BISHKEK -- Kyrgyz Ombudsman Tursunbek Akun has sent a letter to the Kyrgyz government urging it to take measures to ensure the well-being of Kyrgyz children in Moscow orphanages, RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service reports.
Akun says more than 60 Kyrgyz children should be returned to Kyrgyzstan from Moscow orphanages as soon as possible.
According to Akun, many of the children were born in Moscow to Kyrgyz labor migrants. The migrants abandoned the children in the orphanages after being forced to return to Kyrgyzstan for various reasons, such as the loss of their jobs.
Many Central Asian men and women have been living and working in Russia for years as labor migrants.
Due to the current global economic downturn, many of them have been returning to their families in Central Asia.