Economic migrants face discrimination

Aigul eje came to the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, three years ago. She sells cigarettes and chewing gums on the streets and lives in a small makeshift house with her four children and husband. The family are not refugees or internally displaced, but, like hundreds of thousands of others across Central Asia, they migrated to the city in search of a better life. The family came from a small village in the southern province of Batken. "We have our house in the village, but we do not have any jobs there. Therefore we came to the capital five years ago, but we still do not have Bishkek residency [permits] because we do not have own land here," Aigul eje told IRIN. The issue of internal migration is especially pertinent for Bishkek. As the biggest city it represents the most attractive destination for unemployed and poverty stricken rural people. Gulzat Botoeva, a sociology lecturer at the American University in Central Asia, has researched internal migration and says it's on the increase as rural poverty in Kyrgyzstan deepens. "The main reason for growing internal migration is the unemployment, she said. "Such migrants come primarily from the south, but for the last three years the numbers of migrants from northern regions also increased because unemployment and poor economic conditions in that part of the country are increasing. According to official statistics, there are about 150,000 internal migrants currently living in Bishkek. "In fact this number is much higher, because most migrants are not registered and a lot of them live in informal settlements," Botoeva noted. "We have neither water nor electricity. To bring water I have to go about one-and-a-half kilometres from our home," 18-year-old Meder, who came from the southern city of Naryn with her parents and four other brothers and sisters, said. Most of the migrants build illegal houses, often lacking basic amenities like electricity, water and waste disposal. Such people are called "samozakhvatchiki" or "internal invaders". Most are not welcome by official residents who view the migrants as lower-class vagrants contributing nothing but filth and disease. Diseases like tuberculoses are, according to Red Cross officials, common among the migrants. Because they do not have Bishkek residency the families are forced to pay for medical treatment, money most can ill afford. Lack of education is another problem for the migrants. The children do not attend school because their parents do not have residency and often have no resources to pay for private tuition. "Last year I wanted to send my two sons to school. The director asked me to pay a bribe of 500 soms [about US $12] for each son. I did not have such money and now my children do not study," Bolot baike, another migrant, told IRIN. Instead of studying at school, migrant children work are often put to work in difficult and dangerous occupations to boost the family income. Although around 95,000 migrants have been fortunate enough to gain residency rights in the capital, Aigul eje's family is not among them. And their situation is not likely to improve as the government has vowed to put a stop to the rural exodus to prevent new migrants from coming to Bishkek. Last September the Kyrgyz parliament introduced new laws to control illegal building in the capital. In April about 500 rural migrants were forcibly ejected from a derelict Bishkek meat factory by police. Other communities of illegal migrants in the capital are under threat. "We have to leave this land by 25 May, or our houses will be destroyed," Ibraeva, head of one illegal settlement of 4,500 people near the Dordoi bazaar, said. "We do not live on government assistance, we work and just want to live, but government officials do not consider as humans, and instead of helping us, fight against us," he added. Despite the efforts to limit migration, the shift from town to country shows no sign of abating."People in the country are desperate, so they follow the example of who already illegally settled," Botoeva said.