In the past month, nearly 1,000 Afghan refugees have been forcibly deported from Tajikistan. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in its report, in response to recent reports of the deportation of Afghan citizens from Tajikistan, the IOM Migration Department began monitoring migrant flows at the Tajik-Afghan border. The monitoring was conducted from […]
In the past month, nearly 1,000 Afghan refugees have been forcibly deported from Tajikistan.
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in its report, in response to recent reports of the deportation of Afghan citizens from Tajikistan, the IOM Migration Department began monitoring migrant flows at the Tajik-Afghan border.
The monitoring was conducted from July 17 to August 10 of this year.
As a result of surveys conducted at the Sher-Khan border checkpoint in Kunduz province on the border with Tajikistan, 976 cases of the deportation of Afghan refugees from Tajikistan were identified.
In the last 25 days, 687 people have entered Tajikistan from Afghanistan through the Sher-Khan checkpoint. The source notes that “more than half of them arrived in Tajikistan in search of work.” The others came to transit to another country or to visit relatives in Tajikistan.
Earlier, it was reported that the authorities of Tajikistan gave Afghan asylum seekers 15 days to leave Tajikistan.
This deadline expired on July 21 of this year. IOM data shows that the deportation of Afghan refugees from Tajikistan intensified after this deadline.
No official comments have been made by the authorities of Tajikistan so far. The information has not been confirmed, but also not denied.
At the same time, dozens of such refugees told journalists that, despite having residence documents, the authorities gave them 15 days to leave the country.
Earlier, the German news agency Deutsche Welle reported that the authorities of Tajikistan had begun conducting searches in the homes of Afghan refugees, detaining and deporting them six months ago.
However, earlier the head of the Afghan Refugees Committee in Dushanbe, Musavvir Bahoduri, called the information about the forced deportation of Afghan citizens from Tajikistan unfounded, stating that “none of the refugees have approached the Committee” regarding this issue.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Internal Affairs of Tajikistan, Ramazon Rahimzoda, stated at a press conference in early August that those deported had legal residence permits, their documents were in order, but they “violated the law and became illegal.”
According to experts, the process of deporting Afghan migrants from Tajikistan is mainly carried out by employees of the State Committee for National Security and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and in many cases, such deportations are not related to the law but to the personal motives and approaches of the agency employees themselves.