The International Organization for Migration (IOM) presented its latest report on migration in Kazakhstan to the republic's governing authorities and policymakers in the capital Astana on Thursday, CentralASIA Newswire reported.
"Reliable migration data is a key element in the development of evidence-based policies to properly manage migration challenges in the Central Asian region," IOM Chief of Mission in Kazakhstan Zlatko Žigic told the meeting, according to a Thursday press release from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which co-organized the project.
The chief of the OSCE office in Astana, Alexandre Keltchewsky, concurred.
"Up-to-date, objective, reliable and comparable data on migration and its subsequent analysis are essential tools for informed and good policy making, as well as for policy impact assessment," the release quoted Keltchewsky as telling participants.
Kazakhstan, the second of three Central Asian republics to be assessed in the study, raised a formidable challenge for the migration experts.
"The geographical situation of the Republic of Kazakhstan makes the effective management of migration flows a real challenge," said Serik Sainov, the head of the migration control department in the migration police committee of Kazakhstan's Internal Affairs Ministry. Kazakhstan is the largest Central Asian republic, with an area akin to that of all of western Europe.
The Kazakhstan report follows one in January on Tajikistan, both of which form part of a project to study regional migratory trends in the region. The reports aim to help governing authorities make policy decisions while taking into consideration foreign workers. The experts will make an assessment of neighboring Kyrgyzstan in March.
When assessments of the three countries are completed, the findings and recommendations will be presented at the OSCE's regional conference in Vienna in June.