The Ombudsman of Kyrgyzstan calls on government agencies to pay attention to the problems of ethnic Kyrgyz who have moved to their historical homeland from the Afghan Pamir. Details are provided by the Institute of Ombudsman.
According to it, a monitoring group of employees visited Taldy-Suu village in Alai district of Osh region, where the returnees live compactly.
The head of the rural administration Turusbek Taev told about the situation of the migrants. According to him, 16 families of the Pamir Kyrgyz live in the village, totaling 87 people. Most of them moved in 2019, all of them received Kyrgyz citizenship, 45 people of them received Kyrgyz passports, the rest live with Afghan documents.
Every year they receive humanitarian aid in the form of food, clothing and coal. However, in the last year, the amount of humanitarian aid has declined. At the very beginning, 10 heads of sheep, a cow and a horse were donated to each family. Many of them sold their horses, some bought cars. Local government bodies offer to organize driving courses for the returnees.
The local school organized literacy courses separately for women and men, children study together with the children of local residents. Medical assistance is provided as needed. There were no problems or conflicts with the local population.
It should be noted that all returnees from Afghanistan living in the village are unemployed. They were given land for agriculture, but due to lack of irrigation water, they are not used. Drinking water is not supplied to those areas where the returnees live. The Pamir Kyrgyz do not have skills and knowledge in the conduct of everyday life.
Children and adolescents born in Afghanistan live with Afghan documents, which causes problems in obtaining some social services.
Atyr Abdrakhmatova believes that the practice of compact settlement of returnees does little to contribute to their effective adaptation and integration into the local community.
