DUSHANBE -- Thousands of Tajiks were deported from Russia in the first half of the year, with the exodus accelerating after authorities began carrying out sweeping checks of immigrants in the aftermath of a March attack by gunmen -- four of whom are suspects from Tajikistan -- on a concert hall near Moscow that killed 144 people.
Tajik Labor, Migration, and Employment Minister Gulnora Hasanzoda said on August 6 that Russia had deported more than 17,000 Tajik citizens in the first six months of 2024.
Meanwhile, many Tajik migrant workers -- and from other Central Asian states -- are leaving the country of their own accord, fearing an increase in xenophobia and restrictions inside Russia and on travelling to it.
"Considering the events of the end of March, inspections and raids are being conducted on the border and inside Russia on a permanent and intense basis, and for various reasons citizens are being sent back from the territory of that country due to previously committed violations, noncompliance with immigration legislation, lack of the language knowledge, public etiquette," Hasanzoda said.
Russia hosts millions of migrant workers from Central Asia, who are employed in a variety of occupations, including construction, street cleaning, retail, and the restaurant industry.
But Hasanzoda said data overall showed labor emigration from Tajikistan decreased by 16 percent in the first six months of the year.
Sharofiddin Khojaev, a Dushanbe resident who was one of the Tajiks sent home after he arrived at a Moscow airport earlier this year, said the situation seemed stacked against people who are just trying to earn money for their families.
"They don't give you the necessary documents on time, and then at the same time they expell you for not having them. Whether you have the documents or not, they give you trouble," he told RFE/RL.
"I was forced to borrow money to buy a ticket to fly back. Half of the people there [at the airport] were stranded. They didn't follow protocol with their actions, they were just targeting Tajiks even if their papers were OK. They just catch you and force you out," Khojaev added.
Last month, amid reports about hundreds of Tajik migrants stranded in Russian airports, the director of the Tajik Civil Aviation Agency, Habibullo Nazarzoda, told reporters that some 3,400 Tajik migrant workers had been returned from Russian airports in the previous six months.
Nazarzoda also cited alleged problems with documentation as a major factor behind the blocking of Tajik citizens from entering Russia.
In April, officials in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan advised their citizens to refrain from traveling to Russia amid increased pressure faced by labor migrants from Central Asia following the deadly Crocus City Hall attack in March.
Meanwhile, Russian lawmakers last month approved several bills dramatically restricting the rights of labor migrants.
Amid legal changes and warnings from human rights organizations and Tajik officials over rising levels of xenophobia against Central Asians in Russia, some analysts say migrant workers can no longer expect working in Russia to be their default financial lifeline.
"People and authorities at different levels should think that Russia is not a place that will forever be a source of livelihood and livelihood for us," sociologist Muzaffar Olimov recently told RFE/RL's Tajik Service.
Tajik authorities have started to respond to the rise of workers staying in the country, saying they created more than 100,000 new jobs in the country since January.
On the flip side, the exodus of migrant workers is already hitting Russia's tight labor market, experts say.
Russia's unemployment rate is at a post-Soviet record low of 2.9 percent as the Kremlin recruits hundreds of thousands of men for its war in Ukraine.
The tight labor market is driving inflation higher, threatening economic stability, experts say.