TAJIK REFUGEES IN KYRGYZSTAN POSE INTERNATIONAL PROBLEM.

Representatives of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and Kyrgyz officials signed September 3 in Bishkek an agreement on opening a center for aiding refugees in Kyrgyzstan. The country’s authorities have registered some 15,000 refugees, mainly ethnic Kyrgyz from Tajikistan. Not all refugees are registered, and their number continues to grow as a result of the war in the neighboring country. Most refugees settle in Kyrgyzstan’s southern regions Osh and Jalalabad, generating social problems and tension with the local population. Some refugees have made their way to Russia’s Altai Republic, where they have been most unwelcome. The Kyrgyz government recently addressed an official request to the Tajik government for joint steps to halt the flow of refugees and repatriate them. There is no word as yet of Dushanbe’s response. (Interfax, September 3; Itar-Tass, August 19)

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