DUSHANBE, March 31, 2015, Asia-Plus — “Many Tajik medical workers working in Yemen do not want to leave the country, because they are quite satisfied with conditions existing there,” Abdulfayz Atoyev, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Tajikistan, told Asia-Plus Tuesday afternoon.
According to him, employees of Tajik diplomatic mission in Saudi Arabia are currently engaged in resolving issues related to relocating Tajik nationals in Yemen to safer areas before returning them home.
“The majority of our medical workers in Yemen are working in rural areas that are located far from the conflict sites,” said Atoyev. “They told employees of our embassy by phone that they do not feel threat to their lives and health. They are satisfied with their job and receive wage in time. Therefore, they do not want to leave Yemen.”
Tajik diplomats together with employees of Russia medical companies for which Tajik doctors and nurses work in Yemen are making lists of Tajik nationals who want to leave Yemen. “We will make every effort to relocate our nationals in Yemen to safer areas, for example to Saudi Arabia, before returning them home,” Tajik MFA spokesman stressed.
As it had been reported earlier, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) Office in Sanaa, Yemen is discussing the issue of evacuation of Tajik nationals from Yemen.
Davron Muhammadiyev, IFRC Regional Representative in Russia, says some one thousand Tajik nationals – specialists and their families – are now in Yemen.
We will recall that Tajik MFA said on March 27 that Tajik Embassy in Qatar is trying to relocate Tajik nationals in Yemen to safer areas before returning them home with the help of Russian authorities and companies.
The ministry said Tajik doctors and nurses working in Yemen went there under contracts obtained through three Russian medical companies.
Meanwhile, China says it completed an evacuation of Chinese nationals from Yemen on Monday, with more than 570 people safely transported across the Red Sea to Djibouti to be flown home. According to
China Daily
, the Chinese were reportedly evacuated in two batches, one from Aden and the other, much larger group from Hodeidah, the ministry said in a statement on its website. Eight foreign nationals were evacuated with them, it added, without providing details.
