23.03.2006 - Source: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Only defendant accused of murder in case of Tajik girl, allegedly killed in racial hate crime, acquitted; hate crimes one the rise, mainly directed against people of African and Asian descent ("Russia: Verdict In Trial Of Tajik Girl's Murder Shocks Public") [#47337],  [ID 11361]

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10.03.2004 - Source: Central Asia-Caucasus Institute

Article on situation of Tajik migrants in Russia, threatened by neo-fascist formations (""Skinhead" Movement In Russia’s Cities: Perspective From Tajikistan") [#21761],  [ID 11362]

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10.02.2004 - Source: BBC News

A Tajik girl has been killed in St Petersburg by suspected skinheads ("Girl killed by Russia 'racists'") [#19247],  [ID 11363]

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13.08.2003 - Source: Institute for War and Peace Reporting

Thousands of migrant Tajik workers in Russia are believed to have been killed in accidents or denied the most basic employment rights/ Tajikistan to sign a new bilateral agreement which should end some of the more extreme abuses ("Tajikistan: Treaty Boosts Migrant Workers") [#15167],  [ID 11364]

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25.02.2003 - Source: Institute for War and Peace Reporting

Institute for War and Peace Reporting: Tajikistan: New Hurdles for Tajik Migrants ("25.02.2003 - Institute for War and Peace Reporting: Tajikistan: New Hurdles for Tajik Migrants") [ID 11365]

Itinerant workers desperate for jobs in Russia find it hard to get past Uzbek border guards.

Document(s): 25.02.2003 - Institute for War and Peace Reporting: Tajikistan: New Hurdles for Tajik Migrants

02.08.2002 - Source: Institute for War and Peace Reporting

Institute for War and Peace Reporting: Migrant Tajiks face racist violence ("Migrant Tajiks Face Racist Violence") [#8234],  [ID 11366]

"An increasing number of Tajiks in Russia are dying at the hands of xenophobic thugs, with the authorities seemingly reluctant to take action. […]The passenger train that runs from Russia to Tajikistan pulls into Dushanbe twice a week carrying many travellers, their goods - and the bodies of murdered Tajiks.
According to unofficial sources, 30 corpses were brought home from Russia between April and June of this year. All of them victims of attacks by right-wing thugs.
In April 2002, Russian television broadcast gruesome pictures of the bloodied and bashed head of a Tajik man who was beaten to death by skinheads. […]The International Organisation for Migration, IOM, in Tajikistan told IWPR that the bodies of 11 murdered Tajiks were brought back to the small Vanch district in the Gorno-Badakhshan region alone between September and December last year. According to IOM officials, such attacks seem to have increased since the US-led anti-terrorist operation in Afghanistan began.
More than one and a half million Tajiks are believed to be working in Russia, driven from their homeland by the years of economic chaos during and after the 1992-97 civil war. Recent droughts, torrential rain and locust swarms have only added to the lack of opportunities in the landlocked state.
However, once in Russia, migrant workers are often met with a chilly reception as people from the Caucasus and Central Asia are widely - and often openly - blamed for that country's high crime levels and economic woes.
Negative stereotypes permeate even the highest levels of authority. The Russian president's representative in parliament, Alexander Kotenkov, was recently forced to apologise for remarks in the State Duma that "Moscow is full of poor people and Tajiks", after protests by the Tajik internal affairs ministry."

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13.11.2001 - Source: Council of Europe - European Commission against Racism and Intolerance

ECRI: Tajiks appear to be particularly susceptible to discriminatory treatment on the part of law enforcement ("Second report on the Russian Federation: Adopted on 16 March 2001 and made public on 13 November 2001 [CRI(2001) 41]") [#4815],  [ID 11367]

"62. There are consistent reports suggesting that illegal behaviour on the part of law
enforcement officials particularly targeting ethnic minority groups has become
disturbingly frequent in many subjects of the Federation and especially in big
cities (Moscow, St. Petersburg) and in some southern regions. Reports include
arbitrary and disproportionately frequent checks and searches of premises of
members of minority groups, seizure of their goods and personal property,
extortion of money, disproportionate use of detention of members of these
groups and use of violence against them, especially while in detention. Such
groups include mainly, but not exclusively, persons from the Caucasus region
and Central Asia. Chechens, Ingush, Azerbaijanis, Tajiks appear to be
particularly susceptible to such treatment on the part of law enforcement
officials in Moscow. Elsewhere, Armenians, Georgians, Meskhetian Turks,
Kurds, Dargins, Nogais and others are particularly subject to discriminatory
behaviour. As mentioned below, these practices are strictly linked to the
enforcement of the system of registration of residence and temporary stay30.
Furthermore, as already mentioned in other parts of this report, the police has
also in many cases not reacted or not reacted effectively to episodes of
violence directed against members of ethnic minorities."

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