At Zhukovsky Airport, hundreds of Tajik migrants were denied entry to Moscow. A citizen of Tajikistan told Azda.tv on Wednesday that he arrived in Moscow from Dushanbe on a Ural Airlines flight on March 1, but was denied entry to the Russian capital at Zhukovsky Airport. Along with him, about 60 other natives of Tajikistan […]
At Zhukovsky Airport, hundreds of Tajik migrants were denied entry to Moscow.
A citizen of Tajikistan told Azda.tv on Wednesday that he arrived in Moscow from Dushanbe on a Ural Airlines flight on March 1, but was denied entry to the Russian capital at Zhukovsky Airport. Along with him, about 60 other natives of Tajikistan were also denied entry.
According to him, on the same day, about 50 other Tajik migrants arriving in Russia on a Somon Air flight faced a similar situation.
The source told Azda.tv that there were other citizens of Tajikistan at the airport who had been detained earlier. Some of them had already purchased return tickets on their own, but, according to him, they were informed that their return to their homeland would be organized by the relevant authorities, and therefore their purchased tickets were no longer valid.
Some citizens spent one to two days in the airport’s transit zone before being sent back to Tajikistan on return flights.
The Russian authorities did not explain the reasons for denying entry to Tajik migrants. At the same time, their phones were confiscated and checked.
According to the source, during the checks, migrants were asked questions that they believed were not directly related to the purpose of their trip. In particular, they were asked why they did not use the WhatsApp messenger on their phones, why they had a new phone, and why they did not watch YouTube materials about the war between Russia and Ukraine.
At the same time, YouTube and the WhatsApp messenger are blocked in Russia.
The source emphasizes that, in his observations, such measures were applied only to citizens of Tajikistan, while citizens of Uzbekistan and other countries passed through checks without additional scrutiny.
The official reasons for denying entry to citizens of Tajikistan into Russia have not yet been clarified. However, after the terrorist attack at the Crocus concert hall, in which natives of Tajikistan are suspected of involvement, the situation for migrants from this country in Russia has significantly worsened.