Tajik migrants complain about detentions and torture in Russia

After the attack on the Crocus City Hall concert venue, Tajik labor migrants in Moscow are being insulted and beaten by police and residents.

Some Tajik labor migrants have also complained that employers, under the pretext of them being Tajiks, have said they can stop coming to work starting Monday, and that they will be fired.

Additionally, some Tajik migrants claim that they are being denied entry to stores and buses. Videos of detained and deported Tajik migrants are circulating on social media.

A Tajik labor migrant, speaking anonymously in a phone conversation with Azda TV, reported that one of his relatives, whose last name resembled that of one of the suspects in this bloody attack, was detained by Russian police and was brutally beaten for 5 hours, and after it turned out he was innocent, he was released.

According to migrants, Tajik migrants working in passenger transport, particularly in taxis, are suffering the most. In some cases, passengers ask drivers about their nationality. If the driver is Tajik, the order is immediately canceled.

Several voice messages are circulating on social media, where taxi drivers warn Tajiks to be cautious on the streets. In one of the messages, the author claims to be a taxi driver and states that one of his passengers told him: “On Monday, we will gather 500 people, go out on the street, and start killing Tajik migrants. There’s no other way.”

Another Tajik labor migrant told Azda TV that on the morning of March 25, his colleagues were communicating with him very differently.

“They don’t even respond to my greeting. I ask what I did wrong, why they are treating me poorly. They respond: ‘You are Tajik, you are all terrorists,'” the source complains.

Experts emphasize that after this incident, Russian law enforcement and residents have found a reason to persecute, beat, detain, torture, and deport migrants, particularly Tajiks.