KHUJAND, December 1, 2008, Asia-Plus  -- The global finance crisis will not affect the Russian national program for voluntary resettlement of fellow-countrymen to Russia, Viktor Sadchikov, the head of representative office of Russia’s Federal Migration Service (FMS) in Tajikistan, said in an interview with Asia-Plus.

According to him, the program is funded from the Russian national budget, and therefore, no changes are planned to be made to it.

“The program includes 12 pilot regions and the number of regions for accepting migrants from Tajikistan will reach 59,” said Sadchikov, “However, there is no yet marked increase in the number of Tajik nationals wanting to move to Russia.”

He added that since 2006, when the program was launched, only 2,800 resettlement applications have been received and 700 of them have already been considered and 182 resettlement certificates have been granted.  133 families, totaling 434 people, have moved to Russia so far.

According to data provided by the Russian General Consulate in Khujand, 60 Sughd residents have moved to Russia under this program to this date.

The three-staged program for voluntary resettlement of fellow-countrymen living abroad is scheduled to be finished in 2012.

The first stage included adoption of legal documents necessary for organizing the voluntary resettlement of fellow-countrymen to Russia, creation of system to manage the program, assessment of Russia’s requirements in man­power as well as preparedness of regional infrastructure (providing basis social services, housing, etc) for accepting migrants.

The second stage designed for 2007-2008 provides for direct resettlement of the program participants to the Russian Federation as well as analysis of the results of implementation of the regional resettlement programs.

The third stage that will be launched in 2009 will conclude implementation of the program and assess effectiveness of implementation of the regional resettlement programs.