New campaign by ILO aims to raise awareness amongst labour migrants

A new project to be launched in June by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) is going to fight human trafficking and forced labour by raising the awareness of thousands of Tajik labour migrants before they travel abroad seeking employment. "Our purpose is to train potential labour migrants, so that they take their actions consciously and travel [to destination countries] having planned all their further moves, not on the spur of the moment," Jamshed Kuddusov, ILO's project coordinator, told IRIN in the capital, Dushanbe, on Wednesday. The first stage of the project was an information campaign aiming to change labour migrants' minds and attitudes with regard to the issue of labour migration, Kuddusov said. According to a recent study carried out by the International Labour Organization (ILO) on illegal labour in Russia, there were between 3.5 and 5 million illegal labour migrants in the country, mainly from Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries, including Central Asia. Yelena Tyuryukanova, a social researcher at the Russian Academy of Sciences, who headed the study estimated that around 30 to 40 percent of these workers, up to 2 million people, may come from Central Asia, with Tajiks, among the poorest in the region, heading the list. The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has reported that over 600,000 Tajik seasonal labour migrants travel to Russia each year, rendering migration a key issue for this impoverished nation of 6.5 million. People eager to leave Tajikistan in search of jobs in Russia or other former Soviet republics, need to learn trades demanded by the local market, have studied the language of the destination country and be familiar with that country's laws to be capable to conclude labour agreements and demand employers follow them, the ILO official maintained. Not knowing the laws and the language of these countries or their rights and responsibilities, they work and stay illegally, which makes them vulnerable to exploitation by unscrupulous employers, the ILO's report on the problems of irregular labour migrants in Russia found. There were serious violations of migrant’s rights, ranging from forced labour to debt bondage, Tyuryukanova said. "The work conditions are often equal to slavery," she explained, adding that they could find themselves under pressure from both employers and the police. Within the framework of the project, step-by-step manuals are going to be developed for various categories of Tajiks. These include potential labour migrants such as high school graduates, builders, army conscripts who may try their chances following demobilisation. The project partners are the Labour and Social Protection Ministry, the National Trade Unions Federation and the Small and Medium Business Association. Meanwhile, a pocket manual named "Are You Going to Work in Russia? You Should Be Aware of This!" was published earlier this month by the IOM to help potential migrants. According to Muzaffar Zaripov, head of the IOM information resource centre in Dushanbe, the manual provides comprehensive information on the procedures of registration, getting work permits and labour contracts in Russia. "The primary goal of the given brochure, which is published for the second time, is providing legal and information assistance to the citizens of Tajikistan, who are in Russia or are leaving for that country for earnings," Zaripov explained, adding that over 80 percent of Tajik labour migrants were leaving for Russia. The brochure contains information about temporary civil foreign passport registration centres, insurance agencies and contact details of organisations providing legal counselling to labour migrants in Russia. It also describes monetary remittance procedures and provides a list of banks transmitting money from Russia to Tajikistan.