Tajikistan’s Embassy in Moscow has confirmed it is aware of the incident and commented on detention of Tajik migrants in Moscow’s Mitino district.  

“Employees of the Embassy’s Consular Service have visited the police station in Moscow’s Mitino district and established that of those 150 detained people, only 57 are residents of Tajikistan,” says a statement posted on the Embassy’s Facebook page.. 

It is also noted that 20 Tajik nationals have already been released.

“According to information from the police station, after checking their documents, the detainees will be released,” the statement added.  

No reason for migrants’ detention is given.  

As it had been reported earlier, more than 150 Tajik labor migrants were detained by Moscow police yesterday. 

Several of migrant workers told Radio Liberty that they were woken up by police in the early morning on May 30 before being taken in four buses to the police station in Mitino district.  According to them, police gave no reason for their arrest 

The workers said they temporarily live in residential trailers at the construction site where they work in the Mitino district.    

There have been several reports of Tajik labor migrants being rounded up or beaten in recent days by police in Russia, a top destination for hundreds of thousands of migrant workers from Tajikistan.

Labor migrants are still a critical component in the economy of Tajikistan and their remittances keep many struggling families at home above the poverty line. 

An estimated 600,000 Tajik seasonal workers now travel abroad each year, primarily to Russia, seeking better employment opportunities.