Feedback In this alternative report, the Anti-Discrimination Center Memorial focuses on violations of the rights of Tajik children connected with the problem of migration.
Labor migration has had an extremely negative effect on the situation of children in Tajikistan. The children of migrant workers who stay behind in Tajikistan are separated from their parents and may not see them for years, are neglected by other relatives, drop out of school, are subjected to violence and labor and sexual exploitation, and end up in orphanages. Young women become the victims of domestic violence and harmful traditional practices like early forced marriages, and they also leave school. When their migrant worker husbands find themselves a new family, these young women face divorce and are left without a means of subsistence.
Children who migrate with their parents are also deprived of family care and nurturing (their parents work all day), live in terrible conditions, do not receive an education (since Russia’s strict migration policy also applies to children), and risk separation from their parents if their parents are found to have violated the migration regime. Frequently, mothers who are migrant workers and have fallen on hard times abandon their children in Russia and leave them in orphanages. Later, these children are repatriated to Tajikistan and placed in orphanages there.
This report also examines problems faced by children from the Mugat (Jughi or Lyuli) ethnic minority. Members of this group frequently continue their past migratory lifestyle, including to earn a living both within Tajikistan and abroad.