DUSHANBE, January 6, 2009, Asia-Plus — The situation that emerged around Tajik nationals that were removed from train in Astrakhan for having forged documents requires thorough investigation, the MFA information department head Davlat Nazriyev said in an interview with Asia-Plus today.
According to him, 16 Tajik nationals with forged certificates of return to homeland have been removed from the train Moscow-Dushanbe in Astrakhan over the past two weeks.
Such certificates with validity period of 30 days are issued by the diplomatic mission to Tajik nationals in case of loss or damage of passports.
Commenting on the situation, the MFA spokesman said that it was supposition that that it was nothing more than provocation on the part of Karomat Sharipov, head of the Moscow-based Tajik public association, Tajik Labor Migrants, that could issued the forged certificates.
“Acting chief of the Interior Ministry migration service representative office in Russia Rajabali Hasanov told us by phone yesterday that two representatives of the office had gone to Astrakhan to probe into the situation,” said Nazriyev, “We cannot make a premature conclusion today. It is necessary to thoroughly examine the situation and to know who is actually involved in issuing the forged certificates – representatives of Tajik Labor Migrants or corrupt representatives from the Tajik Embassy in Moscow.”
In the meantime, information posted on Tajik Labor Migrants’ website (
www.tajmigrant.com
) on January 4 noted that more than 50 Tajik nationals were removed from the train Moscow-Dushanbe in Astrakhan from December 29 to December 31 2008.
According to the website, they were charged with violation of customs control requirements and were transferred to officers from the Astrakhan transportation police that took their passports and transferred them to representatives of the criminal grouping who took them to the settlement of Svobodny. To leave the settlement they have to pay 25,000 Russian rubles (RR) in ransom each, the website said. You may find numbers of mobile phones of some of “hostages” and names of persons involved in this crime.
Information posted on this website on Monday evening noted that two of 50 “hostages” paid RR25,000 each and were given their documents back. “However, four other Tajik nationals were brought to the settlement today,” the website said on January 5.
