Protection without recognition: managing Afghan refugees in Uzbekistan

This study analyzes Uzbekistan’s approach to Afghan refugee protection as a non-signatory state to the 1951 Refugee Convention. Despite lacking formal refugee legislation, Uzbekistan hosts approximately 8,500 Afghan refugees through alternative mechanisms operating outside conventional legal frameworks. The key finding identifies Uzbekistan as a ‘pragmatic administrator’, a type of non-signatory state that maintains complete formal distance from international refugee regimes while providing functional accommodation through purely domestic administrative measures. This differs fundamentally from states engaging with UNHCR mandate procedures or bilateral MOUs. Uzbekistan provides de facto protection through flexible visa policies, administrative tolerance of informal economic activities, and selective service access. Three dimensions illuminate this model: transit-oriented positioning as geopolitical tool balancing humanitarian cooperation with sovereignty preservation; administrative ambiguity creating opportunity structures that refugees strategically exploit; and legal invisibility enabling adaptive agency that formal recognition might foreclose. However, protection depends on government discretion rather than binding obligations, creating fundamental precarity. This research challenges traditional assumptions about the relationship between formal legal compliance and protection effectiveness, contributing to understanding how non-signatory states operationalize refugee management outside established international frameworks.