Officials of the Foreign Labor Migration Agency answered the questions of journalists regarding the shortcomings in the work to update statistics about labor migrants working abroad.

“It is inappropriate to publish information about labor migrants without proper calculation. The reason is that in the world experience, such data is produced based on only 3 sources: surveys, administrative reports, and various scientific analyzes and censuses among the population.

Therefore, it is quite difficult to update such stats in a short period of time. As of April 1, the number of labor migrants was 2,346,000. However, nearly 400 thousand citizens returned to Uzbekistan since then and some more left.

Also, as a result of the reforms carried out in recent years, the number of people going abroad to work officially has increased dramatically. For example, previously, only 0.15 percent of citizens went to work officially. Today, this indicator has reached about 8-9%,” said Azim Akhmatov, head of the agency.

During the briefing, a Kun.uz correspondent questioned the credibility of the statistics about labor migrants stating that the number of Uzbeks working abroad may be much higher and they are artificially lowered.

In response to the statement, Akhmatov noted that the claims about the number of migrants being altered are untrue.

“The State Personalization Center keeps statistics of citizens who have gone abroad for a long period of time. If a citizen goes abroad for more than 3 months, he will be directly transferred to our base. At the same time, our statistics are compared with the numbers in the border and migration records of the Russian Federation.

So why are we saying 2 million or so? Our migration is seasonal, when someone citizens leave, others might return. That’s why numbers go down at the end of the year and go up at the beginning of the year. For example, in the first quarter, the number of people going to Russia from Uzbekistan is high - 400-500 thousand people. But in 3-4 quarters this indicator drops.

Also, the number of migrants has not yet reached the pre-pandemic level. Before the pandemic, the number of citizens who went abroad for work was more than 3 million. But after the pandemic, these numbers decreased. Why? Because during the pandemic, many people have learned to keep themselves busy. Got a job opportunity. Adaptation to the new realities of life has begun,” the Kun.uz reporter quoted Azim Akhmatov as saying.