Uznews.net reports that the refugees who returned to Andijan from the United States fled the country again, unable to live under the pressure from Uzbek secret services.

Spokesmen for the Uzbek diaspora in Kazakhstan maintain that 17 refugees who had returned to their native land last summer departed Uzbekistan again, quietly, this time to Kazakhstan. They already asked for political asylum.

According to the refugees themselves, the authorities approached them on their return to Uzbekistan and announced in no uncertain terms that they were not supposed to tell anybody anything about the bloodshed in Andijan in May 2005 or even visit their relatives' graves. Their freedom of movement in Andijan was restricted. Even communication was difficult because the former refugees were afraid of saying something wrong in the presence of informers from the National Security Service. The former refugees "lived in constant fear". Some of them were arrested on return to Uzbekistan. No information on their lot is available.

The Embassy of Uzbekistan in the United States helped almost 100 refugees to return to their native country from Arizona, Idaho, and Pennsylvania. The United States had accepted more refugees from Andijan than any other country (250 people), many of them still wishing to go back to Uzbekistan.

Ferghana.Ru correspondent in Bishkek Irina Yermakova reports that two families of refugees who had fled to Kyrgyzstan in the wake of the 2005 tragedy were transferred to Canada with help from the Kyrgyz office of the UN Supreme Commissar for Refugees.