President and his migrants (updated)
Recently President Emomali Rahmon met with the representatives of Tajik expat community in Russia (rus). It happened one day before the CIS summit in Moscow. When I watched this meeting on TV, I had an impression that people who were invited to this meeting were carefully selected. They spent more time on praising the president, presenting to him gifts and poetry dedicated to him, than they spent on discussion of real problems and ways of solving them.
The head of the state reminded to participants that they should not forget that Tajikistan also needs labor to implement 53 investment projects worth of 4 billion USD. However he did not ask them to come back, but rather asked them to stay their and send more money to their country. He asked the successful representatives of the Tajik community in Russia and Tajik entrepreneurs to invest in the economy of the country.
It is interesting that during the meeting with the representatives of the Tajik community in Russia Rahmon mentioned that Tajikistan itself needs labor, but during the meeting with the heads of CIS he said that Tajikistan requested from Russia a quota of 800 thousand (!) labor migrants for works in Russia.
We have officially requested Russia to give us a quota of 800 thousand people for works in Russia, particularly, 50 thousand for constructions in Sochi – said Rahmon.
More than that during the CIS meeting he admitted that most of the problems that Tajiks experience in Russia are caused by themselves.
The amount of crime committed by Tajiks in Russia is increasing each year and it is one of the main reasons of increase in number of deaths among our citizens in Russia - said Rahmon.
That is the more they get involved in crime the more they die.
Recently AsiaPlus reported that during the last two months 65 coffins with the bodies of Tajik citizens were transported from Russia to Tajikistan.
on March 2nd, 2008 at 3:43 pm
I don’t believe a word of this. While I do not rule out the possibility of Tajiks committing crime, I simply cannot accept this claim unless they show stats to prove it.
It seems blaming the weakest link [migrant workers] has become a means of justifying:
1. Russia’s Nazi-like intolerance towards other nations
2. Tajikistan’s impotence/unwillingness to do anything to alleviate the problem
Where are the human rights organizations when you need them?
on March 3rd, 2008 at 5:54 pm
Rubbish I would say. That Rahmon doesn’t give a shit about anyone at all. He was no good from the start, there is a word for people like him , …… People should get out of that place as soon as they can. We do not have anything left because everything has been stolen or sold by our President and his peers. Our children have no future in Tajikistan. No jobs no distant education what the hell we are living for when we can not give anything to our kids.
some swear words in this comment were moderated