DUSHANBE, September 14, Asia-Plus – Beginning on January 1, 2007, Tajik nationals will be able to stay in the Russian Federation without registration during 10 days.
Anvar Boboyev, the head of the state migration service within the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, said it will become possible following changes made to the Russian Federal Law “On Legal Status of Foreign Citizens in the Russian Federation” that will have taken effect by the end of this year.
Under these changes, a term of staying of the CIS citizens in the Russian Federation without registration is extended from three days to ten days. Besides, the amendments made to the law extend a minimal term of staying of registered CIS citizens in Russia from three months to six months. “Moreover, if labor migrant is able to find job and officially conclude a contract with employer for longer period, for example one or two years, the term of his staying in Russia will be extended automatically,” Boboyev stressed.
In the meantime, Tajikistan’s Labor Ministry has launched negotiations with Russia’s Federal Migration Service to discuss the possibility of extending a term of staying of Tajik nationals in Russia without registration up to 90 days.
This issue was also discussed during discussions of the Majlisi Milli (Tajikistan’s upper chamber of parliament) speaker Mahmadsaid Ubaidulloyev with his Russian counterpart, Russia’s Senate speaker Sergey Mironov, in Dushanbe recently.
In the meantime, the implementation of a government-to-government agreement between Tajikistan and Russia on labor migration signed during President Putin’s visit to Tajikistan in October 2004 is ongoing.
“Establishment of a joint working group provided for by this agreement would intensify work on tackling problems facing labor migrants, in particular deduction of part of their earnings to pension fund, medical service, and would speed up working out mechanism of an efficient joint cooperation in the social sphere,” said the migration service head, “We are still waiting for confirmation of the Russian composition of the working group.”
Boboyev noted survey of households in the country shows that 338,000 Tajiks have left the country seeking better employment opportunities over the first six months of this year, more than 300,000 of them are staying in Russia. “The main part of Tajik labor migrants staying in Russia work in the construction sector (46 percent), and others are engaged in trade,” Boboyev concluded.
