The hard life of Turkmenistan's internal migrants

Despite its rich energy resources, for which it receives billions of dollars from exports, Turkmenistan continues to experience a severe internal economic crisis. And with the greatest difficulties in emigrating to other countries, thousands from the villages flock to the capital in search of work. With police harassing the 'vagrants'.

Ašgabat (AsiaNews) - Many Turkmen living in the more peripheral Velayati (regions) flock to the capital Ašgabat as internal labour migrants, increasingly in recent times due to the difficulties of going abroad, seeking work in municipal services and apartment blocks, in extremely difficult conditions, as reported by Radio Azatlyk. Often several families are forced to share small single rooms in hostels and makeshift shelters.

The hostels are organised by the capital's administration, and two to three families, including parents and children, crowd into a single room. Those who manage to find a place in these establishments are allowed to work as sweepers or cleaners in various buildings, while to find a room in private buildings you have to pay at least a thousand manat (over 250 euro). In the hostel on Sabyr Ataev Street there are more than 100 people from 30 families in about ten rooms, some of whom try to arrive alone, leaving their families at home.

The hostel's bathroom is unique, and in front of it a long queue throngs all night until early morning, men, women and children. In other hostels there are at most two toilets on each floor, but often only one works, and the others are 'closed for renovation'. There are rather unpleasant smells throughout the building, and requests for action from the administration are often not answered.

Despite the wealth of its energy resources, for which it receives billions of dollars from exports, Turkmenistan continues to experience a very serious internal economic crisis. Unemployment shows no signs of abating, and Turkmen citizens no longer really know which way to turn to find a solution. Apart from the capital, internal migrants from all countries flock to the larger cities, looking for construction sites, custodial work and unskilled service of all kinds.

When large public festivities are prepared, which are quite common in these parts to celebrate the magnificence of power and the greatness of the patriotic spirit, internal migrants are sent home en masse to 'strengthen security measures' in Ašgabat and other cities, in the form of 'unpaid leave'. Those who do not make it back in time are detained for 'violating public order' and forced to pay heavy fines. The policemen on these occasions make constant patrols through the streets, checking the documents of all passers-by and escorting 'strangers' to train or bus stops.

On feast days only 'well-dressed people' who show feelings of 'joy and happiness for life' are to take to the streets, and those who walk around in worn and torn clothes are stopped and sent as far away as possible. Construction sites for new hospitals, schools and other large buildings are also stopped, to avoid dirty bricklayers and sweaty porters. The worst vagrants, sleeping on the streets in makeshift clothes, are sent as 'free labour' to provincial farms.

The homeless are often a category derived from internal migrants, and having no specific residence they are totally at the mercy of the arbitrariness of the police and administrations. Often it is enough to wear a torn suit on the street to be identified as a vagrant, even if one claims to have a job, and attempts are made to send the healthiest ones one can stop to forced labour. Among those who end up in the hands of the police are often market porters, among the dirtiest on the outside and least guaranteed by employers.

Many migrants bring their wives and children not so much to feed and care for them, but to have someone to defend them from the arbitrariness of power, the only real law in Turkmenistan.

Photo: Flickr / Stefan Krasowski