Tajikistan is a country marked by a high level of labour migration due to a lack of work in the country. According to official figures, in 2019 more than 500.000 Tajiks left the country for working abroad. The majority works in Russia, where there is a high prevalence of HIV. The proportion of the Tajik migrants among new registered HIV cases in Tajikistan increased from 10.1 percent in 2014 to 18.8 percent in 2018. Also, little is known about migration of key populations, such as people who use drugs and men who have sex with men (MSM), and their behavior in using health services while working abroad.
Geneva – The world’s largest film festival dedicated to migration is launching its Fifth Edition, starting with a worldwide call for entries. All submissions will be considered for the festival in the categories of features, shorts and online films. All submissions may be offered for review starting next month (6 April) and must be submitted no later than 21 June 2020.
OHCHR, IOM, UNHCR and WHO - Joint Press Release
Geneva - In the face of the COVID-19 crisis, we are all vulnerable. The virus has shown that it does not discriminate - but many refugees, those forcibly displaced, the stateless and migrants are at heightened risk.
Three-quarters of the world’s refugees and many migrants are hosted in developing regions where health systems are already overwhelmed and under-capacitated. Many live in overcrowded camps, settlements, makeshift shelters or reception centers, where they lack adequate access to health services, clean water and sanitation.
Geneva - As the world confronts the COVID-19 pandemic, the United Nations Network on Migration salutes the immense efforts to date to combat this crisis and urges that all – including migrants regardless of their migratory status – are included in efforts to mitigate and roll back this illness’s impact. To that end, migrants must be seen as both potential victims and as an integral part of any effective public health response. It is particularly important that all authorities make every effort to confront xenophobia, including where migrants and others are subject to discrimination or violence linked to the origin and spreading of the pandemic. COVID-19 does not discriminate, and nor should our response, if it is to succeed.
Those lines are uppermost on the minds of millions of people in at least 21 countries – plus millions more migrants around the globe - as they begin the celebration of Nowruz, which is the beginning of spring and also often known as Persian New Year.
Representatives of state agencies and civil society organizations in four different regions of Tajikistan learned safe migration rules and migrants’ rights protection ways at trainings organized by the International Organization for Migration - UN Migration Agency. The series of trainings concluded on 12 March in Rasht valley. Earlier this year, Bokhtar in Khatlon, Khujand in Sughd, and Khorugh in Badakhshon provinces hosted the similar trainings.
An assistance provided by the International Organization for Migration – UN Migration Agency (IOM) to Marjona Zardova, a returned Tajik migrant worker in Russian Federation, helped her to gain financial independence and feel herself as an important member of the society.
Azizullo Ismatov never was enough lucky to get a proper education and while a child had to help his father to run an eatery in his home district Kushoniyon in south of Tajikistan. Years later this experience added by life lessons in the Russian Federation would help him to run his and his family’s life.