Dushanbe – Central Asia, home to millions of migrant workers with the region and in the Russian Federation, and a major destination for Afghan refugees, continues to seek ways to turn migration challenges into opportunities.

Officials from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan, as well as UN experts, came together in the Tajik capital Dushanbe from 12-13 February, for the first technical experts meeting of the Almaty Process on Refugee Protection and International Migration (Almaty Process), a regional consultative process founded in 2013.

It brings together Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkey, and Turkmenistan as members, with Pakistan and the Islamic Republic of Iran as observers. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) provide organizational, logistical and expert support.

The meeting in Dushanbe was the first to be held under Tajikistan’s chairmanship and focused on safe and regulated migration options, on protection and assistance to vulnerable migrants and their families, and on coordinated approaches to reintegrate migrants and refugees.

Reflecting on the two-day gathering, Cristina Tranca, Chief of Mission of IOM Tajikistan, said, “The Almaty Process is a key platform for Central Asian governments to have a dialogue on human mobility, the rights of migrants, protection, human trafficking, irregular migration, integration and migration management.”

The experts decided to officially invite Uzbekistan to join the Almaty Process, and to encourage Afghanistan, Turkey and Turkmenistan to join the next gathering, scheduled for May. It will focus on migrant workers’ registration, and ways to improve national migration policies.

The Technical Expert Group Meeting of the Almaty Process in Dushanbe was funded by the US State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration.

For more information, please contact Abdulfattoh Shafiev  at IOM Tajikistan, Tel: +992 48 701 02 22, Email: abdulfattoh@inbox.ru