Uzbeks deported from Russia have a hard time back home
I’m tired of not having any money: Uzbeks deported from the Russian Federation speak about hard times back in their homeland
29.09.2024
Article published on the rus.azattyq website
This article has been edited from the original text
Russia continues to organise mass deportations of migrants where there are problems with their documentation, or those who have been arrested for minor offences. The expelled Uzbeks complain that there is no work at home, and that it can take several months to earn a regular income.
Dilfuza Khayitova was deported from Russia in early spring this year. What is her life like now?, What are her plans? And how will she earn money?
Dilfuza left Uzbekistan to work as a dishwasher in Moscow from December 2023 until the end of March. The woman was detained during one of the raids against migrants which took place in many Russian cities in the aftermath of the terrorist attack at the Crocus City concert hall in the capital.
“The lack of any job prospects in Uzbekistan forced us to go to Russia to earn some money. I wanted to build a house in my homeland”, the woman says. “At the time, strict controls over migrants were intensifying after the bloody Moscow terror attack. During our work lunch break, law enforcement officers came to check our work permits”.
“As I hadn’t agreed an official work contract with my employer within two months, my permit was withdrawn and I was kept at a deportation centre for 21 days. The State bought a plane ticket for me and I was sent back to Uzbekistan”, Dilfuza explains.
Since her deportation, Khayitova has been living with her father in Termez in south-east Uzbekistan and has a daughter whom she is raising on her own. “It is very hard for me now – my child has a fever but I don’t have the money to pay for medicines”, she says.
Dilfuza has been unable to find a job for several months and is living on her father’s pension, eking out a little money by collecting and recycling plastic bottles.
“I’m so tired of not having any money – there’s no work here. Even if you go for a Government job, they say “There’s no work” so they don’t hire you. We earn 30,000 soms (less than 2.5 dollars – Ed.) a day to live (in Russia, she earned 300,000 soms a day). Our father feeds us, with the money we earn spent on bread and everyday needs”, she says.
Dilfuza says she can no longer afford to build a home after her deportation. “There’s no money – I’m a single mother and don’t know what to do. If I could find a sponsor, we would be able to build a home. Had I not been deported, I would have worked and built it myself to improve our domestic situation”.
According to Russia’s Ministry of the Interior, 176,000 measures aimed at identifying breaches of migration laws – raids on migrants and other types of checks – were carried out in the country between January and July this year. As a result, the number of rulings on the administrative expulsion and deportation of foreigners from Russia rose by 53.2% during the first half of the year, compared to the same period in 2023.
