DUSHANBE, February 7, 2013, Asia-Plus  -- Tajikistan and Russia are expected to sign an agreement on staying of Tajik nationals in the Russian Federation.

According to Tajik migration service agency’s office in Russia, Safiallo Devonayev, Head of the Migration Service under the Government of Tajikistan, and Konstantin Romodanovsky, director of Russia’s Federal Migration Service (FMS), will sign the document in Moscow on February 8.   

The agreement provides for extending the period for registration for Tajik nationals on their arrival in Russia from seven to fifteen days, the source said.

We will recall that Safiallo Devonayev and Konstantin Romodanovsky signed the memorandum of intent on easing some of the registration restrictions for Tajik migrant workers coming to Russia in Dushanbe on October 5, 2012.

Labor migrants are a critical component in the economy of Tajikistan and their remittances keep many families in the country above the poverty line.

Tajik migration service agency reports that for all of 2012, 877,335 persons left Tajikistan and 673,434 persons returned.

According to some sources, remittances last year totaled 3.5952 billion USD, which was nearly 48 percent of Tajikistan’s gross domestic product (GDP).  Tajikistan’s GDP for 2012 amounted to more than 36.1 billion somoni (equivalent to some 7.6 billion USD).

The monthly report for January 2013, Monitoring and Early Warning in Tajikistan , notes that based on historic trends, remittances are expected to drop through March 2013 due to a seasonal reduction in work in Russia due to cold weather, and many migrants are returning home.  However, migration levels remain higher than for the same period in 2009-2011, which should lead to higher overall remittances, the report said.