The main international theme of the last month was the restrictions imposed by the USA on issuing immigrant visas and Green Cards for citizens of the Kyrgyz Republic.
The first order to ban entry into the United States for citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries was signed by Trump Jan. 27, 2017, just a week after the inauguration of the new President of the United States. The list includes Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Yemen, Libya and Somalia. Later, Venezuela and North Korea were included in this list.
Representatives of the administration then explained that the citizens of precisely these states pose a special threat to US national security, and they should be completely prohibited from entering the country.
On Jan.31, the United States imposed immigrant and diversity visa restrictions that suspend the entry of Kyrgyz immigrants in order to protect the security and welfare of the United States, the press service of the U.S. Embassy in Bishkek said.
The U.S. Government continues to issue nonimmigrant visas for other purposes, such as tourism, business, students and exchanges, the U.S. Embassy said.
The visa restrictions, as designated in Presidential Proclamations 9645, have been imposed on several countries with deficiencies in the security of their travel documents following an extensive review.
These deficiencies include the lack of an electronic biometric passport, failure to report lost and stolen passports, and inadequate information sharing on suspected terrorists.
Visa restrictions, as defined in Presidential Proclamation 9645 (decree), were imposed on several countries due to the lack of security measures in their identity documents, as revealed by careful analysis.
Introducing on Friday, January 31, the administration’s new initiative, Acting Head of the US Department of Homeland Security Chad Wolfe He explainedthat the new list was the result of a “systematic review” that lasted almost a year.
In March 2018, the U.S. administration sent a series of questions to the governments of 200 states regarding their cooperation with the United States in the fight against terrorism, the exchange of intelligence information and data on passports issued to their own citizens. The authorities of these countries were also required to independently evaluate the “level and degree” of the terrorist threat.
“President Donald Trump’s administration is unhappy that many foreigners are coming to the country. Now in the US there is a somewhat tense situation with a possible impeachment process, which is directed against the current head of the White House. In turn, Trump is trying to set such a populist vector of his image with such initiatives. This popular measure can add points to him, as well as an attempt to rehabilitate himself for some miscalculations in his personal activities as president. We remember some absurd initiatives, one of which was related to the construction of the separation wall on the border with Mexico. The Trump’s administration introduced at different times, restrictions on entry into the country for citizens of several Arab states. Then the society took such measures as a whole with approval. Its like, our President cares about our security. The current restriction initiative has already touched the countries that are members of the EAEU (Eurasian Economic Union) - Kyrgyzstan and Belarus. If Belarus has long been on the so-called “black list” not only in the United States, but also in Europe, then Kyrgyzstan was faced with a similar problem for the first time. The whole thing, allegedly, in the mismatch of standards of Kyrgyz passports of an international format. How to react to this? After all, the Kyrgyz Republic has always been aimed at productive cooperation with the United States, at all international venues the countries had pretty good points of contact. Kyrgyzstan has to do a scrupulous work. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic will have to conduct its own analysis, which should be based on the state of internal and external security. Namely, that the citizens of the Kyrgyz Republic have no ties with various terrorist cells. Here the problem lies in the fact that the citizens of Kyrgyzstan were exposed in Syria, and carried out their activities on the side of ISIS. I fully admit that partly for this reason, Kyrgyzstan was on this list. But the American side said that this list will be checked every six months, the situation will be monitored and I assume that it will undergo changes already this year,” said Mikhail Andronov, an expert at the Center for Strategic Studies and the Center for American Studies (Novosibirsk).
BBC wrote that, an interagency group in the USA, which included representatives of the Department of Homeland Security, the Pentagon, the State Department and the office of the director of the National Intelligence Service, conducted their own assessment of the situation in all these states.
“As a result, it was these six states that received the worst grades,” Wolfe explained, answering questions from reporters in Washington. “In the same way as the seven countries already included in the initial list, they took the last places in the general list.”
The official deemed it necessary to clarify that the "most" of these countries intends to maintain good relations with the United States and tried to help the Americans in assessing terrorist threats.
