DUSHANBE, February 24, 2014, Asia-Plus -- The website for public petitions, Avaaz, is collecting signatures for erection of the monument to a migrant worker in Dushanbe.

The petition will be sent for consideration to the government and the parliament.

The petition author, who introduced himself as Isfandiyor, considers that “labor migrants deserve the monument more than others.

According to him, more than one million Tajik labor migrants are currently working in the Russian Federation and migrants’ remittances amount to nearly 50 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).

Isfandiyor notes that remittances keep many families in Tajikistan above the poverty line, and help alleviate social tensions caused by a lack of domestic job opportunities.

To-date, 14 persons have signed the petition.

According to the statistical data from Russia’s Federal Migration Service (FMS), more than 1 million Tajik nationals are currently living and working in the Russian Federation.

Last year, physical entities reportedly remitted nearly 4.2 billion U.S. dollars to banks in Tajikistan, which is some 500 million U.S. dollars more than in 2012.

In 2013, remittances amounted to 49.6 percent of Tajikistan’s gross domestic product (GDP), which was little more than 40.5 billion somoni last year.