“More than 117,000 people were repatriated from abroad during the pandemic” – Minister 

“So far, more than 117,000 citizens have been returned to Uzbekistan from foreign countries. There are 103,000 more people abroad who want to return to the country.

Most of them expressed a desire to return home: 93,000 of them are in the Russian Federation, 7,000 – in Turkey and over 3,000 in other countries.

Assistance was provided to more than 45,000 people in difficult situations abroad,” Kun.uz correspondent quoted Abdulaziz Kamilov as saying.

The Minister noted that the embassies receive a lot of appeals, critical objections, and issues related to the coronavirus pandemic.

At the same time, the study conducted by the Senate, during the discussion in the local councils of people’s deputies, revealed a number of problems and shortcomings in the activities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Particular attention was paid to the tasks of increasing the effectiveness of cooperation with international organizations, as well as the widespread promotion of large-scale political and social reforms in Uzbekistan at the international level.

It is noted that the activities to stimulate exports, attract foreign investments and provide practical assistance to the regions of the country in the development of tourism, increasing the knowledge and skills of local entrepreneurs to develop foreign economic cooperation and addressing labor migration issues are not effective enough.

In particular, in order to increase the effectiveness of interregional cooperation with foreign countries, a system of training and education for regional officials has not yet been established. Certain projects and investment proposals coming from the regions remain unanswered.

The current procedure of the Ministry for the protection of the rights of our citizens abroad, the provision of appropriate assistance and quality consular services to them is causing serious dissatisfaction.