“For a variety of reasons, they were unable to meet the minimum requirements that we formulated,” Wolfe said. “Therefore, the only way to reduce possible risks was the introduction of travel restrictions.”
He added that the administration intends to conduct such reviews every six months, and any of the countries will get a chance to be removed from the list if Washington considers that this state has taken the necessary measures to strengthen its own security and has begun to cooperate more with the United States.
These deficiencies include the lack of an electronic biometric passport, failure to report lost and stolen passports, and inadequate information sharing on suspected terrorists.
According to the Kyrgyz Republic’s General Prosecutor’s Office, from 2015-2017, 64 criminal probes were launched into the illegal issuance of Kyrgyz passports. The Ministry of Interior noted that in 2019 alone, the State Registration Service illegally issued 36 passports.
In December 2019, the State Registration Service announced that Kyrgyz passports were falsified by individuals involved in a serious criminal case in Germany.
The U.S. Embassy in its statement said that the United States is concerned about the integrity of Kyrgyz passports and the issuance process.
"We encourage the Kyrgyz government to develop a constructive path forward to adequately control the issuance of passports, to expedite the development of electronic and biometric passports, and to provide prompt information about its lost and stolen passports to INTERPOL," the statement said.
The United States will continue to work with the Kyrgyz Republic to address procedural deficiencies.
The Presidential Proclamation will be implemented in an orderly way. No visas will be revoked under the Proclamation. The Proclamation does not apply to individuals who are inside the United States or who had a valid visa on Jan.31.
The restrictions are not intended to be permanent. Waivers may be available on a case-by-case basis and individuals with a pending immigration case are advised to contact the Consular Section of the U.S. Embassy for more information at the following email address: ConsularBishkek@state.gov.
The United States remains committed to strengthening our bilateral relationship to enhance the security, sovereignty, and prosperity of the Kyrgyz people.
Recently in Tashkent, the delegation of Kyrgyzstan, headed by Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kyrgyzstan Chingiz Aidarbekov, took part in the Ministerial meeting of the Central Asia + USA cooperation format (C5 + 1). The meeting was also attended by the foreign ministers of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and the US Secretary of State.
The meeting participants discussed issues of cooperation in the field of regional trade and the water-energy sector, border security. Aidarbekov announced the national priorities of Kyrgyzstan in accordance with the agenda, proposing to strengthen regional cooperation in this format with an emphasis on trade and economic cooperation, both between the countries of Central Asia and in their relations with the United States.
Then, Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Chingiz Aidarbekov held a bilateral meeting with US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo. They discussed the ways of developing cooperation between the Kyrgyz Republic and the United States, including joint steps to eliminate visa restrictions imposed by the United States for citizens of the Kyrgyz Republic. Aidarbekov emphasized that the decision of the American side directly affects the interests of citizens of the Kyrgyz Republic. The Kyrgyz side expressed surprise that out of more than 80 countries that have not yet introduced biometric passports, only a few states, including Kyrgyzstan, were selectively chosen. This does not fit into the understanding of partner support for parliamentary democracy, freedom of speech, which is successfully developing in Kyrgyzstan.
“I’m sure that after this meeting there will be a serious progress. Perhaps this meeting will be only the first in a series of subsequent ones. But it’s more important to understand why the Kyrgyz Republic was included in this list. Most likely, this is due to the new US strategy being developed for Central Asia. Kyrgyzstan is still in the center of international attention due to its very favorable geographical location. Apparently, this initiative should provoke new conditions for cooperation between the two countries in the coming years,” the expert said.
It is worth adding that Aidarbekov drew attention to the fact that Kyrgyzstan is an active participant in the processes to ensure international security, and also has made and is making its special contribution to the fight against terrorism.
An agreement was reached there on strengthening close cooperation in this direction and finding ways to solve the current situation. The sides emphasized the importance of developing the whole range of Kyrgyz-American relations in bilateral and multilateral formats.
Kabar News Agency
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