In Uzbekistan, the country’s citizens, who have a residence permit in another country, are not allowed to live with their relatives.

According to 60-year-old resident of capital city Tashkent, Nadir Lazizov, Uzbek officials are not allowing his daughter Samina, who came last month from Almaty to Tashkent to see her parents, to live in his house. The reason for this, according to Lazizov, was the fact that his daughter has a residence permit in Kazakhstan.

– For the past seven years, my daughter, son-in-law and three of my grandchildren have been living temporarily in Almaty. They work in one of the prestigious companies there. In Kazakhstan, it is not possible to get employed and live with no problems not having a residence permit. Therefore, my daughter and son-in-law were forced to take official residence there, but they did not refuse from the Uzbek citizenship. Last month my daughter with grandchildren came to Tashkent to visit us. But at the airport, she was told that she could not live in the house of her relatives, and that she would have to stay in a hotel. It turns out, Uzbekistan now has such a law, – says Lazizov to “Jarayon”.

According to him, after that he decided to arrange documents in one of the local hotels, which would state that his guests supposedly lived there. However, in a hotel he heard even more absurd demand.

– I have not seen my daughter and grandchildren for so many months, and how could I leave them to live in a hotel. I found one hotel. I talked with its staff and asked them to give me some piece of paper, which would say that they allegedly stayed there. However, the hotel staff asked me to bring at least some belongings of my daughter, such as her clothes, towel and slippers, so that they could put them in her room, because apparently hotel was checked by police, who come and ask whether citizens with a residence permit live in a hotel. In short, we took her belongings to a hotel room. My daughter was supposed to come and visit her room from time to time. We paid 57,000 sums per day for that room. My daughter came to us for two weeks, but we calculated that during this period we would have to pay around one million sum for a hotel room. Daughter was highly disappointed, and left to Almaty with my grandchildren in a week, – says the frustrated father.

Attempts of “Jarayon” to contact official sources and to find more information about the new rules imposed on citizens of Uzbekistan with residence permit in another country did not give any results.

Before the Uzbek authorities introduced inconceivable rules for foreigners living in the country with a residence permit. For example, in 2010 the Uzbek authorities have complicated the process for foreigners, who were leaving the country. They have introduced rules under which foreigners could travel out from Uzbekistan only if they had an exit visa in their national passports valid for two years. Many media outlets have reported that many foreigners living in Uzbekistan with residence permit found out about the new rule only at the airport before departure.

The head of the International Human Rights Organization “Fiery Hearts Club”, Mutabar Tadjibayeva, says the new rules introduced by the Uzbek authorities for citizens with a residence permit in another country violates the constitutional right of citizens to freedom of movement.

– In addition, it proves that the citizens of Uzbekistan with residence permit in another country are also included into the “black list” of the government. Today, because of the lack of jobs in the Uzbekistan, a growing number of Uzbeks are fleeing the country and staying in other places in order to find jobs and be able to feed their families. And in order to strengthen their rights and freedoms, they are forced to take official residence there. It also shows that with the growing number of those, who are leaving the country, the “black list” of the authorities is also becoming bigger.

I think that the international human rights organizations must respond to this action of the authorities of Uzbekistan. The media should widely discuss this issue. The public must be well informed about this problem. During the official meetings, representatives of the Uzbek government must be asked to explain the situation, – says Mutabar Tadjibayeva.