Dushanbe Hostel-Dwellers Contest Evictions

People who have lived for years in workers’ hostels that were once attached to Soviet factories are facing the prospect of eviction.

Many moved into the hostels after being displaced by civil war in the 1990s. But these premises have since been denationalised and are now in private hands.

Now the owners of one hostel in Dushanbe have turned the residents out. They say they can return once the crumbling building has been refurbished, but they will have to agree to pay rent in future and catch up on past arrears. Some are now staying with relatives, while others have moved into unused corners of other hostels in the city.  

No one doubts that the owners can evict unwanted tenants or set new conditions, but disputes are still raging about what legal rights residents have.

This is not an isolated case. There are 155 such hostels in the capital alone, housing an estimated 27,000 people. Experts say the legal precedent could apply to any of them.

The audio programme, in Russian and Tajik, went out on national radio stations in Tajikistan, as part of IWPR project work funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.