Over 200 Tajik citizens stranded at Kazakh-Uzbek border return home

AKIPRESS.COM - Over 200 Tajik citizens who were stranded at the Kazakh-Uzbek border returnd home, the regional office of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said. IOM noted that the government of Tajikistan ordered to carry out repatriation of Tajik citizens stuck at the Jibek Joli checkpoint.
The government of Norway provided financial aid to return Tajik citizens.
IOM has assisted more than 1,800 Tajik citizens to return home from Kazakhstan by passenger transport through Uzbekistan since the borders were closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, the organization said.
Women with children, labor migrants and students were among those who stuck at the Kazakh-Uzbek border. Some of them lived at the border in conditions of limited access to water, food, hygiene items and the risk of contracting COVID-19. These migrants had to live in the open air, IOM said.
IOM approved some measures taken by governments around the world with regard to migrants in need and urged them to "look for ways to return stranded migrants while respecting public health standards."