Official requests of Kyrgyzstan remained unanswered, Foreign Ministry says about return of Kyrgyz refugees to Afghanistan

AKIPRESS.COM - The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kyrgyzstan has commented on return of 345 Kyrgyz refugees from Tajikistan back to Wakhan district of Afghanistan.
The Foreign Ministry said a note was sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Tajikistan on July 13 asking for assistance in unimpeded travel of Afghan Kyrgyz until the crossing point on the Kyrgyz-Tajik border.
"Concerns and respective requests were voiced by the Kyrgyz side during multilateral political events in Dushanbe and Tashkent held on July 14-16," the Foreign Ministry said.
On July 12, following the requests of Kyrgyz refugees who fled to Tajikistan, the Kyrgyz side sent a request to UNHCR regional office asking assistance for evacuation of the refugees.
On July 16, the meeting was held with the Ambassador of Tajikistan in Bishkek, where Kyrgyzstan expressed readiness to accommodate all Kyrgyz refugees and requested assistance in their unimpeded travel across Tajikistan to Kyrgyzstan. The Kyrgyz side asked to provide access to ethnic Kyrgyz to elaborate their evacuation," the Foreign Ministry of Kyrgyzstan said.
The official letters of Kyrgyzstan remained unanswered. The official information on return of refugees to Afghanistan was not received from Tajikistan either, the Foreign Ministry said.
On July 13-14, some 347 ethnic Kyrgyz (91 men, 77 women, 177 minors) fled from Taliban to Tajikistan.
The Kyrgyz authorities said assistance was requested from Tajikistan and UN with evacuation of Kyrgyz refugees from Tajikistan to Kyrgyzstan.
Tajik media reported with reference to the Border Troops of Tajikistan the Kyrgyz refugees, who fled from Afghanistan to Tajikistan on July 13-14, returned to their home district in Afghanistan on July 17-18.