BISHKEK -- Kyrgyzstan's Committee for Migration and Employment plans to establish a new agency to regulate the employment of Kyrgyz labor migrants abroad, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reports.
The committee announced that the new agency will assist potential labor migrants with required training for some professions in foreign countries.
The committee says the number of Kyrgyz labor migrants officially registered as living and working in Russia and Kazakhstan is about 600,000, and a reported 190,000 Kyrgyz workers received Russian citizenship from 2004-2008.
The announcement was made at a meeting of members of the Kyrgyz diaspora in Bishkek, where migrants from Russia, Kazakhstan, South Korea, China, Italy, Egypt, and other countries along with Kyrgyz government officials discussed ways of protecting the rights of Kyrgyz migrants and to help them with legal issues.