Tajik migrant workers are desperate to return to Russia and the jobs they lost during the coronavirus pandemic, but skyrocketing prices for plane tickets are preventing them from going, Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service says.

Large crowds of people have gathered outside the central air ticket office in Dushanbe every day since late March, when Russia reopened its borders to Tajiks.

Russian officials only permit Tajiks to enter Russia directly via air -- but the number of flights is restricted and the cost of a seat on a plane often unaffordable.

Thousands of families in Tajikistan faced severe food shortages after Russia closed its borders due to the COVID-19 pandemic last year. Many could not pay their rent or make ends meet.

But despite the much-celebrated resumption of regular flights to Russia on April 1, only a handful of Tajiks have managed thus far to buy plane tickets to return to their jobs.

People complain about a lack of “concrete information” on the prices and availability of tickets, as the paucity of flights has put seats on the planes in great demand.

That has led to an unprecedented upsurge in airfares despite a government pledge to keep the prices under control.

Tajik authorities initially announced that tickets for flights to Russia would be sold only at one ticket office in the capital, Dushanbe.

Several people outside the ticket shop said they came from villages in the southern Khatlon and northern Sughd provinces.  For some, it took a whole day to travel to the capital. Many came with their bags packed for Russia, although a large number of them eventually had to return to their homes after not being able to get a plane ticket.

Several people told RFE/RL on April 5 that they had been waiting at the ticket office for a week.

A one-way flight from Dushanbe to Moscow on Somon Air costs about $349, a fixed price the airline agreed to with the government.

The government also imposed a price cap of $500 for a return ticket from Tajikistan to Russia to protect people from unaffordable prices.

Ticket-seekers, however, say the reality is completely different from what official websites and state television say.