Editor’s Note: Komron Boimatov has been granted the right to enter Ukraine and apply for political asylum on July 14, 2021, according to latest updates from human rights experts Steve Swerdlow and Maksym Butkevych. The Tajik activist will now undergo a formal application process.
“Tough road ahead but yesterday showed power of civil society in Ukraine,” Swerdlow wrote on Twitter.
Tajik political activist Komron Boimatov has been refused the opportunity to apply for asylum after arriving in Ukraine, according to human rights expert Steve Swerdlow, who called it a violation of international human rights law.
Boimatov has been stuck at Kyiv Boryspil International Airport since he arrived there from Turkey at 2 a.m. on July 13. Human rights experts who have been in touch with Boimatov’s family told the Kyiv Post that the activist has had no access to food since he landed in Ukraine.
The son of prominent Tajik opposition figure Lukmon Boimatov, Komron Boimatov is on the run, fearing imprisonment and torture if he were to return to Tajikistan. The country is known for widespread use of torture against critics and for lengthy prison sentences for peaceful activists.
Boimatov’s father contacted Swerdlow, telling him about the denial of opportunity to apply for asylum and asking him for urgent help for his son.
“I am the father of a Tajikistan national, K.B., seeking political asylum in Ukraine. This morning he was detained at the border control of the international airport in Kyiv,” Lukhmon Boimatov wrote. “He is under threat of deportation. This is madness and goes completely against human rights. Please help my son defend his right!”
Reached for comment, the State Migration Service of Ukraine asked for an official request in writing.
Swerdlow told the Kyiv Post that the denial is not an isolated case. According to him, Ukrainian authorities have a pattern of refusing to consider requests for asylum, which is an obligation under international human rights law. He added that Ukrainian authorities have previously returned activists to Tajikistan, where they faced torture on trumped-up charges.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, thousands of people have applied for asylum in Ukraine but only about 100 of them will be given status each year. The rest tend to be caught in a legal limbo.
Facing persecution
Human rights experts gave the Kyiv Post access to Boimatov’s declaration to the Ukrainian migration service, explaining his need for political asylum.
His father’s criticism of the Tajik government and the fact that he studied in Iran puts him at high risk of detention and torture if he is deported back to Tajikistan, Swerdlow said.
“Students enrolled in Iran are accused of being traitors to Tajikistan, whom may be followed by years of imprisonment, up to life. It is well known that up to now more than 150 of the Tajik students studying in Iran [have been] sentenced for a term of 10 to 25 years in prison and they are in the prisons of the Republic of Tajikistan now,” he wrote.
Boimatov has graduated from Tehran University in May 2021.
Lukhmon Boimatov is a prominent intellectual currently living in Sweden. After criticizing Tajik president Emomali Rahmon in 2013, he was forced to flee the country for fear of persecution.
Maksym Butkevych, coordinator of the nonprofit No Borders Project, who has also been in touch with Boimatov’s family, told the Kyiv Post that since the younger Boimatov arrived at Kyiv Boryspil International Airport, he has been denied permission to buy food and can only be reached and represented by the Ukrainian Ombudsman’s Office.
The matter is further complicated by the absence of clearly outlined procedures if asylum application is denied, Butkevych said.
He said that unless this changes, the situation will repeat, with tragic consequences for Ukraine. Refusing to consider an asylum request is considered a violation of a state’s own obligations under international refugee law.
“Tajikistan’s human rights record is disastrous and is notorious for widespread torture in its detention facilities,” Swerdlow said. “Over the past half-decade authorities have imprisoned hundreds for no other reason than their peaceful criticism of an increasingly paranoid authoritarian regime.”
“As a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights, the Convention against Torture, and other human rights instruments Ukraine has an absolute obligation not to send any individual to a country where he could face torture,” he added. “Kyiv should consider Boimatov’s request for asylum, uphold its pledge to uphold human rights, and protect those at risk of abuse elsewhere in the region.”
