Muhamadjon Kabirov, an IRPT...

Refugees Afghanistan Security

War-torn Afghanistan ‘no place’ for refugees ‘to be returned to’ — report

BISHKEK (TCA) — A new report launched on January 24 by the Norwegian Refugee Council says that seven out of ten Afghan refugees who return home are forced to flee again due to violence. Continue reading