Russia, Europe, Far East, Middle East -- migrant workers are needed everywhere, but not just anyone, only those trained in the necessary specialties and with knowledge of languages.  

That is why, Tajikistan has intensified work on training labor migrants and diversifying labor migration destinations.  

The Adult Education Center teaches more than 100 specialties and new specialties are added them every year.  

As part of the Asian Development Bank project, three new resource-equipped migration service centers (MSCs) will be established this year in Khujand, Bokhtar and Vose – the three major origin locations of youth labor migrants with no existing pre-departure orientation (PDO) centers.     

These centers will train specialists in demand on the labor market with receipt of the appropriate international certificate.  Besides, these centers will teach foreign languages and financial literacy as well as make available information about legislation of the main destination countries for Tajik labor migrants.

Besides, Tajik authorities are working out a set of issues regarding the diversification of labor migration destinations.  

Last year, the Agency for Employment Abroad under the Ministry of Labor, Migration and Employment of the Population (MoLMEP) reportedly employed about 6,500 Tajiks by organizational recruitment.  77 percent or about 5,000 of them went to the Russian Federation.  

Early this year, representatives of about 40 companies from 13 countries of the world (mostly from Russia) visited the Agency for Employment Abroad for recruitment of workers from Tajikistan.  

According to data from a MoLMEP, more than 100 Russian companies have applied to hire more than 20,000 workers from Tajikistan.  

Meanwhile, Ms. Shanoza Nodiri, the Deputy Minister of Labor, Migration and Employment of the Population, says the second round of negotiations with Russian Federation to discuss topical issues of the labor migration will take place in May this year.   

The Minister of Labor, Migration and Employment of the Population, Ms. Gulnora Hasanzoda, had earlier stated that there is a demand for Tajik workers from companies in Turkiye, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Poland, Latvia, Romania, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.   

“For the purpose of diversifying the labor migration destinations, at the initiative of the ministry, different draft documents on labor migration have been developed with the United Kingdom, the United States, South Korea, Canada, Poland, Latvia, Germany, Singapore, Japan, the Philippines and Saudi Arabia,” the minister said.  

The minister also told reporters on February 13 that introducing the employment permit system (EPS) for working in small and medium-sized enterprises in South Korea has become an important achievement. 

“We will begin to send labor resources to Sought Korea starting from 2025 after the signing of a memorandum on intergovernmental work permits and opening of local EPS center,” Ms. Hasanzoda emphasized.

She also noted that Tajikistan and Kuwait last year signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for labor exchange in the private sector.  

Touching upon the migration situation in the country, Ms. Hasanzoda noted that the number of Tajik citizens traveling abroad last year in search for better employment opportunities decreased by 16 percent compared to 2022.  

In 2023, 652,014 Tajik nationals, including 554,804 men and 97,210 women, traveled abroad seeking better employment opportunities, which is 123,564 people less than 2022 (in 2022, 775,578 Tajik labor migrants traveled abroad, primarily to Russia, but also to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan ).  

Of those 652,014 Tajiks, who traveled abroad last year, 627,028 traveled to Russia, 18,418 others traveled to Kazakhstan and 6,568 people traveled to other countries.