The mother of seven-year-old Khadichi and one-year-old Malika (names have been changed) left Bukhara to work in Russia. The woman left the girls to her friend and her husband, promising that every month she would send $200 for maintenance. However, after a few months there were still no payments, and the couple began to beat and torture the children: they tied Khadicha to a tree and poured cold water on them, burned them with red-hot spoons. All this went on for four months. When the case was taken up by law enforcement agencies, the girl was found to have multiple fractures of her arm.

The story published on the Daryo.uz portal is not unique. The media is full of stories about how neglected children are being abused. And those are just the stories that got publicity. It is not known how many cases do not become resonant - a vague and disturbing picture is emerging behind the scenes. What is the root of the problem and how to ensure proper protection?

 

Migration as one of the pillars of the economy

Migrant remittances make a sufficient contribution to the economies of the Central Asian countries - only the amount of registered remittances from Russia is 8.2% of Tajikistan's GDP and 7.2% of Kyrgyzstan's GDP, and according to the Migration and Development Brief 29 of the World Bank for 2017, these two countries in the region are among the ten largest recipients of remittances in relation to the country's GDP - Kyrgyzstan ranks first with 35%, and Tajikistan ranks third with 31%.

 

https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/4759275/ 

 

Most of the labor migrants in Russia are from Uzbekistan. The gap between the flows of labor migrants from different countries of Central Asia is quite significant: Tajikistan, from where almost two times fewer migrants come from than from Uzbekistan, is in second place, Kyrgyzstan is in third. Least of all migrants are from Kazakhstan.

 

https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/4754092/ 

 

According to our calculations, almost every third Tajik is in migration in Russia - 30% of the population of Tajikistan, 16% are citizens of Kyrgyzstan, 14% of citizens of Uzbekistan, and only 4% of migrants from Kazakhstan.

 

What happens to children when their parents work?

 

Labor migration has irreversible consequences in terms of the psychosocial and emotional well-being of children - after all, leaving to work, parents leave their minor children in the care of elderly or distant relatives, or even acquaintances. What this may lead to in the long term is difficult to predict, as well as to apply preventive measures - the issue is too little studied.

“Adults work in Russia, children stay with relatives. Children are left to their own devices. Those that are older often become "heroes" of police reports. Approximately every thirteenth teenager who ended up in a children's room is a child of labor migrants, says labor migration expert Rahmon Ulmasov (Tajikistan).

 

According to him, if a child is left on the street, hungry, he can commit an offense or even make contact with criminal groups.

“No one counted how many children in Tajikistan were left without parents due to the fact that their fathers and mothers went abroad,” the expert continues. This indicator is really hard to find in open sources in the countries of Central Asia. There is only general UNICEF data that 59% of female migrant workers from Central Asia left their children under the age of 16 in their homeland.

Most migrants from Uzbekistan do not take their children with them when they go abroad to work. Among the parents who leave to work abroad, 63% are fathers, 10% are mothers. Both parents migrated in 25% of cases. At the same time, mothers migrate regardless of the age of the children.

“The absence of parents is often associated with poorer nutrition of the child, the deterioration of his education, and more rare visits to circles and sports sections. Of course, this is not always the case. The role of parents is played by grandparents, in whose care labor migrants often leave their children. Grandparents are often burdened by caring for their grandchildren, and even with their full love and care, children often feel disadvantaged compared to their peers who have parents nearby,” says psychotherapist Azizbek Boltaev, founder of the INSON clinic. 

MediaDataLab conducted its own mini-study, which involved 87 people. Relatives and guardians of migrant children noted moral difficulties in 44% of cases as the main problem in the process of caring for children, while only 14% of respondents have financial difficulties.

The parents of 10-year-old Abdulaziz left for work in Russia two years ago, leaving their son in the care of their grandmother, 51-year-old Shokhista Ergasheva.

“The child misses his parents. When he plays in the yard with his friends, and when the friends' parents call them back home, Abdulaziz remembers his parents and gets bored. Sometimes he locks himself in his room and cries. He eats poorly, there are difficulties with lessons. At such a time, I try to distract him, hug and soothe him. But still the child misses his parents.

According to Shohista, the child has problems with sleep. Despite the fact that the boy communicates with his parents several times a day, the child lacks parental love, care and attention.

“Parents send money every month - only for expenses for a grandchild about $ 200-300. We try to fully meet all his needs. But no one and nothing can replace the place of parents, ”Shokhista sums up.

Financial difficulties are not the biggest problem for migrant children. About 70% of our respondents noted that they provide material assistance every month (money transfers or necessary things).

