Strategy for Reproductive Health, for instance, found that 45.9% of the Kyrgyz population lives below the poverty line. Statistics for extreme poverty in Kyrgyzstan vary, but are highest in areas where many stateless are known to live. In Batken region, for example, where UNHCR’s partners conducted a survey of stateless people, 77% live in extreme poverty in rural areas and 33.7% in the towns. Nationwide, the government strategy paper notes that the search for work prompts migration within States, from villages to towns, migration within the Central Asia region and migration further afield. Unusually, local unemployment has affected women much more severely than men,419 a finding borne out by UNHCR’s own survey of stateless persons.420 Each of the four States reserves the right to earmark some posts exclusively for citizens, such as positions in government service.421 Kazakhstan operates an annual quota for foreign and stateless labour422 and puts certain other types of wage-earning employment beyond limits for the stateless and other foreigners “in the interests of ensuring the constitutional right to work” for Kazakh citizens. Since the global economy went into recession in 2008, Tajikistan has also started to operate a quota system for foreign and stateless labour. Stateless persons, and other foreign labour, are channelled into the service sector and semi-skilled manual labour in the legislation of Kyrgyzstan. Stateless persons with a permanent residence permit in Kyrgyzstan can work as labourers or service staff in enterprises and organisations, or do other work on terms set for foreigners. Those with a temporary residence permit are also allowed to come and work, provided their job is compatible with the aims of their stay, approved by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and fits within the duration of a temporary visa.423 Stateless persons surveyed in northern Kyrgyzstan said that the documentation needed for book-keeping and taxation purposes sometimes put employers off hiring them in the wage-earning sector. By law, Tajikistan provides various employment rights for foreigners. In order to work in the country, they need permission from the migration division of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.424 These provisions make a pool of stateless labour possible in all three countries for seasonal work, like harvesting cotton, nuts and tobacco. In Turkmenistan, foreign nationals can work as labourers and service staff in enterprises, institutions and organisations. They can also do other work, under procedures established for Turkmen citizens, but the law does not indicate what type of work this might be. In Turkmenistan, stateless persons do not have labour rights in law.425 In 2009, Tajikistan adopted several measures aimed at restricting wage-earning employment for foreigners and stateless persons among them. On 1 April, a government instruction426 imposed an annual quota of 6,000 on foreign labourers working inside the country, including stateless persons. The largest sub-quota was for Chinese. 419 UNESCO, Education System, Literacy and Life Long Learning. Country Report on Kyrgyzstan, available at www.unescobkk.org. 420 According to the 2008 UNAIDS, WHO, FAO Epidemiological Country Surveys Profile, ten percent of the infected population is in Osh region. The figure is between one and four percent in Bishkek. Appendices to WHO reports, available at www.apps.who.int. 421 Article 7, 1997 Law No 500 ‘On the Legal Status of Foreigners’ in Tajikistan, as amended in 2009; Article 7, 1993 Law No 1296-XII ‘On the Legal Status of Foreigners’ in Kyrgyzstan; Article 7, 1993 Law ‘On the Legal Status of Foreigners’ in Turkmenistan, as amended in 2011; Article 6, 1995 Law No 2337 ‘On the Legal Status of Foreigners’ in Kazakhstan. Oralmany are not as a rule stateless but in southern Kazakhstan they told UNHCR that they were not allowed to occupy certain posts – for example, a job in the militia or in the Kazakh State Security Service. 422 Article 15, 2001 Employment Law of Kazakhstan, No 149-11. 423 Article 7, 1993 Law No 1296-XII ‘On the Legal Status of Foreigners’ in Kyrgyzstan. 424 Article 7, 1997 Law No 500 ‘On the Legal Status of Foreigners’ in Tajikistan, as amended in 2009. 425 Article 7, 1993 Law ‘On the Legal Status of Foreigners’ in Turkmenistan, as amended in 2011. 426 1999 Instruction ‘Confirming the Rules for Issuing work permits to Foreigners and Stateless Persons, who are carrying out work in Tajikistan’. ~ 65 ~