HRW Says Refugees At Risk In Uzbekistan
March 21, 2006
Uzbek refugees at the Kyrgyz border after the May 2005 crackdown in Andijon (file photo) (epa)
This would set "a terrible precedent," the U.S.-based rights agency says.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on March 20 stated the Uzbek Foreign Ministry had on March 17 ordered the agency to close its office in Tashkent "within a month."
HRW connected the decision with the help the UNHCR provided to Uzbek refugees seeking asylum abroad after a government crackdown in the eastern Uzbek city of Andijon in May 2005.
The Uzbek government said the UNHCR had "fully implemented its tasks and there are no evident reasons for its further presence in Uzbekistan."
In Uzbekistan, the UNHCR's has been trying to meet the needs of the some 2,000 mainly Afghan refugees and asylum seekers.