DUSHANBE -- A group of some 100 Tajik migrants workers say they are broke and without jobs in a Moscow suburb and that many of them need help to return to Tajikistan.
The migrant workers called RFE/RL's Tajik Service on January 27 and said they are in the main market of the Russian city Mytishi without employment or money -- some claiming that their employers have not paid their wages for several months.
Others said that police took their passports and demanded a bribe before they will be returned.
The Tajiks said that special police (OMON) come to the market at night and force some migrants to work without pay, sometimes cleaning streets, chopping firewood, or cooking at a prison.
A Memorial human rights activist, Bahrom Hamroev, told RFE/RL that there are also some 3,000 to 4,000 Uzbek and Kyrgyz migrants in the same situation.