In September 2018, a terrible tragedy shook the entire Khatlon region of Tajikistan: in the village of Navobod, a 58-year-old woman buried her three-year-old grandson alive. The child's body was found 6 days later. One can only guess about the reasons for such a cruel crime on the part of the grandmother, but it is known that the father of the child was in labor migration.

According to UNICEF, around 5,000 children in Tajikistan today lose parental care every year, and in many cases this is due to migration. “As parents migrate, children often stay with relatives, and in many cases grandparents, who may have to struggle to meet the needs of growing children, many of whom are placed in boarding schools,” the study notes.

Now in Tajikistan there is a “feminization” of migration - if at the beginning external labor migration was predominantly male - 88% of men and 12% of women of working age, then the trends of the last two years show that the percentage of women is gradually increasing: for example, in 2019 from Tajikistan to 531 thousand citizens left for labor migration, of which about 80 thousand are women. This may mean that if children used to stay with their mother, now the chance of “losing both parents in migration” for little Tajiks is increasing.

The situation in Kazakhstan is strikingly different. Thanks to a more developed economy, Kazakhstan, on the contrary, began to attract migrants from Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. However, the departure of the population is also actively growing - according to the Federal State Statistics Service of the Russian Federation, the number of Kazakhstanis who indicated “work” as the purpose of entry when entering the Russian Federation has a steady upward trend and in 2019 amounted to more than 136 thousand people - this almost twice as many as in 2016 (72 thousand people). At the same time, the study of children of Kazakh migrants was not carried out.

Nella Doshanova, head of the juvenile police department of the Local Police Service Department of the Nur-Sultan City Police Department (Kazakhstan), notes that children abandoned by their parents during migration, or children of migrants in Kazakhstan, are identified during preventive work - bypasses, local raids, but mostly these children are identified after the fact, namely after the commission of an offense by children or in relation to children - a state of emergency at the place of work of children or when contacting a polyclinic, where the persons responsible for the children are asked for documentation.

“The list against minor children is extensive - there are violations of children's rights, child abuse and other types, ending with crimes against sexual freedom and the sexual inviolability of children.

“The older the child, the easier it is for him to adapt to the long absence of one or both parents. The smaller the child, the more vulnerable he is to violence from the people around him,” says psychotherapist Azizbek Boltaev, founder of the INSON clinic.

Two years ago, the mass media of Kyrgyzstan reported on the death of a one and a half year old boy who died from beatings. His mother went to work in Russia, leaving the child with her older sister. The boy's aunt, who raised him, in her defense stated that she pinched and hit the child several times because he peed in his pants.

According to the Ministry of Labor and Social Development of Kyrgyzstan, in the second quarter of 2020 alone, 274 facts of violence and abuse of children were revealed, of which 170 were physical, 33 were sexual, and 19 were psychological. Now there are more than 70,000 children in Kyrgyzstan whose parents are in external migration.

School teacher Gulmira Omonova, who works with students whose parents are abroad, notes that children of migrants may not experience financial hardship. Often, parents buy their child a phone to be constantly in touch. But that doesn't help much.

“You can see the need for love and care in their eyes. The parents of the student, whose class teacher I am, left for Turkey. The child is under the care of the grandmother. Grandmother takes care of him completely, clothes, shoes, sends him to school. The boy himself is well-mannered, but often emotionally upset. Feels embarrassed when there are parent-teacher meetings, events. I feel it and notice it, but I try not to show it to the child as much as possible.”

According to her, the family is a support and support for a child of school age. A child who feels attention and is under control will learn well.

 

What to do?

 

Psychotherapist Azizbek Boltaev advises taking the child with you if possible, or at least making sure that the guardians can really provide a favorable environment for his development, free from violence and harmful influence.

“The child needs to be psychologically prepared for his own departure, this should not be an unexpected decision. If the child is explained the circumstances, what his life will be like away from the parent, what he can count on in terms of support from parents, guardians, his own time and interests, then this will facilitate further adaptation”

According to him, parents need to be in regular contact with the child via telephone and video communication, as well as receive information about the child's condition not only from him and his guardians, but also from third parties. To do this, for example, it is useful to maintain regular contact with the teacher or caregiver of the child.

To protect children at the institutional level, UNICEF experts recommend reviewing the legislative framework and creating effective mechanisms to protect vulnerable families and children. This may include a free guardianship registration mechanism, systems for identifying children without parental care and providing due legal protection, and access to psychological support.

 

Mentor: Aizada Toma

Authors: Anastasia Em, Dilfuza Mirzakhmedova, Nigora Fazliddin, Galiya Elubaeva, Aigerim Sarybek MediaDataLab, 2020.

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