In a time of pandemic it is better to stay at home

The world is fighting coronavirus pandemic. The infection spread across the globe had a tremendous negative impact on different aspects of life, including labor migration.

This becomes a cause of worldwide economic crisis which challenges the lives of migrants who left jobless, away from their homeland. This also affected the citizens of Uzbekistan working in the Russian Federation. The situation they found themselves in was the subject of discussion on social networks.
Like a number of other world countries, Uzbekistan too has an unemployment problem. More than 600 thousand young people enter the labor market annually. Despite measures to ensure their employment and create new jobs, the level of external labor emigration is still quite high. It is no secret that the majority of migrants from Uzbekistan go to Russia to earn money.
Currently, positive results in this area are achieved through harmonization of external labor migration, ensuring the safety of labor migrants, providing them comprehensive support and creating favorable working conditions. Such events are especially active during the period of the coronavirus pandemic.
As a result of the Uzbek-Russian negotiations, the Government of the Russian Federation provided benefits and opportunities to Uzbek labor migrants. In particular, the term of validity of labor patents was extended until June 15 of this year. At the same time, Russian employers were allowed to hire labor migrants without patents. The responsible departments are taking consistent measures to assist in finding jobs for Uzbek citizens temporarily left without income.
Charity events are held for Uzbek citizens and members of their families who faced a challenge.
With the support of the Embassy of Uzbekistan in the Russian Federation, a group of compatriots created the “Sakhovat” (“Generosity”) Help Center.
Special Center was created with the assistance of the Agency for External Labor Migration and the International Association for the Legal Assistance of Labor Migrants (Russia) that aims to help citizens of Uzbekistan in finding jobs during quarantine.
“We Stand Together” («Мы вместе») project was launched within the framework of the nationwide movement “Kindness and Support”. Many charity activists and compatriots supported this project. It was launched by the Ministry of Employment and Labor Relations of Uzbekistan and the Agency for External Labor Migration in collaboration with active bloggers.
More than 700 compatriots working in Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and other countries, who found themselves in a difficult situation due to a pandemic reached out “We Stand Together” project. Almost 300 of them have been provided with food and material assistance.
www.birgamiz.com website was launched for convenience. Citizens can send their inquiries in an electronic format; call-center was launched and received more than 400 requests. 80 people out of that number were provided with jobs.
Authorized missions, lawyers and members of the public in cities of Russian Federation provide legal and psychological assistance to our compatriots.
Following the order of the President of Uzbekistan, the country is returning its citizens who found themselves in a difficult situation back home.
It is not a secret that some individuals express a negative attitude towards labor migrants in social networks. However, none of those opinions come from official sources. Taking advantage of these situations, some of authors strive to expand their audiences, seize the momentum for appropriating the money of individual citizens through fraud.
Since no vaccine against COVID-19 has been invented yet, specialists recommend to stay at home or self-isolated.
Therefore, despite the difficulties, every citizen, whether abroad or at home, should temporarily stay in his/her place of residence in order to protect the health of his/her family and contribute to a speedy victory over coronavirus infection.

“Dunyo” IA