Russia: Tajik immigrants deported over jailed pilot case

Russia: Tajik immigrants deported over jailed pilot case

Via RT:
Around 300 Tajik citizens will be deported from Russia in response to the jailing of a Russian pilot in Tajikistan.

"We have started working on the issue, and extradition will occur in days," said Federal Migration Service Director, Konstantin Romodanovsky.

Once expelled, the Tajik citizens will not have the right to return to Russia for five years. The media reported that Tajik migrants had already had problems getting work permits. Around 1.3-1.7 million Tajiks are currently working in Russia.

The measure follows a harsh 8.5-year sentence handed down to Russian pilot Vladimir Sadovnichy by a Tajik court on November 8. The court found Sadovnichy, who operated humanitarian flights to Afghanistan, guilty of smuggling, illegally crossing the border into Tajikistan, and violation of flight rules.

(source)