Kyiv (Ukraine) – The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees continues to be concerned about the situation of a Kyrgyz national who was denied access to Ukrainian territory in Boryspil airport where she arrived by the flight from Kazakhstan on 29 March 2012.

On Decemer 12, 2011 Human Rights Watch published the report about violation of human rights in Uzbekistan. Torture, the Failure of Habeas Corpus, and the Silencing of Lawyers in Uzbekistan are among the main subjects covered by this report.

Enslaving children and torturing dissidents is never chic.

The daughter of Uzbekistan’s dictator planned to unveil her spring fashion line at New York City’s prestigious Fashion Week. But her show was canceled after Human Rights Watch and a coalition of like-minded organizations spotlighted her connection to her father’s tyrannical government.

13 June 2011

On 9 June 2011 the Kazakh authorities extradited 28 Uzbek refugees in violation of international law, international treaties, as well as contrary to the ideas of humanism. The refugees were under arrest for extradition in remand centers of the National Security Committee (KNB) of Kazakhstan and the Committee of the Criminal Executive System of Kazakhstan in Almaty since June 2010. The assistant prosecutor of Almaty Tashkenbaev Aubakirov, as well as Kazakhstan's Foreign Ministry spokesman Ilyas Omarov confirmed the extradition in media interviews.

A report by the Association for Human Rights in Central describes the system of torture and extrajudicial execution in Uzbekistan.

Download the report (PDF version): here

Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor

2010 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices

April 8, 2011

Source: see full text and PDF version here

At the night from 14th to 15th of February, 2006 Ukrainian authorities extradited 11 refugees to Uzbekistan. They all came to Ukraine to apply for the refugee status, fleeing from persecution of the Uzbek authorities and fearing for their lives. Instead of providing them with asylum and protection, Ukrainian authorities betrayed them into the hands of torturer.

Statement by activists and friends of civil society in Uzbekistan

Reporters Without Borders is concerned that President Islam Karimov is to be received in Brussels on 24 January for the first time since the European Union lifted the targeted sanctions it imposed on Uzbekistan’s leaders after the May 2005 massacre in the eastern city of Andijan. The officials he is due to meet include European Commission president José Manuel Barroso.

On 26 July 2010 the European Court of Human Rights applied Rule 39 with respect to four asylum seekers detained by the Ukrainian authorities prohibiting extradition to Uzbekistan pending the Court’s examination.

Statement of the international transborder meeting in Turkey, made on March 18, 2012 in front of Edirne detention centre

Kyiv (Ukraine) – The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has noted that on 3 March 2012 European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ordered Ukrainian authorities in response to a petition to the Court under Rule 39 that 3 stowaways on the ship docked at Mykolayiv seaport (2 from Eritrea, 1 from Ethiopia) should be allowed to disembark from the vessel and be granted access to asylum procedure to exercise their right to seek asylum.

Further information on UA: 29/12 Index: EUR 50/002/2012 Ukraine Date: 22 February 2012

URGENT ACTION

detained asylum-seekers stop hunger strike

The strike, held in protest by the group of Somali asylum-seekers and migrants, against their illegal detention and alleged ill-treatment, lasted for six weeks. The strike was halted by the group on 17 February after they received assurances from the State Migration Service that their asylum applications would be considered.

UNHCR is relieved to hear that the hunger strikes have ended at both detention centres in the Volyn and Chernigiv regions of Ukraine. The detainees, including many asylum-seekers and minors, were protesting against the length of their detention and demanded that the authorities consider their asylum claims in compliance with international standards.

Source: Human Rights Watch site

(Moscow, February 1, 2012) - The Ukrainian authorities should immediately stop police harassment and threats against Somali asylum seekers held at the Zhuravychi Migrant Accommodation Centre, Human Rights Watch said today. In a letter sent to the Ukrainian authorities, Human Rights Watch also called for the immediate release of all Somali asylum seekers who are being held in administrative detention pending deportation.

Source: UNHCR site

UNHCR remains concerned about the situation of detainees, including many asylum-seekers and minors who are currently held in two detention centres in the Volyn and Chernigiv regions[1] of Ukraine. Their situation remains problematic even after several visits of UNHCR staff and NGO lawyers and Government officials. To obtain clarity more visits and interviews are scheduled for the coming weeks.

Amnesty International has urged the Ukrainian authorities to stop the ill-treatment of a group of detained asylum-seekers and their supporters, who were attacked by security forces attempting to forcibly end a hunger strike.

To: Vitaliy Zakharchenko, Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine

Dear Mr. Zakharchenko:

We are writing to raise our concern about the arbitrary detention of some or all of a group of 125 Somali nationals detained at the  Zhuravychi Migrant Accommodation Centre (MAC). Some of them are  registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees  (UNHCR) or the Ukrainian authorities as asylum seekers. Around 80  have told UNHCR they want to apply for asylum in Ukraine, but have  not been allowed to do so.

Below is a part of Human Rights Watch report 2012 about the situation with human rights in Uzbekistan.

Uzbekistan’s human rights record remains appalling, with no meaningful improvements in 2011. Torture remains endemic in the criminal justice system. Authorities continue to target civil society activists, opposition members, and journalists, and to persecute religious believers who worship outside strict state controls.

Freedom of expression remains severely limited. Government-sponsored forced child labor during the cotton harvest continues. Authorities continued to deny justice for the 2005 Andijan massacre in which government forces shot and killed hundreds of protestors, most of them unarmed.

Reacting to the pro-democracy Arab Spring movements, the Uzbek government increased the presence of security forces across the country and widened its already-tight control over the internet. Despite the government’s persistent refusal to address concerns about its abysmal record, the United States and European Union continued to advance closer relations with the Uzbek government in 2011, seeking cooperation in the war in Afghanistan.

To: President of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych

Head of the State Migration Service of Ukraine, Mykola Kovalchuk

Minister of Internal Affairs, Vitaliy Zakharchenko

General Prosecutor of Ukraine, Viktor Pshonka

Head of the Human Rights Committee of Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine,

Oleh Zarubynskiy

Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights,

Nina Karpachova

Copy to: Office of the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights,

Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine,

UNHCR Regional representation for Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine

OPEN APPEAL

Concerning the Situation of Asylum Seekers from Somalia in Ukraine

The Ukrainian Refugee Council calls upon the Ukrainian authorities to immediately apply all necessary measures to address the situation of asylum seekers from Somalia, who are staying on the territory of Ukraine. While Ukraine should have been celebrating the 10^th Anniversary of joining the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention - Somalis detained because of their irregular status went on a hunger strike in the Migrant Accommodation Centre 'Zhuravychi' (Volyn region). They are doing this to protest against the hopeless situation they find themselves in, one which could have been prevented by implementing the Convention.