DUSHANBE, November 24, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- One million Tajiks have reportedly entered the Russian Federation over the first ten months of this year.

According to Russia’s Prime-Tass, 12 million people have entered Russia in January-October this year.  A totaled reportedly included 3.6 million Ukrainians, one million Tajik nationals, 500,000 Kyrgyz citizens, etc.

Prime-Tass quoted Aleksandr Zemkov, the head of the migration control department within Russia’s Federal Migration Service (FMS), as saying that some 14 million people entered the Russian Federation in 2008.

The FMS external migration department head Aleksey Lomkin told reporters in Moscow on November 23 that Russia has reduced the labor migrant quotas for 2010, and only 1.944 work permits have been allotted for the next year.  Russia initially allotted more than 3.8 million work permits but they then were reduced to some 2 million following the global crisis.

According to Lomkin, Moscow has allotted 250,000 work permits for 2010 against 392,000 permits allotted this year.

In the meantime, according to data of the State Committee for Statistics of Tajikistan, not more than 600,000 Tajik labor migrants have traveled to other countries under the migration cards in January-October this year.