Document #1272279
IRB – Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (Author)
According to information obtained from a
representative of the Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan in
London, UK, prior to the issuance of the Kazakh national passport
in February or March 1995 (25 Apr. 1996), inhabitants of Kazakhstan
used the Soviet passport for international travel purposes and the
internal Soviet passport solely for internal identification
purposes (ibid.) Both versions of the Soviet passport were red, the
letters CCCP appeared on the top of the front cover, and there was
a hammer and sicle insignia with stars in the centre of the cover
(ibid.). The Soviet external passport, which is still in use by
Kazakhs for external travel and recognized by Kazakh authorities,
revealed the bearer's place of birth and residence as being
Kazakhstan, but "definitely" did not show, for instance, that the
bearer was a Jehovah's witness or Jewish (ibid.).
Soviet internal passports were first issued
in the mid-1970s (ibid.), were written in Russian, contained pages
for police authorizations and a page for information on the
passport bearer's children (24 Apr. 1996). They also contained a
domestic stamp where the successive addresses of the bearer, since
the age of eighteeen, were written (25 Apr. 1996). For information
on whether ethnicity or nationality was listed in Soviet internal
passports please refer to Responses to Information Requests
SUN19164.e, of 13 December 1994 and SUN21131.e of 27 July 1995.
According to the same source, Kazakh
national passports for international travel began to be issued in
February or March 1995 (25 Apr. 1996). These passports are not
intended for internal identification purposes or to replace the old
Soviet internal passports as Kazakhstan has issued internal
identification cards for this purpose (24 Apr. 1996). The
identification cards cannot be used for travel outside of
Kazakhstan and are of indeterminate validity (ibid.).
There are three types of Kazakh national
passports: a regular passport is light blue, an official passport
is black and a diplomatic passport is red (ibid.). All three
versions of the passport have gold writing on the top of the cover
page, a national symbol in the centre and two phrases, one in
English and one in Kazakh, on the bottom of the front cover
(ibid.). The length of validity is five years (ibid.).
This Response was prepared after
researching publicly accessible information currently available to
the DIRB within time constraints. This Response is not, and does
not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular
claim to refugee status or asylum.
Reference
Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan,
London, UK. 24-25 April 1996. Telephone interviews with a
representative.