DUSHANBE, April 15, 2010, Asia-Plus — Compared to January-March 2009 the volume of labor migrants’ remittances sent to Amonatbonk (Tajikistan’s savings bank) has increased by 20.8 percent, the Amonatbonk chairperson, Ms. Gulnora Hasanova, remarked at a news conference in Dushanbe on April 15.
According to her, the global financial and economic crisis resulted in labor migrants’ remittances considerable decreasing last year compare to 2008. “The global financial and economic crisis probably reached its bottom and the volume of remittances began to increase,” she noted, adding that labor migrants have remitted 44.3 million U.S. dollars to Amonatbonk over the first three months of this year.
Labor migrants are a critical component in the economy of Tajikistan and remittances keep many struggling families at home above the poverty line. We will recall that according to the Interior Ministry Migration, an estimated one million Tajik seasonal workers are currently working in the CIS countries, primarily in Russia (some 700,000) but also in neighboring Kazakhstan (more than 200,000) and Kyrgyzstan.
