Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan hosted more than 10,800 refugees, including about 10,100 Tajiks, 700 Afghans, and 60 Chechens from Russia. Forty of the Afghans and all 60 Chechens were asylum seekers whose claims were pending at the end of the year. Some 1,860 Tajiks repatriated from Kyrgyzstan during the year.

Kyrgyzstan received 738 applications for asylum in 1999. It granted refugee status to 381 persons (226 Tajiks and 155 Afghans), rejected the claims of 174, and had yet to decide on the remainder.

Most of the Tajik refugees in Kyrgyzstan were ethnic Kyrgyz who reportedly planned to settle permanently in Kyrgyzstan. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees was assisting them to do so.

Some 6,000 Kyrgyz nationals became internally displaced in Batken Province in August. They were uprooted by fighting resulting from an incursion into Kyrgyzstan by insurgents based in Tajikistan. Nearly all those displaced were able to return home by the end of October.

According to UNHCR, the Kyrgyz authorities, conscious of the potential for future conflict and refugee flows in the region, have devoted considerable attention to refugee and migration issues. For example, they created the Bishkek Migration Management Center, which provides Central Asian countries training and research opportunities on these issues.

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