In early September, from the 8th to the 10th, around 300 labor migrants and students from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan were detained at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport. After nearly two days of waiting, Russian border guards reportedly offered these migrants and students Russian citizenship. Those who refused the offer were sent back as “suspicious individuals.”
One of the returning Uzbeks shared his experience with Kun.uz, highlighting the difficulties faced by Central Asian labor migrants at the Sheremetyevo Airport. He arrived early on the morning of September 8 on an Aeroflot flight from Tashkent. Passengers from Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan were reportedly detained for "re-verification" at passport control.
"They separated 30-40 people from our flight, taking them one by one into a room for questioning. In this room, Russian border officers interrogated us in detail and checked our phones. They mockingly asked: ‘Why did you come here? Want to work? Is there no work in your country?’" one of passengers said, according to Kun.uz.
After this, the selected migrants were taken to another room where they were tested for COVID-19. In the next room, the border guards finally revealed the real purpose of these actions.
"We were held at the airport for 36 hours. We had little money, and everything was expensive. Eventually, we were called into a third room. There, they offered us Russian citizenship. Although they didn’t explicitly say we’d be sent to war, everyone knew what awaited us if we accepted citizenship… As far as I know, no one agreed," the passenger said.
According to him, after this, passengers from five or six different flights from Tashkent—about 300 people in total—were gathered and sent back to Uzbekistan on an Aeroflot flight. Among them were people traveling to Russia for the first time, students with scholarships who had come to study at various universities.
"They told us that we looked suspicious, took our fingerprints and all our personal information. We don’t know if we were deported or something else. They said we could get information from the Russian embassy in Tashkent and sent us all back to Uzbekistan. It turns out we wasted money on tickets, and we might even have to pay for the return flight through the Bureau of Compulsory Insurance (BPI). The most upsetting thing is that we were humiliated for no reason. Uzbeks and Tajiks are humiliated there…" the young man said.
According to the traveler, the Russian Embassy in Tashkent told those returned from the Moscow flight that "the issue cannot be resolved here." Initially, an employee of the Uzbek Embassy in Moscow said there was nothing they could do, then stopped answering calls.
"When I was at the airport, I called the Uzbek Embassy in Moscow. At first, an employee answered, and I explained the situation. He said, 'We can't solve this problem, we can't do anything.' After that, I called several more times, but they stopped answering," the young man said.
Lawyers contacted by the migrants stated that such raids are happening everywhere now and that no one can help in this situation.
"They didn’t use force on us at the airport. But since I asked a lot of questions and spoke about my rights, they told me, ‘If you want, there's a baton—ask fewer questions.’ As I tell this, I don’t believe anyone can help me, but maybe at least other compatriots will read this and draw conclusions. I don’t want anyone else to feel humiliated or end up in such a situation," said the Uzbek labor migrant.
As it had been reported earlier, the Tajik Embassy in Moscow on September 10 warned citizens against traveling to Russia for the time being, citing beefed-up security measures and increased document checks by Russian border guards.
