Fate of Faith Groups in Kazakhstan Still Uncertain

Religious groups in Kazakhstan are facing a tense period as new amendments to a law concerning national security are soon to be voted upon.

These amendments will have a strong influence on the religious and non-governmental groups working within the country. If the drafts of the new amendments pass through unchanged, religious groups and NGOs will have to be registered in order to work legally in the country.

Even though these amendments are currently only being discussed in the Upper Parliament, several reports from the country have expressed that some local authorities are already acting as if the law has been brought into force.

The General Director of Send International, Warren Janzen said: "There are some local officials within Kazakhstan who are already acting on that law as if it has been approved and are enforcing it. We have reports of one pastor of an unregistered church being arrested and one registered church in Almaty (EL-muh-TEE) which was forced to close because of potential violations of this act."

Send International is a faith agency focused on church planting and evangelising in unreached areas. The new amendments for the national security law will strongly restrict the workings of this and other such religious groups.

"That could limit our ability to do church planting and work in Kazakhstan. We could possibly see some persecution; we could see some restriction for new visas and missionaries going into Kazakhstan. And the people we have in place already may be either dramatically restricted what we can do or even forced out of the country," Mr Janzen continued.

Aleksandr Klyushev, of the Association of Religious Organisations of Kazakhstan said to Forum 18 recently, that the amendments are going to be considered by the full Parliament on 11th and 16th June.