In addition to the problems of ensuring security on the territories bordering with Afghanistan, the Central Asian countries will still have to deal with the issues of receiving refugees from Afghanistan.
The first group of Afghan refugees arrived in the Gorno-Badakhshan region of Tajikistan (GBAO) on July 3-4. According to GBAO officials, the number of refugees was 1,037.
For security reasons, the Tajik authorities are not divulging information about locations of the refugees. There was only a report in the local TV channel «Badakhshan»that showed how refugees were transported by trucks from the Tem district of the city of Khorog to another place. The video shows that most of the refugees are young people and men.
CABAR.asia journalists attempted to interview refugees, but their efforts have fallen short. The Tajik authorities are doing everything possible to isolate Afghan refugees from local residents and journalists. Therefore, there is no exhaustive information on the refugees’ situation. On July 8, the Afghan Ambassador to Tajikistan, Muhammad Zohir Agbar, visited the refugees. Photos published by the Afghan Embassy show refugees near the tents.
Later on July 13-14, another 345 Afghan refugees came to Tajikistan. According to the statement of the Border Service of the State Committee for National Security of Tajikistan (SCNS), there were 91 men, 77 women, 177 minors (64 boys, 113 girls) among them.
The statement of the border guards says that “the refugees are mainly ethnic Kyrgyz, residents of the village of Andemin in the Wakhan region of the Badakhshan province of the mentioned country (Afghanistan), crossed the border of the Republic of Tajikistan in the Kizil-Rabat jamoat of the Murghab region, fearing persecution by the Taliban and to protect their life.”
According to the Tajik authorities, refugees are currently in the Andemin and Cheshteba districts of the Murghab region. According to the source, Kyrgyz refugees also brought their livestock.
However, not only civilians fled from Afghanistan to Tajikistan over the past month. As hostilities escalated in the border area, more than 2,000 Afghan government troops fled to Tajikistan. At least in the last decade, it is a rare case when such a large number of the Afghan military fled, or, as they say, retreated to Tajikistan.
Earlier, the press service of the chairman of GBAO said that the region is ready to accept up to 10 thousand Afghan refugees.
According to media reports, Tajikistan requested assistance from international financial institutions, including the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, to provide refugees with the necessary provisions.
The United States promised to take out its workers from among the local residents
Most of Afghanistan’s border areas with Tajikistan are joining the Taliban terrorist movement (prohibited in Tajikistan and other Central Asian countries) while NATO forces are planning to leave Afghanistan by September 11.
US President Joe Biden promised in Washington on June 25 that thousands of translators and other Afghans who have worked with the US military “are not going to be left behind.” On July 8, the US President announced that the process of resettlement of this group of Afghan citizens has already begun and 2,500 of them have already received American visas.
But Biden did not specify in which country these people will be located before obtaining a visa. According to some informed sources, these citizens will remain for some time in the neighboring countries of Afghanistan, including Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, until they receive a visa.
The fate of the translators and those who helped the American troops in Afghanistan may be determined in the near future. But more importantly, the fate of the thousands of Afghan refugees who have arrived in Tajikistan remains uncertain.
The authorities of Tajikistan and Afghanistan do not comment on the fate of the refugees. It is unclear whether they will return home or join other Afghan refugees already living in Tajikistan.
Afghans have been seeking asylum in Tajikistan since the 1990s.
Abdumusavvir Bahoduri, head of the Orieno representative office of Afghan migrants in Tajikistan, says the number of Afghan refugees who previously arrived in the country is about 6,000. According to him, refugees live in the cities of Vahdat and Gissar, in the Rudaki and Shakhrinav districts, as well as in three districts of the Khatlon region (in the south of the country) and two districts of the Sughd region (in the north).
According to the head of the Association of Afghan Refugees, half of the refugees live on their relatives’ remittances from abroad, and the rest earn their living in Tajikistan. Afghan refugees in Tajikistan work mainly in workshops, canteens and markets.
Abdumusavvir Bahoduri says Tajikistan is attractive to Afghan refugees because of the good attitude of ordinary people.
“Afghan refugees choose Tajikistan because there are no language problems here. The attitude of ordinary people here is unbiased towards us. They don’t even ask what nationality you are,” said Bahoduri.
Photo from the personal page of the Ambassador of Afghanistan in Tajikistan on facebook.com
The head of the Afghan refugee society added that not all refugees plan to stay in Tajikistan.
“More than 50 percent of refugees are those who want to go to third countries, mainly to Canada. They have relatives there who invite them to their place. Tajikistan, along with Turkey and India, is one of the three countries through which Afghan refugees can enter a third country,” Abdumusavvir Bahoduri said.
But moving to a third country is not easy, and some refugees say they have been waiting for years to move to another country.
Ruyo, a resident of Kabul, arrived in Tajikistan in 2014 and has been unable to travel to a third country since then. She says that she has repeatedly asked the UN to give her the opportunity to leave for a third country, but so far she has not received a positive response. A representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) previously told Radio Ozodi that there are currently no refugee resettlement programs in third countries.
