DUSHANBE, November 28, 2011, Asia-Plus  -- Tajikistan’s Ministry of Interior will help Tajik labor migrants working in Russia receive their documents through Internet.

The Interior Ministry Passport and Registration Service reportedly receives up to 14,000 passport applications from labor migrants per year.  “The majority of these applications comes from labor migrants working in the Russia Federation and those who have lost their documents outside the country,” the source said.

In this connection, the Interior Ministry Passport and Registration Service plans to gradually connect all its subdivisions to Internet so that Tajik nationals being abroad could send their applications for copies of passports, birth certificates and other identity documents through Internet.

“The first stage of connection to Internet includes ten passport offices in Gorno Badakhshan, Sughd and Khatlon provinces, as well as districts adjacent to Dushanbe,” the source said, noting the International Organization for Migration (IOM) will provide financial support for that project.

Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry Migration Service says that some experts and media outlets exaggerate the number of Tajik labor migrants working abroad, noting that some one million Tajik nationals are currently abroad seeking better employment opportunities.

The Migration Service press center reports that official statistics show that 665,058 Tajik citizens have migrated to Russia over the first ten months of this year and 420,898 have returned to Tajikistan from Russia over the report period.