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KABUL (TCA) — Afghanistan can boost its growth and create more jobs by establishing better migration policies to help its migrant workers seek opportunities abroad, says a new report released on February 5 by the Government of Afghanistan and the World Bank. Continue reading
TASHKENT (TCA) — The deadly accident with a bus that carried Uzbek labor migrants to Russia through Kazakhstan was just a result of the situation in which hundreds of thousands of Uzbekistan citizens are forced to go abroad, mainly to Russia, to earn a living, because they have no jobs in their home country. We are republishing this article on the issue, originally published by Eurasianet: A tiring, uncomfortable bus trip to Russia ended in tragedy for 52 migrants from Uzbekistan last week when the vehicle in which they were traveling burst into flames. Only five people onboard were able to jump for safety out of the vehicle, which caught fire along a highway in the Aktobe Region in northwestern Kazakhstan. Countless thousands perform the same trip year in, year out, forced to find the cheapest way possible of reaching Russia, where they will do menial work for paltry salaries. Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev was swift in reacting to the January 18 tragedy, issuing a statement of condolence that was read out by anchors on the Uzbekiston-24 rolling news television channel. He then ordered the setting up of a government commission to be headed by the prime minister to investigate the causes of the accident and to establish the identity of all the victims. Investigators have said that early indications are that a short circuit sparked the blaze, but discovering the precise mechanics of what led to these gruesome deaths is only part of a bigger picture. The alarm about the continuing desperate plight of migrant laborers was sounded again on the eve of the tragedy by Agzam Abdullayev, a 51-year-old businessman from the city of Namangan. Abdullayev left Uzbekistan for Moscow around 14 years ago to work as a doctor. He then moved to the city of Kazan, 800 kilometers to the east of the Russian capital, where he went into business. Lately, he has turned his efforts to giving advice online to fellow countrymen planning to go to Russia and lobbying their interests with the government in Tashkent. “Migrants travel from Tashkent to Kazan by bus for 5,000 rubles ($87). The cost of a plane ticket is 17,000 rubles ($300). A train is 10,000 rubles ($175). These are laborers, people with few skills. Entrepreneurs or anybody with some money would not subject themselves to such torture,” Abdullayev wrote in a public Facebook post on January 17. Despite the lip service being paid to greater openness under Mirziyoyev, the government continues to cling to implausible data showing domestic unemployment at under six percent. In reality, millions of Uzbeks have been driven abroad by economic necessity to make monthly salaries abroad, mainly in Russia, in the low hundreds of dollars. One of the main issues highlighted by Abdullayev was the expense and complication of obtaining a Russian work permit. “Russia’s coffers get a lot of revenue from the labor of migrants. Can’t Uzbekistan cut some deal to reduce the cost of work permits and the other paperwork needed to legalize...
BISHKEK (TCA) — Miners' unions in Kyrgyzstan and the management of China’s Full Gold Mining have come to an agreement in a labor conflict at the company’s mine in southern Kyrgyzstan. Continue reading
BISHKEK (TCA) — It is impossible to expand access to education for children and education specialists without access to the Internet, Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan Sapar Isakov said at the recent international conference on prospects for digital government and digital education in the country. Continue reading
ASTANA (TCA) — A strike of coal miners in north-central Kazakhstan has spread to more mines as hundreds of workers are refusing to return to the surface, demanding higher salaries and better benefits, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports. Continue reading
ASHGABAT (TCA) — As Turkmenistan’s economy is experiencing a downturn due to decreased revenues from natural-gas exports, the country’s public sector staff is to be reduced by 30 percent and some kindergartens closed down starting from the new year, the independent foreign-based website Chronicles of Turkmenistan reported. Continue reading
