Tajik refugees living in Kyrgyzstan will no longer be granted refugee status for a pretty simple reason: they are no longer refugees. While most Tajik refugees have either naturalized to Kyrgyzstan or returned home, there is a significant pool of lingerers hanging onto the status granted to them by the UNHCR.

No longer:

“This is what we term a cessation clause and it applies to all Tajik refugees in the world. It just signals a UNHCR decision to stop recognising Tajik citizens [who fled the civil war] as refugees [from that date],” [Carlos] Zaccagnini explained.

Kyrgyzstan has made their naturalization possible through a presidential decree if that is their preference, and the UN is even going so far to even fund their repatriation if that is their preference.

The UNHCR seems to be doing a great job providing all sorts of services to help Tajik refugees integrate with Kyrgyz society and ameliorate hardships in wellbeing. They have a point, though, when they point out that the civil war is long past, and it’s time to start moving on.