Access to info on cash transfers by labor migrants blocked in Tajikistan

Starting from May, the Tajik Ministry for Economic Development has blocked access to information on the amount of cash transfers to the country by Tajik labor migrants, the head of the National Bank, Abdudzhabbor Shirinov, told a news conference on Tuesday. “The issue of money transfers has been acquiring political connotation of late and is not always objectively and accurately interpreted by certain politicians and reporters,” he noted. According to him, “not all money flows come to the republic from labor migrants, part of the money comes from small exports”. Over the first four months of this year, almost 850 million dollars came to Tajikistan mainly from Russia. This is 9.5 percent more than the last year’s figure. All in all, cash flow from labor migrants last year made up 3.5 billion dollars - almost half of national GDP, which allowed the expert community of Tajikistan to say that the economy of the country “is held up by migrants”. According to independent observers, at the present moment each fifth citizen of the eight-million population of Tajikistan is on labor migration.