DUSHANBE, May 16, 2009, Asia-Plus — Some 3,800 citizens of Tajikistan wanting to move to Russia under Russia’s State Program of Assistance to the Voluntary Resettlement of Country-Fellowmen Living Abroad to the Russian Federation have applied to the representative office of Russia’s Federal Migration Service (FMS) in Tajikistan since September 2007.
Viktor Sebelev, a chief specialist with the FMS office in Tajikistan, remarked this at a meeting with reporters in Dushanbe on May 15. According to him, the office has accepted 828 applications for consideration and two thirds of them have already been considered. “248 families (totaling 769 people) have received special certificates and 181 of them, or 577 people, have already moved to Russia,” Sebelev said,, noting that the office is continuing to receive new applications.
He added that only two cases of return of migrants to Tajikistan had been officially registered so far. Both cases have been reported in the Tambov region.
Settlers from Tajikistan prefer to move the Kaliningrad, Kaluga, Lipetsk, Tambov, Tver and Krasnoyarsk regions, Sebelev said.
As it had been reported earlier, the three-staged program for voluntary resettlement of fellow-countrymen living abroad is scheduled to be finished in 2012.
The first stage included adoption of legal documents necessary for organizing the voluntary resettlement of fellow-countrymen to Russia, creation of system to manage the program, assessment of Russia’s requirements in manpower as well as preparedness of regional infrastructure (providing basic social services, housing, etc) for accepting migrants.
The second stage designed for 2007-2008 provided for direct resettlement of the program participants to the Russian Federation as well as analysis of the results of implementation of the regional resettlement programs.
The third stage that was launched this year will conclude implementation of the program and assess effectiveness of implementation of the regional resettlement programs.
