DUSHANBE, December 18, 2015, Asia-Plus — International Migrants Day is marked today.
International Migrants Day appointed by the General Assembly of United Nations on December 4, 2000. It is the UN’s way of acknowledging all of the migrants around the world who have had and continue to have to the courage to leave their country and language behind, along with their friends, family members, and everything they have every truly known just to get a shot at a better life somewhere else in the world.
The idea was originally born in 1997, when Filipino and other Asian migrant associations began celebrating what was first called, “the International Day of Solidarity with Migrants.” December 18 was chosen out of all the days of the year because it was on that day in 1990 that the United Nations adopted the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families. The day is centered around appreciating the contributions the millions of migrants worldwide have made to their host countries and efforts to help protect their rights.
This day is observed in many countries, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations through the dissemination of information on human rights and fundamental political freedoms of migrants, and through sharing of experiences and the design of actions to ensure the protection of migrants.
To mark this year’s International Migrants Day, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) is calling on the international community to come together and remember the refugees and migrants who have lost their lives or have disappeared while trying to reach safe harbor after arduous journeys across seas and deserts.
IOM invites people all over the world to hold the first global Candlelight Vigil on December 18 to commemorate the migrants whose lives have been lost this year. Each of them has a name, a story and left their homelands seeking better opportunities and safety for themselves and in many cases for their families – aspirations that all of us strive for.
Although migrant remittance flows to Tajikistan have sharply declined in recent years, labor migrants remain a critical component in the country’s economy and remittances keep many struggling families at home above the poverty line.
Thus, remittances last year reportedly constituted 45 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). 3.831 billion U.S. dollars (USD) were sent through money transfer system to Tajikistan from the Russian Federation in 2014, while Tajikistan’s GDP last year stood at 45.6 billion somoni (equivalent to 8.6 billion U.S. dollars).
Some sources say more than one million Tajik seasonal workers travel abroad each year, primarily to Russia but also to neighboring Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, seeking better employment opportunities.
According to the statistical data from Russia’s Federal Migration Service (FMS), there are about one million Tajik labor migrants working in the Russian Federation.
