DUSHANBE, July 23, Asia-Plus --223 families of refugees, totaling 1,025 people, now live in Tajikistan, Deputy Labor and Social Security Minister, Subhoniddin Ashourov, remarked at a news conference in Dushanbe on July 20.

According to him, the majority of them (765 people) are living in Dushanbe.  “Another 89 refugees are living in the Sughd province, 176 – in districts subordinate to the center (RRPs) and 2 – in the Khatlon province,” the deputy minister said.  

On the employment situation in the country, Ashourov noted that over the first six months of this year, 67,997 people have been registered with employment centers as job-seekers, which is 11.9 percent fewer than in the same period of 2006.  

“Over the same six-month period, 467 families of ecological migrants have received totaling 700,500 somonis in preferential loans, and another 447 families have received extraordinary grants for a total amount of 62,580 somonis,” the deputy minister said. 

In all, 38 families have been voluntarily relocated from disaster-prone areas to safe places over the report period, the deputy minister said.