Russia deports hundreds of Tajik workers

Russia has deported hundreds of migrant workers from Tajikistan and detained some 200 others, a leader of the Tajik migrant movement said Tuesday.Karomat Sharipov said the action follows the jailing of a Russian pilot by the Central Asian republic, the Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported."Over 300 migrant workers have been deported, and 196 are being held in special detention centers," Sharipov said.Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Monday that the expulsion of the migrant workers had nothing to do with the pilot case.Russian Pilot Vladimir Sadovnichy and an Estonian colleague were sentenced to eight and a half years in jail Nov. 8 for smuggling and border violations in a move Moscow called "politically motivated."Poverty-stricken Tajikistan relies on money that migrant workers send home from Russia. Such transfer payments make up over half of Tajikistan's gross domestic product, RIA Novosti said.