55 deported Tajik nationals, who had been held in temporary detention facilities for several months, were brought to Dushanbe from Yekaterinburg by a special charter flight operated by Russia’s Ural Airline on June 22.

19 of them had reportedly been held in temporary detention facilities in the Russian cities of Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, Kurgan and Tyumen and 31 Tajiks had been held in the temporary detention facility in Orenburg.

“Besides, bodies of nine Tajik labor migrants who died in Russia were transported to Dushanbe by the same flight,” Tajikistan’s Consul General in Yekaterinburg Zafar Saidov told Asia-Plus in an interview.  

As it had been reported earlier, the first of five charter flights to repatriate Russian nationals was operated by Russia’s Ural Airlines from Dushanbe on June 22.  218 people, the majority of them are Tajik nationals with dual citizenship, where reportedly brought to Novosibirsk and Yekaterinburg. 

The next four flights will also be operated this month: two of them will be operated to Moscow; one to Kazan; and another one to St. Petersburg.  

Recall, flights from and to Tajikistan were suspended on March 20 for the purpose of preventing the spreading of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) to the country.

The Russian Federation suspended air services Air service with other countries on March 27.

Since late May, Tajikistan has organized several charter flights to repatriate its nationals who were unable to return home due to Covid19 crisis and closure of airports in both Tajikistan and the Russia.