AKIPRESS.COM - United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the State Registration Service presented today new Kyrgyz passports to 10 confirmed citizens in Ak-Suu district of Issyk-Kul region. They are among the 475 persons who have been registered as being at risk of statelessness in Issyk-Kul province. UNHCR and SRS started the joint program there in February, as part of the country-wide campaign which began in 2014. As of today, over 7,720 persons received citizenship with the help of mobile teams reaching out to the remote areas of the Kyrgyz Republic.

“I can’t express how excited I’m to be able to vote in the upcoming elections. For many years I did not have valid documents and could not exercise my political rights nor get a proper medical treatment,” Shakirbek uulu Janybek said as he received his new passport. “I would like to express my gratitude to the mobile team lawyers, who walked me through every step of the legal process.”

UNHCR and the State Registration Service have launched a joint campaign to resolve the remaining cases of statelessness in the Kyrgyz Republic since 2014. In two years, 57 mobile multifunctional teams each consisting of an NGO lawyer, a local self-government official, and a passport desk officer have travelled throughout Osh, Jalalabad, Batken, Talas, Issyk-Kul and Chui regions. These teams provide legal aid to affected people and assist them in filing for citizenship determination or acquisition.

Today the project continues in the remaining two regions of Issyk-Kul and Naryn. By the end of 2016, the mobile teams will have covered the entire territory of the country. Target groups of beneficiaries include Soviet passport holders, foreigners with expired passports, and persons without birth certificates.

“SRS has learned a lot from UNHCR’s project, practically reaching out to help people with documentation. We are adopting the project’s model in our challenging registration work, including documenting children which is important for our future,” SRS Chairman Tairbek Sarpashev said.

“Kyrgyz government has made a remarkable progress in reducing statelessness. UNHCR continues to support the government in resolving difficult cases through addressing administrative and legislative procedures and to prevent future statelessness from occurring,” said UNHCR Representative Maki Shinohara.