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DUSHANBE — An ominous message was despatched to Afghan refugees in Tajikistan this week, warning members of the some 10,000-strong group that they threat being forcibly despatched again to face the persecution and violence they fled.
“They [the Tajik authorities] instructed us that they’d take us to Dushanbe, however they took us on to the border,” an Afghan girl who claimed she had been expelled to Afghanistan stated in a voice recording obtained by RFE/RL’s Tajik Service this week. “Everybody, if somebody from your loved ones is working, do not let him go to work. Don’t stroll round Dushanbe,” she added in a stark warning to fellow refugees within the Tajik capital.
RFE/RL was unable to independently confirm the claims made within the nameless recording. However because the warning emerged on a WhatsApp channel devoted to Afghan nationals dwelling in Tajikistan on August 22, well-placed sources and kinfolk of refugees have stated that not less than 9 Afghans had been forcibly despatched again to Afghanistan up to now week.
It was unclear why the Afghan nationals had been deported. However it’s a part of a development that has been criticized by the UN refugee company (UNHCR).
The deportations come regardless of longstanding calls by the UN physique to halt the expulsions of Afghan nationals from Tajikistan and to supply them safety and provides them entry to a good asylum course of.
The lady who issued the warning on WhatsApp stated she had been deported together with two different Afghan nationals, one in every of whom, she stated, held official UN refugee paperwork. This declare was additionally made by different sources who spoke to RFE/RL’s Tajik Service in regards to the latest deportations.
“My husband’s residency paperwork had been right. He had a UN refugee card, however he was expelled from Tajikistan,” the spouse of one of many deportees stated on situation of anonymity. “My husband is now on the opposite facet of the border, and I’m in Tajikistan with my three youngsters. We do not know the place to go.”
A supply who helps present authorized companies to Afghan refugees in Tajikistan stated members of the nation’s safety companies forcibly took the refugees to the border.
“We nonetheless have no idea why this occurred,” the supply stated on situation of anonymity out of considerations of retribution. “A number of the Afghan immigrants had been referred to as in to verify their paperwork and had been taken to the border by automobile and transferred to that facet. Some had been taken away from their houses.”
In an August 25 assertion, the UNHCR raised “grave considerations over the continued detention and deportations of Afghan refugees in Tajikistan, warning as soon as once more that forcing folks fleeing persecution again to their nation in opposition to their will is illegitimate and places lives in danger.”
The UN physique stated that 5 Afghan nationals, together with a mom and her three youngsters, had been despatched throughout the border in northeastern Tajikistan to Afghanistan on August 23.
“Tajikistan should cease detaining and deporting refugees, an motion that clearly places lives in danger,” stated Elizabeth Tan, UNHCR’s director of worldwide safety. “Compelled return of refugees is in opposition to the regulation and runs opposite to the precept of non-refoulement, a cornerstone of worldwide refugee regulation.”
The assertion didn’t point out the opposite 4 refugees which can be believed to have been deported since August 19 however stated that “since 2021, UNHCR has recorded a number of incidents of refugee detentions, compelled returns, and non-admission to territory for people in want of worldwide safety” in Tajikistan.
Dushanbe-based UNHCR affiliate communications officer Nodira Akbaralieva, responding to follow-up questions from RFE/RL, stated on August 26 that the UN physique was conscious of not less than 74 Afghan nationals who had been deported from Tajikistan up to now yr. Akbaralieva stated that the deportations had been “sporadic” till latest weeks, once they intensified.
Akbaralieva additionally stated that in virtually all instances of deportation, “none had been notified prematurely in regards to the choice” and thus “couldn’t attraction and bear the required authorized course of.”
Concerning claims to RFE/RL that a number of the latest deportations concerned individuals who held official UN refugee identifications, Akbaralieva stated that the UNHCR is conscious of just one asylum seeker who was registered with the physique, and different deportees had been “state-recognized refugees and asylum seekers.”
“All of them, whatever the paperwork they possess, had been entitled to worldwide safety, together with safeguards from compelled returns and refoulement to the nation the place their lives may very well be endangered,” Akbaralieva stated in written feedback.
Tajikistan, which shares a 1,360-kilometer border with Afghanistan, has lengthy been a short lived haven for Afghans fleeing persecution, financial hardship, and unrest of their house nation. The numbers of Afghan refugees in Tajikistan have fluctuated tremendously over the previous 20 years, from a peak of greater than 15,300 in 2001, when U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban regime, to greater than 8,000 in the beginning of this yr.
Within the 4 months after the Taliban returned to energy in August 2021, roughly 1,300 Afghans sought refugee standing in Tajikistan. Hundreds of Afghans have been transferred from Tajikistan to 3rd international locations.
Lower than per week after the Taliban took over Kabul, the UNHCR issued a “world non-return advisory” to international locations internet hosting Afghan refugees. The advisory requires a ban on the compelled returns of Afghan nationals, saying that “compelled returns will place asylum-seekers susceptible to persecution upon return and accordingly, represent a severe breach of worldwide regulation.”
A devastating humanitarian and financial disaster in addition to the Taliban’s brutal rule has compelled greater than 1 million Afghans to flee their homeland up to now yr.
Within the UNHCR’s August 25 assertion, Tan added: “We have now repeatedly urged the authorities in Tajikistan to permit entry to territory for these fleeing battle and persecution in Afghanistan and halt any additional deportations.”
Tajikistan’s State Committee for Nationwide Safety declined to answer questions by RFE/RL’s Tajik Service in regards to the claims that not less than 9 Afghan nationals have been deported up to now week.
The Inside Ministry’s press service instructed RFE/RL that 32 Afghan nationals had been fined for unidentified violations of their keep in Tajikistan, however that “they weren’t expelled.”
Written by Michael Scollon based mostly on reporting by RFE/RL’s Tajik Service
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