KHUJAND, June 4, 2009, Asia-Plus -- The volume of remittances from the Sughd labor migrants working outside the country are continuing to decrease.

According to the branch of the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT) in Khujand, labor migrants remitted 40.6 million U.S. dollars to banks in Sughd province last month, which is 20 million dollars fewer than in May 2008.

In all, the Sughd labor migrants have remitted 161.7 million dollars to banks in the province over the first five months of this year, which is 85.4 million dollars fewer than in the same period of last year.

According to Interior Ministry migration service’s branch for Sughd, 130,206 residents of the province have traveled to other CIS states, primarily Russia, seeking better employment opportunities in January-May, 2009 (over the report period of last year, some 170,000 Sughd residents had traveled to other CIS states for seasonal work ).  107,362 Sughd residents have returned home over the first five months of this year.

10 organizations dealing with external labor migration currently function in northern Tajikistan.  Since the beginning of this year, they have sent 3,848 local residents to Russia for seasonal work.