DUSHANBE, March 27, 2015, Asia-Plus – Tajik nationals working in Yemen’s capital Sana have appealed to the Tajik authorities to help them return to Tajikistan. Their appeal for has been posted on social networking sites.
Asia-Plus managed to get in touch with the family of Tajik medical workers working in Sanaa by phone yesterday night.
Shahnoza, who work as nurse in one of Sanaa’s hospitals said they have been working in Yemen for already eight years.
According to her, air strikes began yesterday morning at 2:15 am local time and lasted till 9:00 am. She said there are 800-900 Tajik nationals in Sanaa.
“I know some 100 Tajik doctors now work here and if to count members of their families and other acquaintances, there will be no less than 800 Tajik nationals here,” Shahnoza said.
She said they were going to leave Sanaa on the same day. “But when I phoned my sister, who works in a military hospital, and said that she should book air tickets for Tajikistan, it turned out that the airport was completely destroyed,” said Shahnoza. “I also knew that Russia will not send planes for its citizens because very few Russians have remained here.”
“We knew that our MFA at the end of last year advised all Tajik nationals to leave Yemen but we did not expect that it would come to bombing,” Shahnoza noted.
“We hope for more support of our MFA, we expect it to inform us that they are conducting negotiations with Russia or with other countries on evacuating us from Yemen. But it seems as if they forgot about us,” the woman said.
According to her, only Zdravexport employee Manouchehr Abduyev is providing moral support to them, assuring that they will be evacuated.
It is to be noted that in Yemen Tajik medical workers work for Russian medical company Zdravexport.
