DUSHANBE, March 10, 2012, Asia-Plus – On Friday March 9, Mr. Safiallo Devonayev, Chairman of the Migration Service under the Government of Tajikistan, met here with Mr. Fan Xianrong, Ambassador of China to Tajikistan.
The Migration Service press center reports the two discussed a number of issues related to the labor migration situation in Tajikistan. Status of Chinese migrant workers in Tajikistan was the focus of the meeting.
Devonayev reportedly briefed Mr. Fan on Tajikistan’s migration legislation as well as state and prospects of further expansion of the Tajik migration service agency’s cooperation with international organizations in that area.
He noted that the Migration Service was ready for closer cooperation with representatives of Chinese business community to improve the status of Chinese labor migrants in Tajikistan and create favorable cooperation for expansion of economic cooperation between the two countries, the source said.
For his part, Ambassador Fan reportedly expressed gratitude to Devonayev for the meeting and stressed that the Migration Service’s activity was one of priorities of bilateral relations between China and Tajikistan. He also offered to arrange a meeting with Chinese businesspeople, the source said.
Some media sources reported in November 2011 that Tajikistan’s Migration Service plans to open a center to monitor the presence of tens of thousands Chinese migrants in the country.
Officially there are some 1,500 Chinese working in Tajikistan but organizations such as the International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimate there are more than 80,000 Chinese migrants in the country, Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service reported in November 2011.
RFE/RL quoted Muzaffar Zarifov, the head of the Tajik government”s Center for Migration and Development, as saying that it is very important to open such a center because cheap Chinese labor could exacerbate Tajikistan”s unemployment problems. He said Tajikistan should restrict immigration in order to save jobs for local people, who are forced to seek employment in Russia and other CIS countries. According to unofficial statistics, up to 1 million Tajiks go to Russia every year as seasonal laborers. At the same time, Chinese citizens are coming in greater numbers to work in Tajikistan.
In October of 2011, the IOM launched several programs in Tajikistan for Chinese migrants.
