DUSHANBE, July 26, 2010, Asia-Plus  -- In 2009, 692,000 Tajik nationals traveled to other countries seeking better employment opportunities, Ms. Yelena Kislitsina, the chairperson of the demographic statistics within the Agency for Statistics, told reporters in Dushanbe on July 23.

According to her, this number of labor migrants was defined according to migration cards.  However, it does not mean that all these 692,000 people were outside the country simultaneously in a certain period; migration is a dynamic process and many labor migrants work outside the country seasonally, Kislitsina noted.  “The Agency for Statistics conducts two types of migration registration: 1) on the labor migration flow; and 2) on the number of labor migrants who are outside the country in a certain period,” she stressed.

Under the second type of registration, which is conducted in June-July, the number of labor migrants was 512,000-519,000.  “45 percent of the overall number of labor migrants are people who work outside the country during half a year, “Some 20-30 percent are people who work outside the country less than half a year, and practically the same number of labor migrants are outside the country for one year and more.”  Women constitute only 5 percent of the overall number of labor migrants, she added.

Russia is the main destination country for Tajik labor migrants (90 percent of the overall number of Tajik labor migrants).  “Besides, some Tajik labor migrants also work in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan,” Kislitsina said, adding that Tajik labor migrants now also travel to some far abroad countries, in particular to Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan.