Special exercises began in Kyrgyzstan on the reception, accommodation and comprehensive provision of forced refugees. The Ministry of Emergency Situations of the republic reported.
The state civil protection system will practice the reception of more than 3,000 people.
The exercises began on November 19 and will continue today. Tent camps have been set up in Zhany-Zher, Suzak district, Jalal-Abad region, Margun, Leilek district, Batken region, and Bor-Dobo, Alai district, Osh region. The procedures of meeting and accompanying refugees, as well as passing them through the filtration point for accounting, registration and compliance with the relevant procedures will be demonstrated.
Heads of three regions, heads of ministries, departments and representatives of civil protection services are taking part in the exercises.
Kyrgyzstan has been a party to the UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees since 1996. In August, against the background of the seizure of the capital of Afghanistan by the Taliban militants, the head of the Department for Work with Refugees at the Ministry of Health and Social Development, Zhypara Mambetova, said in her comments to Azattyk that if the border with Tajikistan was opened, refugees from Afghanistan could also enter the Kyrgyz Republic. According to her, the republic will be able to receive about 1,200 Afghan Kyrgyz.
Since the aggravation of the situation in Afghanistan, the authorities of Kyrgyzstan have made several statements. Thus, the Presidential Executive Office noted that the head of state, Sadyr Japarov, «is closely monitoring the situation in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan on an ongoing basis.»
Over the years of independence, the Kyrgyz Republic has granted refugee status to more than 20,000 people. Most of them are ethnic Kyrgyz. At the same time, about 10,000 of them subsequently obtained Kyrgyzstan’s citizenship, and about 9,000 returned to their historical homeland. Only about 1,500 refugees left the Kyrgyz Republic for third countries.
