Population figures
Total country population
31,451
Forcibly displaced population
Refugees (under UNHCR's mandate):
8,955
Asylum-seekers:
0
IDPs (of concern to UNHCR):
0
Other people in need of international protection:
0
Other
Statelessness persons
22,496
Host community
0
Others of concern to UNHCR
0
Country context
Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia, bordered to the north by Kazakhstan, to the northeast by Kyrgyzstan, to the southeast by Tajikistan, to the south by Afghanistan, and to the southwest by Turkmenistan. Uzbekistan is the only country in Central Asia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), which has not acceded to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol (hereinafter jointly referred to as the 1951 Convention). Furthermore, Uzbekistan has also not acceded the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons nor the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. Uzbekistan is party to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and at the 2021 46th Session of the Human Rights Committee. In 2018 and 2023, Uzbekistan supported Universal Periodic Review recommendations to accede to and implement the 1951 Refugee Convention, its 1967 Protocol, both Statelessness Conventions, as well as to promote the protection of refugees.
Uzbekistan does not have a national asylum system and, given that only people with valid visas can enter the country, no refugees or asylum-seekers have been registered in Uzbekistan. Provisions for granting “political asylum” are set out in the Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan (Article 93 para 22) and detailed in the Presidential Decree on the Approval of the Regulation on the Procedure for Granting Political Asylum (2017) and a subsequent Law on the Legal Status of Foreign Citizens and Stateless Persons (2021).
...The framework mentioned above is the only purported legal avenue to seek political asylum in the country. There is, however, no information available on the procedure or conditions for granting “political asylum” in Uzbekistan or the number of actual cases of asylum applicants or recognized refugees. In the absence of national asylum legislation, the entry and stay of forcibly displaced people in
Uzbekistan is regulated by immigration laws.
In November 2021, the Uzbekistan Government announced via mass media that there were 13,020 Afghan citizens residing temporarily in the country, of whom 1,496 individuals with valid visas as of December 2023. Considering the ongoing situation in Afghanistan, as well as anticipated returns and departures to third countries from Uzbekistan, UNHCR estimates that by end of 2024, there may have been approximately 8,950 Afghan nationals in Uzbekistan, considered to be in a refugee-like situation.
The Cabinet of Minister’s Regulations of Civil Acts Registration was amended in 2018 to ensure universal birth registration, including that of children born to undocumented parents, thereby contributing to reducing the risk of childhood statelessness. A new edition of the
Citizenship Law was adopted in March 2020, and amended in 2021, and one of its provisions confers citizenship to registered stateless people who were granted permanent residence in Uzbekistan before 1 January 2005. The authorities estimated that some 70,000
people would benefit from this new provision and eventually be recognized as citizens. Their children will also be eligible for citizenship through the same process. The new law includes other important provisions to prevent statelessness and simplified naturalization procedures.
The country has no dedicated procedure specifically aimed at determining statelessness. As of December 2024, 22,496 stateless people were officially registered by the Government of Uzbekistan – representing some 59% of the known stateless population in Central Asia. No data is available on the extent or number of people with undetermined nationality or at risk of statelessness, however, civil society organizations in Uzbekistan are aware of communities, including “Lyuli”, in several regions who might be in high number as undocumented and at risk of statelessness.
