New restrictions for Tajik migrants?

At Dushanbe airport, some passengers were not allowed to board flights to Russia due to a lack of knowledge of the Russian language.

According to some sources from Radio Ozodi, representatives of Tajikistan’s competent authorities are asking more questions to those Tajik citizens flying to Russia for the first time, and if their level of Russian language proficiency is deemed insufficient by the inspecting authorities, they are either removed from the flight or advised to refrain from traveling. This is because, according to them, such passengers may be sent back from Russian airports to Tajikistan, and in such cases, the money spent on the ticket will not be refunded.

Some ticket offices in Dushanbe confirmed this situation and stated that the relevant officials recommended checking the knowledge of the Russian language of departing passengers before selling airline tickets, and if buyers do not know Russian at a basic level, they should not sell tickets to avoid problems with ticket refunds later. It is currently unclear which specific authorities in Tajikistan are dealing with this issue and what their grounds are for denying the right to travel to Russia.

Employees at Dushanbe airport deny the existence of such problems. Airport spokesperson Jamila Khuseynova stated that all these claims have no real basis. “Moreover, after your inquiry yesterday, responsible officials from the airport services, including their leaders and myself, monitored the flow of passengers before departure. The boarding of passengers on the Dushanbe-Moscow route was under special control. There were no detentions of passengers, especially women, before departure or from the flight for the reasons mentioned in your inquiry,” Khuseynova explained.

However, Radio Ozodi found one passenger who was not allowed to board the flight to Moscow. He did not want to speak on camera but confirmed that he was not permitted to fly specifically due to his lack of knowledge of the Russian language.

The Migration Service of Tajikistan stated in a written response that it always recommends labor migrants to “learn a profession and the language before departure.” However, as claimed by this agency, this is “not a new recommendation; it has always been the case, and therefore the Service has not issued any ‘mandatory recommendations.’ Even if such a situation occurs, it is not an initiative of the Migration Service.” However, lawyers say that no one has the right to prohibit citizens from leaving the country due to their lack of knowledge or poor knowledge of a particular language.

“However, when an airport official or another government agency asks an additional question to a citizen heading to Russia, without making any other changes to Tajikistan’s legislation, and even if the purpose of this inquiry is to determine and identify the level of language skills and vocabulary of the passenger – this is a miscalculation, and from a legal standpoint, such actions can be regarded as an attempt to induce a person planning to travel to Russia to give a bribe, and in this context, such actions create corruption risks. Therefore, such actions should be prevented, and the relevant competent authorities should respond to this to avoid illegal obstacles,” explains law professor Shokirdzhon Hakimov.

After the terrorist attack on the Moscow concert hall “Krokus City Hall,” for which Russian authorities primarily blamed individuals from Tajikistan, Tajik migrants faced numerous problems and obstacles. In Russian airports, especially in Moscow and St. Petersburg, hundreds of migrants were detained for extended periods under various pretexts and held in poor conditions, ultimately being denied entry into the Russian Federation and sent back to Tajikistan.

The efforts of Tajik authorities to normalize this situation three months after the attack at “Krokus” have not yielded results. The restrictions imposed on labor migrants departing for Russia are likely related to the desire of Tajik authorities to reduce issues regarding the prevention of migrants from entering Russian territory.