DUSHANBE, March 14, 2009, Asia-Plus — Orientation of Tajik labor migrants to one or two counties may become an instrument of political pressure for receiving countries on Tajikistan, the head of the department for social security and employment of the population within President’s Executive Office, Alisher Yarbabayev, announced at a roundtable meeting entitled “Impact of the Global Financial Crisis on Labor Migration from Tajikistan” in Dushanbe on March 13.
“In this connection, Tajikistan should seek new labor markets for its migrants in other countries that have high needs in foreign manpower,” Yarbabayev said.
According to him, mass return of labor migrants may lead to increase in unemployment rate in that country that, in turns leads to increase in crime rate. Data of various international statistics agencies shows that an 1 percent increase in unemployment leads to a 4 percent increase in crime, Tajik official said.
Speaking a the meeting, Yarbabayev noted that various national programs aimed at reducing unemployment in the country have created more than 3,000 news jobs since the beginning of the year.
“At present, some 150,000 people in the country need jobs. The government has developed an appropriate concept aimed at creating some 100,000 new jobs per year,” he said.
