DUSHANBE, October 18, 2010, Asia-Plus  -- The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is currently working on finding out the exact number of Tajik students attending religious schools abroad illegally and getting them to return home, Foreign Minister Hamrokhon Zarifi remarked at a news conference in Dushanbe on October 18.

In a report released a the news conference, Tajik foreign minister revealed on Monday that approximately 700 Tajik students are currently studying at Cairo’s Al-Azhar University alone and 90 percent of them are studying outside official government quotas.

“Tajik students are studying theology at this university and no one of them is studying at the faculties of engineering or medicine, though these specialties are much in demand in Tajikistan,” the minister stressed.

The October 7 RFE/RL’s item titled “Tajikistan Suspicious of Its Students” noted that Tajik students studying at Al-Azhar University say they are concerned about Dushanbe''s request that the prominent Islamic school send back anyone studying outside official government quotas.  Representatives of the students told RFE/RL''s Tajik Service that they have appealed to Tajikistan''s Embassy in Cairo and the university administration to allow some 50 Tajik students to complete their studies at Al-Azhar.  The students entered the university privately and now fear the Al-Azhar might send them home, as required by the authorities in Dushanbe.