They Leave for a Better Life
Each spring, 400,000 Tajiksgather in the pre-dawn darkness of the Dushanbe train station, hustling withshady ticket sellers to secure passage and board a train that has been dubbedthe "Migrant Express."
They will sleep, eat andsuffer the harassment of Uzbek and Turkmen border guards throughout a stuffy,hot and cramped four-day journey to Russia. For much of the trip, they will notbe able to leave the train, sometimes even confined to their car, so they willdepend on venders who ride the train and sell at the platforms for food, toiletpaper and other necessities.
They seek jobs inconstruction, mining, manufacturing, oil and gas fields and agriculture—higherpaying work than they can find at home—and most will go back home when theRussian winter descends. They migrate to pay for food, clothes—basic householdneeds. Others labor in Russia to pay for new houses, buy cars or refrigerators,fund education or pay off debts.
In 2009 I travelled to Moscow and Dushanbe to begin documenting the treatment Central Asian migrants face and trace theirexperiences when they arrive in Moscow: where do they find work, what are theconditions like, where do they live?
A Human Rights Watch report released in 2009 notes abuses andexploitation much of which I have already documented firsthand.
(body text contributed by Cody Kraatz)
They will sleep, eat andsuffer the harassment of Uzbek and Turkmen border guards throughout a stuffy,hot and cramped four-day journey to Russia. For much of the trip, they will notbe able to leave the train, sometimes even confined to their car, so they willdepend on venders who ride the train and sell at the platforms for food, toiletpaper and other necessities.
They seek jobs inconstruction, mining, manufacturing, oil and gas fields and agriculture—higherpaying work than they can find at home—and most will go back home when theRussian winter descends. They migrate to pay for food, clothes—basic householdneeds. Others labor in Russia to pay for new houses, buy cars or refrigerators,fund education or pay off debts.
In 2009 I travelled to Moscow and Dushanbe to begin documenting the treatment Central Asian migrants face and trace theirexperiences when they arrive in Moscow: where do they find work, what are theconditions like, where do they live?
A Human Rights Watch report released in 2009 notes abuses andexploitation much of which I have already documented firsthand.
(body text contributed by Cody Kraatz)