DUSHANBE, September 19, Asia-Plus — A roundtable meeting on situation of stateless persons in Tajikistan took place in Dushanbe on September 18.
Organized by the UNHCR CO In Tajikistan in cooperation with President’s Executive office, the meeting brought together representatives of President’s Executive Office, UNHCR Office in Tajikistan and international and local experts on statelessness. The participants, representing various government and non-government organizations, exchanged views on the statelessness situation in the country, reviewed the findings of the legal analysis and discussed areas of possible cooperation and future actions in this field.
Stateless person -means a person who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law. Article 14 of the Constitutional Law of Tajikistan “On Citizenship” states that “stateless person is a person who is not a citizen of the Republic of Tajikistan and who does not have proof of possessing citizenship of another state.”
According to the UNHCR Office in Tajikistan, 300 stateless have been officially registered in Tajikistan to this date, however, they assume that the real number of stateless persons in the country is much higher than the official data shows. According to data of the UNHCR Office in Tajikistan, some 2,000 stateless persons currently live in Tajikistan.
Speaking at the meeting, Mr. Ilija Todorovic, the head of the UNHCR CO in Tajikistan, noted that after collapse of the Soviet Union, like other former Soviet republics Tajikistan had been faced with the problem that had entailed the risk of emergence of the statelessness situation for thousands of people. “Although the majority of them were granted citizenship of new independent states automatically, some of them failed to get citizenship,” Mr. Todorovic said.
“In cooperation with the consulting firm, Felix Consortium, UNHCR Office has carried out analysis of the national legislation and the results have shown that it contains a good foundation for further measures to reveal and reduce the number of stateless persons,” the head of the UNHCR CO in Tajikistan said.
Mr. Todorovic also noted that the number of refugees from other countries has been increasing in Tajikistan. “Some 3,000 Afghan refugees and asylum-seekers have been registered with the UNHCR Country Office to this date. I think that in connection with aggravation of situation in Afghanistan, the number of refugees from this country may double,” he said.
UNHCR in Tajikistan, as part of a regional Central Asian project, has carried out legal analysis of the statelessness situation in the country and is working with various partners to develop activities to work on prevention and reduction of statelessness and protection of stateless persons.