While waiting for a departure to a third country, the lives of some Afghan refugees in Tajikistan are very difficult. Our interviewee Ruyo says that the landlord suddenly raised the rent and told them to either pay or leave the house. In addition, Ruyo and her husband got infected by COVID-19 and were discharged from the hospital only a few days ago.
“We earn 5-10 somoni a day and buy rice and beans. We came back from the hospital, neighbors sent food in a bowl and bread. Refugees who receive help from relatives abroad or have good jobs live better. Life in Tajikistan is good, but we have to go to a third country. At least to let my kids have education in a better place,” says Ruyo.
Tajikistan is not the only country that hosted Afghan refugees in the past month. On the 23rd, the Uzbek authorities announced that they had accepted 53 Afghan soldiers who had taken shelter in Uzbekistan and sent them back to Afghanistan. The Uzbek authorities do not provide any information on the hosting of civilians. In previous years, Uzbekistan categorically refused to let refugees into its territory.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kyrgyzstan announced that they are “working with the Government of Tajikistan and the UNHCR on the further evacuation of Afghan Kyrgyz to the territory of the Kyrgyz Republic.”
“This issue is under the control of the President and the Cabinet of Ministers of the Kyrgyz Republic. State bodies of the Kyrgyz Republic have been given appropriate instructions,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kyrgyzstan noted.
In addition, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic sent a note to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Tajikistan with a request to assist in the unobstructed movement of Afghan Kyrgyz to the entry checkpoints of the Kyrgyz-Tajik state border.
“The Kyrgyz side expects that the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan will provide maximum assistance to promptly resolve the issue of evacuation in accordance with the international obligations of the Republic of Tajikistan,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic said in a statement.
Kyrgyz expert Medet Tyulegenov believes that the country in general has the “mood” at the political level to receive ethnic Kyrgyz refugees from Afghanistan.
He recalled that back in spring, President Sadyr Japarov announced the need to resettle some ethnic Kyrgyz from Afghanistan to the territory of Kyrgyzstan.
“This probability, of course, especially increases due to the fact that the authorities, in principle, quite easily take some populist steps that bring some big resonant responses from a significant part of the population. However, there is a question, of course, how to formalize this into concrete actions, because a complex logistic action is needed to transfer refugees to the territory of Kyrgyzstan and to further settle them,” Tyulegenov said in an interview with CABAR.asia.
Commenting on the likelihood that Kyrgyzstan will agree to accept representatives of other ethnic groups in Afghanistan, Tyulegenov recalled that the Kyrgyz Republic has extensive experience in receiving refugees. However, in this issue, according to him, political will and great further efforts will also be required.
“In the future, of course, this is a search for funds and the deployment of various logistics resources in order to accomplish the task,” he said.
But in general, according to Tyulegenov, this idea can be realized.
“There are, of course, many factors. These are not the only matter of financial and logistical resources, but also issues of geopolitics and interaction. That is, how it will be coordinated not only with the United States, and with international organizations such as the UNHCR, but also with other partners, including Russia, which has its own interest in what is happening in Afghanistan,” Tyulegenov said.
However, over the weekend – July 17-18, ethnic Kyrgyz from Afghanistan, who fled to Tajikistan, returned to their permanent place of residence.
This was reported by the press service of the border service of the State Committee for National Security of Tajikistan.
Refugees returned home with pets and vehicles.
The border service clarified that the return of Afghan refugees was organized right after Afghan government guaranteed their personal safety.
Afghan diplomat: The number of refugees may exceed 15 thousand
According to experts, the current situation in Afghanistan differs from previous years. One difference is that the Taliban have never occupied such a large part of the border with Tajikistan, especially in the Afghan province of Badakhshan. The population of the Afghan province of Badakhshan is about 1.5 million people, it borders the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region of Tajikistan.
An Afghan embassy official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the analytical platform CABAR.asia that 18 out of 28 districts in the Afghan province of Badakhshan were taken over by the Taliban (movement is prohibited in Tajikistan and other Central Asian countries). The number of refugees may increase if other areas also will be taken over.
According to an embassy official, the potential number of Afghan refugees who choose Tajikistan could be more than 10-15 thousand people.
However, the interlocutor says that a significant part of those who have already arrived in Tajikistan as refugees, in reality, most likely fled from Afghanistan for economic reasons.
“The Taliban clashes in Badakhshan were not as violent as in Kunduz. Under the pretext of the Taliban occupation of the region, the refugees want to cross the border and go to other countries,” he said.
In particular, according to him, the arriving ethnic Kyrgyz were civilians who were not threatened by the Taliban (the movement is prohibited in Tajikistan and other Central Asian countries).
“In other words, long wars have drained the patience of people, and they are trying to leave for a more peaceful place,” said the interlocutor of CABAR.asia.
“The arrival of refugees in Tajikistan has both positive and negative sides. The positive side is that international aid will increase, and businessmen will generate additional income by trading with refugees. However, on the other hand, if there will be too many refugees, they will bring their culture to the country, and this may not please the locals,” the Afghan diplomat said.
The embassy official also highly appreciated the possibilities of Tajikistan to receive refugees.
“It is clear that these opportunities for the country are really great, if only one region – GBAO is ready to accept 10 thousand refugees,” the Afghan diplomat summed up.