Uzbekistan says it has no legal grounds to host Afghans awaiting US visas

Uzbekistan said on Thursday there was no legal basis for accepting a U.S. request to temporarily house thousands of Afghans while they await U.S. immigrant visas after having worked for American forces now pulling out of the country, Reuters reported.

Washington has asked Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan to house about 9,000 Afghans who now risk being targeted by the Taliban for having cooperated with US and NATO forces, Reuters reported.

Kazakhstan and Tajikistan have so far declined to comment on the U.S. request, and Ismatilla Ergashev, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s special envoy on Afghanistan, became the first Central Asian official to openly discuss it.

Speaking to Kun.uz, an Uzbek news website, Ergashev said: “This is a very serious and sensitive issue for Uzbekistan that cannot be decided immediately.”

Ergashev said Uzbekistan had not signed a 1951 convention relating to the status of refugees while its own laws had no provisions for granting anyone refugee status.

“Therefore, taking into account external and domestic factors, there are no legal or practical grounds to provide asylum on our territory for Afghan citizens who cooperated with the United States,” he said.

He further said Taliban leaders had promised clemency to such Afghans and added that Tashkent was open to the idea of allowing the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees to set up a representative office close to the Uzbek-Afghan border, Reuters reported.