Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday that Moscow and Tashkent will resume cooperation on labor migration on the basis of bilateral agreements that should see cross-border labor mobility return to the pre-pandemic level
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd March, 2021) Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday that Moscow and Tashkent will resume cooperation on labor migration on the basis of bilateral agreements that should see cross-border labor mobility return to the pre-pandemic level.
"We also talked about the fact that as epidemiological restrictions ease, our interaction in the field of labor migration will be restored and will reach its previous level. There are specific agreements on this that make it possible to coordinate the actions of the relevant services," Lavrov said at a press conference after meeting Uzbek Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov.
The minister added that during the COVID-19 pandemic Russia implemented a system that enabled its companies to submit applications to regional governments for the return or invitation of migrant workers.
"Not so long ago we adopted a special algorithm for migrant workers that is uniform for all countries whose citizens work in Russia. It presupposes an application from the relevant company, an application from the employers. The application must be approved at the regional level, bearing in mind that the subjects of the federation [regions] have the authority to make decisions related to epidemiological restrictions or to lift them. Taking into account the requirements formulated by the operational headquarters, each subject of the federation on the basis of the employer's application can already return, invite new migrant workers," Lavrov said.
According to the Uzbek Ministry of Economic Development and Poverty Reduction, 1,193 million citizens of Uzbekistan worked in Russia at the beginning of 2021, compared with over 2.4 million Uzbeks in early 2020.
