DUSHANBE, March 14, 2014, Asia-Plus — Tajik Prime Minister Qohir Rasoulzoda yesterday met here with Ms. Saber Azam, UNHCR Regional Representative/Regional Coordinator for Central Asia.
Subhiddin Muhiddinov, a senior consultant to Tajik president’s press service, says the two discussed issues related to expansion of cooperation between Tajikistan and the UN Refugee Agency on providing rights of refugees and problems regarding providing security in the Central Asian region.
According to him, Mr. Azam highly appraised measured taken by the Government of Tajikistan to receive refugees, providing their rights of labor and education.
Tajik prime minister, for his part, expressed satisfaction with the level of cooperation between Tajikistan and the UN refugee Agency and stressed that some 2,000 foreign nationals, mostly Afghans, have been granted the status of refugee in Tajikistan so far, Muhiddinov said.
UNHCR opened an office in Tajikistan in 1993, when the country was torn by civil war two years after the country declared its independence from the Soviet Union. That year, Tajikistan became the first country in Central Asia to accede to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol. It was also the first country in the region to adopt national refugee legislation. UNHCR has helped people displaced by the civil war to return home as well as assisting refugees.
According to information posted on the UN Refugee Agency’s website, Tajikistan hosts some 4,000 refugees and asylum-seekers, mostly of Afghan origin. They cannot choose their place of residence, as they are not allowed to live in the major cities, including Dushanbe. In 2013, UNHCR has donated equipment and helped introduce new software that provided the Government with a modern refugee registration system. The organization has also helped the Government to revise its citizenship law and participated in a working group that has amended the national refugee law. Both laws are now awaiting approval by Parliament.
