Astana is puzzled over Kazakhstan’s inclusion into the list of “specially designated countries”, Novosti Kazakhstan quoted Kazakhstan's Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying July 21.

The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General published the list of “specially designated countries” as an appendix to an unclassified May 11 report–”Supervision of Aliens Commensurate With Risk“–that was publicly posted on the Internet.

Citizens of “specially designated countries” are subject to a special security screening called a “Third Agency Check” (TAC) when they are actually detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the division of the Department of Homeland Security responsible for enforcing the immigration laws.

“We are puzzled and concerned over the information made public that Kazakhstan, as it turns out, has been included by the US Department of Homeland Security into the list of “nations that tend to promote, produce, or protect terrorist organizations or their reps”, Kazakhstan’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Ilyas Omarov commented.
He emphasized that the Kazakhstan’s Foreign Ministry “would like to know what criteria are used when making up such lists”.

“The situation contradicts with the spirit of strategic partnership between Kazakhstan and the USA. We are expecting our US partners to take urgent measures to rectify the situation”, Mr. Omarov said.

According to him, during the Kazakh-US consultations held the other day in Washington “the Executive Secretary of the Kazakhstan’s Foreign Ministry, Rapil Zhosybayev, “made the Kazakhstan’s stance on terrorism absolutely clear” for the US State Department officials.