QURGHON TEPPA, November 4, 2008, Asia-Plus — A roundtable meeting to discuss labor migration problems was held in Qurghon Teppa, the capital of the Khatlon province on November 3.
Staged by the country’s Public Council and the OSCE Office in Tajikistan, the meeting brought together representatives of political parties, NGOs and the migration service to discuss the most pressing problems facing Tajik labor migrants and consider ways to solve them.
The Khatlon governor Ghayvbullo Avzalov noted that according to the local migration service, 120,000 residents of the province have traveled to other CIS countries, primarily the Russian Federation, over the first nine months of this year in search of seasonal work
“Meanwhile, according to the statistical data, more than 220,000 residents of Khatlon are currently outside the country in search of the seasonal work,” the governor said, noting that the real number of labor migrants could be much higher that the official data showed.
During the meeting, it was also noted that because of poor knowledge of the Russian language and the employment realities as well as legal requirements, many of labor migrants find themselves in irregular situations. Besides, many of labor migrants do not have appropriate specialties, and therefore, the majority of them work as unskilled laborers.
