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Only two families have arrived to settle in the Khabarovsk region in the Far East of Russia under the program of voluntary resettlement of Russia’s compatriots residing in former CIS countries, officials announced at the meeting Thursday.

The meeting of the Far Eastern interdepartmental commission for migration was headed by presidential envoy to the Russian Far East Oleg Safonov and was devoted to discussing migration policy issues in the district, a press statement from the envoy’s office said.

The program to attract migrants to the remote district of Russia stumbles over ineffective migration policies, lack of housing to be provided for migrants and their unsuitable professions for local labor market demands.

The state program for attracting migrants, which was introduced in 2006, aims to encourage citizens of former Soviet republics to move to Russia and thus to improve demographic situation in the country. The program is scheduled until 2012 and has the Russian Far East as the priority territory for engaging migrants.

Today, Russia’s Far East, which amounts to 36 percent of the country’s territory, has only 4.6 percent of its population. Since 1989, when the previous census was performed, the number of the residents in the district has decreased by 20 percent, and the outflow continues.

In Primorye, a total of 6,500 migrants are expected to arrive from CIS countries under the program. Overall, Amur, Khabarovsk and Primorye regions are expected to accept about 35,000 migrants up the year 2012.

So far, only 500 compatriots have arrived into Russia under the program.