Foreign Affairs Ministry voices number of Kyrgyzstanis living abroad

There are 617,000-630,000 Kyrgyz citizens in Russia as of today. The Deputy Director of the Consular Service Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kyrgyzstan Almaz Imangaziev told today at a briefing.

According to him, about 700,000 citizens of the country stay outside Kyrgyzstan. Most of them have left for Russia. There are 35,000 Kyrgyz people in Kazakhstan, Turkey — 30,000 people, Italy — 5,500 people, South Korea — 5,000 people. Other 5,000 Kyrgyzstanis have left for Germany, 3,000-5,000 people — the United Arab Emirates, 2,000 — for the UK.

«As for the US, we are now working on clarifying the number of our citizens in this country. According to the latest information, about 5,000 Kyrgyz people are there now. At the same time, 1,777 of our citizens were convicted outside the country. Most of them are serving their sentences in Russia. Now we are negotiating with China on the transfer of the Kyrgyz citizens convicted there for serving their sentences in the Kyrgyz Republic. There are 18 people sentenced there now. They are accused of illegal storage and distribution of drugs. China has the most stringent legislation in the world in this respect,» Almaz Imangaziev told.