DUSHANBE , July 7, Asia-Plus - The number of Tajik migrants workers who die in the Russian Federation is rising.

190 bodies of Tajik labor migrants have been returned to Tajikistan from the Russian Federation since the beginning of this year, Shodibek Rajabov, the chief of the transportation police staff, said.

Of them, eighty-five bodies have been returned to the northern province of Sughd, forty-seven have been returned to the districts subordinate to the center, five to Gorno Badakhshan, seventeen have been returned to Dushanbe, and ten bodies have been returned to Rasht Valley (eastern Tajikistan), according to Rajabov.

Speaking about the cause of death of them, the transportation police official said that 69 of them had died in accidents at the construction sites, 69 others had died of illnesses, four had committed suicide, eight had died in traffic accidents, twenty of them had been killed, and the cause of death was unknown in eight cases. 

According to Rajabov, over the same period of last year, Russia authorities have returned to Tajikistan 151 bodies of migrant workers.  

On the activity of the transportation police in the first half-year of 2006, Rajabov said that 243 crimes have been reported on the transport over the first six months of this year.  Officers from the transportation police have intercepted some 170 kilograms of drugs, including more than 150 kilograms of heroin, over the same six-month period.  

Joint operations by Tajik transportation police and Russian special services have led to the seizure of 221 kilograms of drugs.  The totaled included some 20 kilograms of heroin.