Tag Archives: remittances

Comment: Cameron tours Central Asia to secure migrant labour routes

APRIL 23 2024 (The Bulletin) — The British government has framed David Cameron’s trip to Central Asia as a push to persuade the region’s leaders to take a pro-West stance on global affairs, particularly around the war in Ukraine.

But this is only part of the British foreign minister’s visit. The other part is strengthening labour migration routes.

Over the past four years, Britain has turned to Central Asia to plug labour gaps created by Brexit. It has set up schemes to import migrant workers, particularly from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, to Britain to pick fruit, the sort of job that workers from the Baltics were doing until Brexit made it far more difficult.

Either way, it is a win for the West as the more contact there is between Britain and Central Asia, the more chance there is of breaking down Russia’s hold over the region.

On another level, it has been an awkward trip for Cameron, having to pose for photos with Kyrgz Pres. Sadyr Japarov after he imposed Kremlin-inspired laws that make operations for Western-backed media and NGOs far harder.

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— This story was published in issue 565 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on April 23 2024

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2024

Migrant flow from Tajikistan to Russia has picked up, says airline

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DUSHANBE/APRIL 17 2024 (The Bulletin) — Migrant flows from Dushanbe to Moscow have picked up since a drop after a terrorist attack in Moscow, Tajik media quoted aviation officials as saying.

This is important because Tajik officials had reported that thousands of Tajik workers wanted to leave Russia at the end of March because of an increase in xenophobic attacks and pressure from the police.

Remittances sent back by workers in Russia are vital for the Tajik economy, making up around 25% of its GDP.

An official for Somon Air, a Tajik airline, said that by the end of April passenger traffic between Tajikistan and Russia should have returned to normal.

“We’re seeing a trend towards an increase in passenger traffic in the direction of Russia and back compared with the figures two weeks ago,” the official said.

Somon Air operates between 130 and 140 flights per month between Russia and Tajikistan.

Police arrested four Tajik men for killing at least 144 people at a rock concert in Moscow on March 22, the worst terrorist attack in Russia for 20 years.

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— This story was published in issue 565 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on April 23 2024

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2024

Hungary wants more migrant workers from Uzbekistan

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APRIL 8 2024 (The Bulletin) — Hungary wants to attract more migrant labour from Uzbekistan, Uzbekistan reported. Hungary is an observer member of the Organisation of Turkic States, an economic group hinged around Turkey. Hungary qualifies through linguistic links to the pan-Turkic region and has been keen to leverage more business links. Last year, OTP Bank, a Hungarian bank, bought Uzbekistan’s fifth largest bank.

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— This story was published in issue 564 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on April 15 2024

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2024

Germany’s Eurowings to start flying to Tbilisi

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JUNE 5 2021 (The Bulletin) — Eurowings, the low-cost airline owned by Germany’s Lufthansa, will start weekly flights from Dusseldorf to Tbilisi from July. There has been a boom in flights to Georgia over the past few years, driven mainly by tourism, led by Hungary’s Wizz Air which set up a base in Kutaisi in 2016. Seasonal workers have also pushed up demand for flights to Europe from Georgia. This year Germany has invited thousands of Georgians to pick fruit at its farms.

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— This story was published in issue 487 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on June 9 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Remittance flow into Uzbekistan rises

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MARCH 12 (The Bulletin) — Remittances in Uzbekistan were 14% higher in January and February this year, at $892m, compared to the same period in 2020, the Uzbek Central Bank said. Remittances, mainly from Russia, are a vital part of Central Asia’s economy. The various movement and work restrictions imposed to deal with the coronavirus pandemic last year dented remittances flows from the region’s migrant workers.

