DUSHANBE, April 14, Asia-Plus — Over the first three months of this year, 20 citizens of Uzbekistan have been detained for illegally crossing the border, Asia-Plus has learned at the border protection directorate within the State Committee for National Security (GKNB).
Criminal proceedings have been instituted against the trespassers. The preliminary investigation has established that the majority of them have relatives in Tajikistan and they crossed into the country “without any malicious intent,” the source at the border protection directorate said.
After investigation all of them have been deported to Uzbekistan.
Local experts hold that a strict visa regime that has been effective between the two countries since September 2000 [Uzbekistan and Tajikistan introduced the visa regime for their citizens on September 18, 2000 – Asia-Plus] and problems with getting visa make people violate border regime requirements.
The source at the border protection directorate noted that they do not have information about the number of Tajik nationals detained by the Uzbek border guards fro illegally crossing the border.
