KHOORG, April 6, 2009, Asia-Plus — Over the first three months of this year, more than 1,530 labor migrants have returned to Gorno Badakhshan from Russia, the head of Badakhshonkhorijakor (GBAO state company for external labor migration) Qamchibek Nasillobekov said in an interview with Asia-Plus.
According to him, 23,700 labor migrants from Gorno Badakhshan, which is more than 10 percent of the region’s population, currently work outside Tajikistan, primarily in Russia.
“In January-march 2009, more than 1,530 labor migrants have returned to Gorno Badakhshan,” Nasillobekov said, “In the meantime, more than 1,000 residents of the region have traveled to Russia seeking better employment opportunities despite the financial crisis there.”
He noted that many labor migrants from Gorno Badakhshan working in Russia had lost their jobs due to the financial crisis. However, major of them remain there, hoping that the crisis will not last for along time and they will be able to obtain jobs again.
Over the first two months of this year, labor migrants have remitted some 3 million US dollars to banks in Gorno Badakhshan, which is nearly 900,000 fewer than in the same period of last year. In 2008, labor migrants remitted more than 36 million US dollars to banks in the region.
