KHOROG, March 17, 2009, Asia-Plus — No mass return of labor migrants has been reregistered in Gorno Badakhshan so far, Mamadnasim Gavarov, the head of the GBAO directorate for social protection, employment and migration, said in an interview with Asia-Plus.
According to him, the results of the household poll conducted by the directorate specialists in January-February this year have shown that 1,322 labor migrants have returned to the region over the report period, which is only 5.5 percent of the overall number of labor migrants from Gorno Badakhshan.
“The majority of those who returned over the first two months of this year said that that the main reason for return was lack of job,” said Gavarov, “However, many of them are going to travel to other CIS states, primarily Russia, in the summer again.”
He noted that over the same two-month period, 675 residents of the region had traveled to Russia for seasonal work.
“At present, more than 23,530 residents of Gorno Badakhshan are outside the country, ,seeking better employment opportunities,” the official said.
