KULOB, March 7, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- Labor migrants working in the Russian Federation have remitted 85.566 million Russian rubles (RR) to branches of five banks in Khatlon’s Kulob region in January-February 2009, which 50.5 million Russian rubles more than in the first quarter of 2008.

According to the bank branches, remittances in euros have also increased over the report period.

In the meantime, remittances in dollars over the report period have fallen by 30 percent compared to January-February 2009.  Over the first two months of this year, little more than 7 million dollars have been remitted to banks in the Kulob region.

Local experts attribute a decline in remittances in USD to the global financial crisis that has seriously hit wages of labor migrants in Russia.

Besides, labor migrants there have complained about delays in paying wages and temporal freezing of their wages.  Moreover, labor migrants’ access to USD has been limited in Russia that has forced them to remit money home in Russian rubes.

In January, labor migrants remitted 4,313,165 US dollars, while in February, they remitted only 3,599.455 US dollars to banks in the Kulob region.  In the meantime, remittances in Russian rubles in February increased by 16 million compared to January.