Radio Liberty says many Tajik migrants have been facing — or threatened with — deportation, entry denial, beatings, and verbal assaults in Russia in recent days as anti-migrant and anti-Tajik sentiment rises in the aftermath of the March 22 terrorist attack near Moscow.
Nearly all of the suspects in the deadly assault at the Crocus City Hall, including the four men accused of carrying out the assault, are Tajik citizens.
A backlash against Tajiks and other Central Asian migrants reportedly began almost immediately after Russian media reported that the terrorist attack was carried out by several men from Tajikistan.
Tajik nationals who were deported or denied entry to Russia described it as a financial blow to their families.
Thus, Zikrullo Saidov, a 21-year-old Dushanbe resident, was denied entry into Russia on March 31 and was sent back to Dushanbe along with nine other Tajik citizens after several hours of interrogation at Vnukovo Airport.
“We asked the officers why they were deporting us for no reason. We asked for how many years we would be barred from coming back to Russia, but they didn’t say anything,” Saidov told RFE/RL after arriving back in Dushanbe.
Saidov believes an immigration officer became suspicious when he saw Turkish arrival and departure stamps on his passport. Saidov said he was then extensively quizzed by security officers about his trip to Istanbul, which he insists was “for work.”
Russian investigators reportedly allege that some of the suspected Crocus City Hall attackers underwent weapons training in Turkey.
Qiyomiddin Fakhriddinov, a native of the southern Tajik town of Roghun, was denied entry to Russia when he arrived at the Vnukovo Airport on a Dushanbe to Moscow flight on April 1.
“The [Russian Federal Security Service] officers seized eight people from our flight and took us to a basement for questioning,” Fakhriddinov said.
“The officers asked me if I would kill for money. When I said ‘no,’ they told me, ‘Your compatriots killed people, didn’t they?’ They kept us in the basement for eight hours. Then they held us for another 26 hours upstairs and then deported us for no reason,” Fakhriddinov told RFE/RL upon his return to Dushanbe on April 3.
Fakhriddinov and the other men have been banned from entering Russia for at least five years.
A 27-year-old Tajik construction worker who didn’t want to give his name said he has always had all his “documents in order” in Russia to avoid trouble during persistent police raids that target illegal migrants.
But despite his valid work and residency permits, a Russian immigration officer at the Vnukovo Airport put a deportation stamp on his passport this week, banning him from entering Russia for 10 years. The father of two said it happened as he was leaving Russia for Dushanbe to spend a few weeks with his family.
Russia is home to an estimated 1 million Tajik migrant workers and others who are dual citizens. Working in Russia provides a lifeline for them as there are not many jobs or other opportunities in impoverished Tajikistan.
