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Kazakhstan to organize refugee center near border with Uzbekistan

Another refugee centers maybe established near Kazakhstan's border with Turkmenistan

ASTANA, January 29. /TASS/. Kazakhstan plans to organize refugee centers in the regions bordering Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, local media said on Friday citing a local government official.

"The regional budget provides for the establishment of refugee centers under the anti-terrorism article of the defense program," Svetlana Nareshova, acting head of the economy and budget planning department of the government of Kazakhstan’s Mangistau region, told a briefing.

She said the local budget allocated 340 million tenge (some $850,000) to build the first refugee center near the border with Uzbekistan.

A refugee center "is necessary in emergency situations," she said, adding however that no refugees were expected in the region in the near future. It is planned to use these funds to buy tents, kitchenware, warm clothes for about one 1,000 people.

Nareshova did not rule out a similar center could be organized near the border with Turkmenistan.