Uznews.net – The Uzbek authorities are preventing members of unregistered religious organisations, such as Jehovah’s Witnesses and some Muslim followers, from travelling abroad, Forum 18 News Service has said.

Forum 18, specialising in reporting about religious freedom, said that Uzbek interior directorates had refused to issue exit visa to Protestant Christian Natalya Kadyrova.

It said this case was not isolated, and Jehovah’s Witnesses and many Muslims from independent Islamic currents had also been refused permission to go abroad.

The head of the Interior Ministry’s exit and entry department, Saken Kojahmetov, denied that the country was limiting citizens’ movement because of religious affiliation.

“We don’t obstruct Uzbek citizens from travelling freely,” he told Forum 18.

Asked about visa denials, he said: “If some people are saying this, let them come to me and raise their case and we will resolve it.”

Uzbekistan is the only former Soviet country that is still employing the Soviet system of exit visas which permit citizens to travel abroad. These visas are issued for two years and have to be renewed after their expiration. However, the country’s security services for some reasons can refuse visas for certain people.

Apart from religious followers, human rights activists, journalists and political dissidents and their family members suffer from this system.

This system also creates favourable conditions for corruption, enriching people involved: in order to speed up the process people pay bribes which end up in high-ranking government officials’ pockets.