Repatriaton of deceased migrants to Central Asian countries

Among the millions of workers abroad in precarious conditions, hundreds die every year. Returning their bodies home is a complex procedure, and local authorities do not always cover the costs. The story of 30-year-old Tajik Džamila, killed in Russia by her employer, went viral, prompting an online fundraiser.

Dushanbe (AsiaNews) - Millions of citizens from Central Asian countries go abroad in search of work due to unemployment and low wages at home, and every year thousands die for various reasons while in a foreign land.

The return of their bodies home is a complex procedure, and the authorities in their countries of origin are not always willing to ensure repatriation at the expense of the state. When their countries' embassies and consulates offer no answers or solutions, migrants have to organise themselves to raise the necessary funds for their return, or are forced to bury their compatriots in the cemeteries of the places where they had gone to work.

As reported by Radio Azattyk, 30-year-old Džamila Nurzod had come to Russia from Tajikistan to support her only son, who had been left with his grandparents after her divorce from his father.

One day, she went to clean yet another flat, and upon arrival found it in a state of chaos and filth, so she refused to do the job.

The Muscovite landlord who had called her began to beat her, then set fire to the flat and fled to hide. Neighbours called the fire brigade, and Džamila was taken to hospital with severe burns and many injuries, but she could not be saved.

The perpetrator, Vladimir Upadyšev, was found and arrested, and the young woman's body was returned to her native city of Vakhdat. Her roommate, who had arrived with her from Tajikistan, recalls that Džamila wanted to return home to take her son with her, but ‘we were only able to repatriate her cold body’.

News of Džamila's murder spread quickly on social media, including among the many Tajik migrants working in Russia, and a collection was organised to bring her body home. Unfortunately, this tragic story is not an isolated case, and many migrants from Central Asian countries die from murders, diseases and various accidents, so much so that in the first six months of this year alone, around 600 bodies were brought back to Tajikistan.

There is also a provision by the government in Dushanbe, according to which the authorities are required to ensure the repatriation of bodies at the expense of the state, even though there is no written decree on the matter, and the return flight is generally offered free of charge.

In addition to Russia, there are other countries that welcome migrants from Central Asia, given the increasingly insistent expressions of xenophobia among Russians. One of these is Turkey, where there is greater religious and linguistic commonality, and every day thousands of people arrive here in search of work, especially from Uzbekistan, the most populous of the five Central Asian countries.

Here too, however, the conditions for migrants are far from ideal, especially for women, and there have been reports of tragic cases in recent years. In the last few months, three young Uzbek women have been murdered in Turkey, one of whom, 32-year-old Malika, was found in her flat with her throat cut.

In April this year, the government in Tashkent also decided to cover the costs of funeral rites and the transport home of the bodies of compatriots who died while working abroad, with around 50 bodies reported to have been brought back from Turkey this year alone.

Kyrgyzstan also covers the costs of these painful necessities, while Turkmenistan imposes more complicated conditions, considering labour migrants in Russia and especially in Turkey as people suspected of participating in actions against the Ashgabat regime, and does not allow them to return home even for burial. About one million Turkmen citizens live in Turkey, most of them illegal immigrants.

Kazakhstan has a stronger economy than its neighbours, mainly thanks to oil and metal exports, and during his thirty years as president, Nursultan Nazarbayev claimed that there was no labour migration for Kazakhs because “raw materials go abroad, not labour”.

In reality, many Kazakhs, especially from the poorer provinces, travel in search of work, with significant flows in recent times to South Korea, where there have also been cases of sudden death with great difficulties in repatriating the bodies of the deceased, given the greater distances involved. And since it is not considered a mass phenomenon, the Kazakh authorities do not provide much support to their compatriots in cases of extreme need.