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— This story was published in issue 475 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on March 15 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Eurasian Economic Union wants to streamline migrant worker processes

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ALMATY/FEB. 5 2021 (The Bulletin) — The Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) wants to speed up the digitalisation of labour migrants’ documents to help member states recover from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

At a meeting of heads of governments of EAEU member states in Almaty, Russian PM Mikhail Mishustin said that reviving labour markets, cutting down on paperwork through digital records and providing vaccines so that people can travel for work was vitally important for the bloc.

“This is a single service that you can use to find vacancies, draw up the necessary documents, including medical insurance and it will also help with the choice of housing,” he said of a digitalisation plan.

Critics of the EAEU — which has been in operation since 2015 and, alongside Russia includes Kazakhstan, Belarus, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan as members — have said that the bloc pushes the Kremlin’s agenda and that it is cumbersome, creates red tape and is slow to get things done.

They also said that the plan put forward by Mr Mishustin may be a case in point. He envisages it coming into action in 2022.

But pressure is building on the EAEU to reform and to become more nimble. At the Almaty meeting, Kyrgyz’s PM Ulubek Maripov described the need to tear down barriers that slow labour movement in the EAEU as “acute”.

Russia attracts millions of labour migrants from Central Asia each year, generating huge remittance flows. This dried up in 2020 because of the pandemic. Businesses in Russia now complain about a lack of cheap labour and in Central Asia, governments report a sharp drop in remittances.

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— This story was first published in issue 471 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Remittance flows to Kazakhstan fall

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JAN. 20 2021 (The Bulletin) — Remittance flows to Kazakhstan, an important indicator of the economic health of the entire Central Asia region, dropped by 18.5% in 2020, the ranking.kz economic website reported. It said that the flow of cash from Russia dropped by nearly 50%, highlighting the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the Russian economy. Remittances are a vital source of income for people in Central Asia. After Russia, the second most important origin of remittances to Kazakhstan last year was South Korea.

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— This story was first published in issue 469 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Thousands of Tajik workers return home

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DUSHANBE/April 5 (The Bulletin) — Thousands of Tajik workers have returned early from jobs in Russia because of a lockdown triggered by the spread of the coronavirus, threatening to undermine the Tajik economy which is one of the most remittance-reliant economies in the world.

An estimated 500,000 Tajiks work in Russia – labouring on building sites, selling roses at train stations, cleaning streets and other menial jobs – and they send home the equivalent of around a third of Tajikistan’s annual GDP. The numbers are similar for Kyrgyzstan.

Economists have said that the combined drag of the coronavirus pandemic and a crash in oil prices may tip Russia into a recession.

The last time the Russian economy contracted, in 2015, the knock-on effect to the Tajik economy was significant.

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— This story was first published in issue 441 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Coronavirus worries spark panic buying in Tajikistan

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MARCH 26 (The Bulletin) — Tajikistan has still not recorded any cases of the coronavirus but analysts have said that concerns about health safety have still triggered panic buying and food price spikes. Reports from Tajikistan said that staple goods, such as potatoes and meat have increased by around 60% in price.

Thousands of migrant Tajik workers in Russia have also been stranded in Moscow airports after airlines cancelled flights to Tajikistan. An impending recession in Russia, linked to the collapse in oil prices and the coronavirus, will have a knock-on effect on the Tajik economy. It is heavily reliant on remittances sent back from Russia by its migrant workers.

Rather like President Emomali Rakhmon apparently ignoring the spread of the coronavirus, the Tajik Central Bank has not issued any statement on it and on March 20 instead congratulated Tajiks on the Nowruz festival.

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— This story was first published in issue 440 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Tajikistan approves Western Union for money transfer services

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DEC. 27 2019 (The Bulletin) — Tajikistan’s Central Bank said that money transfer provider Western Union had been approved for transactions to and from the country. At the start of the month, the Central Bank took control of the wire transfer sorting system and said that it had blocked the two most-used systems, Western Union and Golden Crown. Golden Crown, by far the most popular money transfer service, has still not been approved as a service provider.
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— This story was first published in issue 432 of the weekly Bulletin on Dec. 27 2019