KULOB, February 4, 2011, Asia-Plus — The Kulob Civil Society Support Center, Shahrvand, has launched a project to provide legal support to abandoned wives of labor migrants in Vose district.
The Shahrvand director Dodarbek Saydaliyev says Vose has been selected as a pilot district and further expansion of the project to the remaining nine districts of the Kulob region depends on the survey that will be conducted in Vose.
“It is still premature to say how many families have been abandoned by labor migrants in the area,” said Saydaliyev, “The first results of our field work, however, show that the problem exists and the situation is serious.”
According to him, the objective of the project, which is being implemented under financial support of the International Organization for Migration (IOM)’s Mission in Tajikistan, is in documenting the lives of the abandoned wives in Vose district, estimating their number, studying their survival capabilities, and assessing their vulnerability to abuse and crime.
We will recall that IOM Study on the socio-economic characteristics of abandoned wives of Tajik labor migrants and their survival capabilities released in August 2009 investigated problems associated with abandonment, at least in economic and emotional terms, of these wives and the vulnerabilities it creates. The key findings show that these women live in extreme poverty; they lack assistance from the government, international organizations, and the local community; and their physical and mental health is vulnerable as they are defenseless against famine, crime, and abuse.
