On 6 February 2025, the IOM Chief of Mission in Tajikistan, Victor Lutenco led the team of senior programme officers of the organization in a meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Tajikistan, Sirojiddin Muhriddin.

The discussion focused around key migration trends and respective priority actions, such as the increased returns of Tajik migrants from the Russian Federation and the need to accelerate the diversifying of labor migration pathways, the special needs of some vulnerable migrants and the work on improvement of social protection for them, and the great impact of climate change in Tajikistan and the need to mainstream migration into adaptation and resilience building policies. Parties emphasized the protection of glaciers and the management of water sources, analyzing them as causes for various migration processes..

 Victor Lutenco mentioned, after the meeting: “I was profoundly impressed by the very deep understanding by the Minister of the complex linkages between glaciers preservation, water resource management and migration flows. This encourages us to continue and expand our joint work in the field of climate migration, especially in what regards adaptation and resilience building policies, emergency preparedness and response, as well as planned and spontaneous relocations caused by disasters. ” Consequently, the parties agreed to cooperate in properly reflecting migration dimension during the High Level International Conference on Glaciers Preservations – a global-scale initiative of Tajikistan to be hosted in Dushanbe on 29-31 May, 2025.

IOM is committed to strengthening cooperation with the Government of Tajikistan in order to develop evidence-based strategies that promote safe, orderly, and well-managed migration.

For more information, please contact: nshekhova@iom.int