New Agency Seeks to Curb Illegal Migration
New Agency Seeks to Curb Illegal Migration
The interior ministry in Tajikistan has set up a new department to look after the interests of migrant workers who get deported from the country they are working in. NBCentralAsia experts say the agency will help workers from Tajikistan get to grips with the law in their host country, making it less likely that they will be sent home.
The new department, opened on June 25, is part of the ministry’s migration service and has been set up in cooperation with the International Organisation for Migration, IOM. One of its tasks will be to create a database on Tajik nationals deported from other countries.
Most Tajik citizens seeking work abroad go to Russia, and according to official statistics, over 50,000 of them have been accused of violating that country’s migration law and sent home in the last five years.
In early 2007, the Tajik authorities asked the Russian government to amnesty everyone who had been deported, but Moscow has not yet given an official response to the request.
Tajikistan is one of the poorest countries in the world and unemployment is high. Many of the people sent back to Tajikistan subsequently return to Russia after changing their name slightly and getting a new passport.
Zafar Gadoev, deputy head of labour migration at the interior ministry’s migration service, believes that the new department will help clamp down on illegal migration and corruption.
“A serious system has been set up to counter illegal migration and stop bribe-taking by migration service staff and law officers,” he said.
People who work in the new department will not only try to curb illegal migration, they will also teach people the main regulations relating to resident and registration and the other practicalities for moving abroad.
Firdaus Dustov, chief inspector at the migration service, says the new service will improve the methods used to manage the migration process because it is geared towards “legalising and encouraging an orderly system for employment abroad”.
Rahmon Ulmasov, editor-in-chief of the Migrant journal, explains that poor levels of education in Tajikistan mean that many migrants work abroad illegally, and remain ignorant of entry, residence and employment regulations. As a result, migrants break the law and are then deported.
(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)
The new department, opened on June 25, is part of the ministry’s migration service and has been set up in cooperation with the International Organisation for Migration, IOM. One of its tasks will be to create a database on Tajik nationals deported from other countries.
Most Tajik citizens seeking work abroad go to Russia, and according to official statistics, over 50,000 of them have been accused of violating that country’s migration law and sent home in the last five years.
In early 2007, the Tajik authorities asked the Russian government to amnesty everyone who had been deported, but Moscow has not yet given an official response to the request.
Tajikistan is one of the poorest countries in the world and unemployment is high. Many of the people sent back to Tajikistan subsequently return to Russia after changing their name slightly and getting a new passport.
Zafar Gadoev, deputy head of labour migration at the interior ministry’s migration service, believes that the new department will help clamp down on illegal migration and corruption.
“A serious system has been set up to counter illegal migration and stop bribe-taking by migration service staff and law officers,” he said.
People who work in the new department will not only try to curb illegal migration, they will also teach people the main regulations relating to resident and registration and the other practicalities for moving abroad.
Firdaus Dustov, chief inspector at the migration service, says the new service will improve the methods used to manage the migration process because it is geared towards “legalising and encouraging an orderly system for employment abroad”.
Rahmon Ulmasov, editor-in-chief of the Migrant journal, explains that poor levels of education in Tajikistan mean that many migrants work abroad illegally, and remain ignorant of entry, residence and employment regulations. As a result, migrants break the law and are then deported.
(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)
