DUSHANBE, May 25, 2009, Asia-Plus — The first of a series of meetings provided for by an agreement between Tajikistan and Russia on meetings in Russia’s regions was held in the Samara region at the end of last week. Tajik delegation was led by the Interior Ministry migration service chief Safiullo Devonayev.
On the sidelines of the meeting, a roundtable meeting formally titled “Labor Migration from Tajikistan to the Samara Region” was held on May 21, according to the migrations service within the Ministry of Interior (MoI) of Tajikistan.
The main objective of the meeting was to develop the strategy of cooperation in solving problems of the labor migration from Tajikistan to the Samara region by efforts of public associations, media, business structures in partnership with the key government bodies of both countries.
The meeting participants included senior representatives from the Tajik MoI migration service, Russian Federal Migration Service (FMS), Samara governor’s office, Samara regional legislature, the ombudsman office for the Sara region, media, as well as specialists in the field of labor migration.
According to Russia’s news agency RIA Novosti, inaugurating the meeting, Devonayev said that export of manpower abroad, first of all to the Russian Federation, was an important task of Tajikistan’s state policy. The MoI migration service chief noted that Tajikistan intended to strengthen control over use of labor of Tajik guest workers and protection of their rights, RIA Novosti said.
The meeting discussed issues related to the present state of labor migrants from Tajikistan in Samara, working out concerted strategy of civilized and mutually beneficial migration process as well as strengthening intersectoral and interstate cooperation in the field of labor migration between the government bodies and public associations of Tajikistan and the Samara region.
During their stay in Samara, representatives from the Tajik MoI migration service also held a number of meetings with Tajik labor migrants working in Samara, employers as well as senior representatives from local authorities and law enforcement agencies.
According to RIA Novosti, 260,000 Tajik labor migrants were registered in the Samara region last year.
