KHUJAND, September 19, 2008, Asia-Plus  -- An international two-day forum of NGOs of Central Asia’s states and Russia on migration issues in the northern city of Qairoqqum ended yesterday with signing of an agreement on creation of coalition of Central Asian and Russian NGOs dealing with issues of preventing illegal migration and protecting labor migrants’ rights.   

The forum, organized by the International Organization for Migration’s (IOM) Mission in Tajikistan in cooperation with the Center for Human Rights and the Center Imran, is part of the Central Asia Partnership Group (CAPG) program funded by the Danish Government. 

The forum participants included representatives of NGOs engaged in solving labor migration issues from Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation.

The forum discussed issues related to countering illegal migration, protecting labor migrant’s rights and combating trafficking in persons.

Afzalkhom Olimov, a lawyer with the Center for human Rights, said that the main objective of the forum was to discuss ways of establishing and expanding new international contacts and creating new regional and international NGOs networks dealing with preventing illegal migration from the Central Asian countries and negative effects caused by illegal migration in the countries of destination.

The Central Asia Partnership Group (CAPG), formed in 2003 with the support of the Danish Government, aims to promote the peaceful and democratic development of the Central Asian states of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The CAPG consists of the Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR), the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) and IOM.  The Partnership grew out of the realization that problems and opportunities in the region should be addressed within a comprehensive and cooperative framework.

The 2005-2007 program stresses state and civil society collaboration on addressing causes of conflict in Central Asia. The CAPG seeks to build the capacity of both sectors to handle challenges in a transparent, democratic manner that upholds the rule of law and promotes and protects human, migrant and refugee rights. Activities are currently supported by the Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs International Development Agency and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency.