As of the end of the day on April 27, about a thousand citizens of Tajikistan are being held at Moscow airports, according to the website of the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In particular, there are 954 citizens of Tajikistan in the temporary detention zone at Vnukovo airport. Among them are students who came to Russia under educational quotas. After many hours of waiting, the Foreign Ministry notes, 322 people were allowed into Russia. The Russian authorities intend to add another 306 people to the “list of those expelled”; 27 people have already been expelled.
Dozens more people are at Zhukovsky, Domodedovo and Sheremetyevo airports. The Foreign Ministry emphasizes that Russia applies such measures only to citizens of Tajikistan.
“Due to the fact that stranded citizens of Tajikistan are not provided with sufficient hot meals, Tajik diplomats, in cooperation with representatives of the diaspora, are delivering food to Vnukovo airport,” the statement said.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Tajikistan calls on its citizens to temporarily refrain from traveling to Russia unless they have an urgent need.
As Radio Ozodi reports, on April 26, several citizens of Tajikistan said that they were being held in Vnukovo for three days and were not allowed into Russia. In addition, Asia-Plus wrote that since May 22, about 180 cars with Tajik license plates have been stuck on the Russian-Kazakh border and are not allowed into Russia.