On June 21, during his trip to the Jizzak region of Uzbekistan, president Islam Karimov called Uzbek migrant workers, working in Russia, “lazy people”, and the fact of their presence in the labor migration was “disgusting and humiliating for the Uzbek people”.

Karimov, who said “no one in Uzbekistan is dying of hunger,” also added that “those, who went to Russia to earn money fast, are lazy, because they want to earn a lot of money quickly.”

The international human rights organization “Fiery Hearts Club” believes that the statement of resident Islam Karimov perfectly reveals the nature of the political regime in Uzbekistan: the full independence of the government from the will and needs of the people, the lack of the slightest sympathy for the most vulnerable sections of society and citizens.

Today it is no secret that annually millions of people from Uzbekistan have to go to different countries in search of paid work. According to numerous credible reports, every year these migrants sent to Uzbekistan about 6.8 billion U.S. dollars. But so far, the government of Uzbekistan completely ignores the existence of millions of Uzbek migrant workers in foreign countries.

The situation changed at the end of 2012, when, during one of the meetings of the Cabinet of Ministers, president Karimov expressed his outrage at the death of a young man, a citizen of Uzbekistan, who worked as a janitor in Moscow and died in this country. Karimov then asked the Cabinet of Ministers “what was the young man doing there?” And accused the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Uzbekistan in the death of the Uzbek citizen.

Yet, migrant workers have always been the most vulnerable strata of the society. The various media constantly report about violations of rights of migrant workers from Uzbekistan. Very often the most tragic stories in media are the stories about migrant workers. There are repeated incidents of brutal murdering of migrants by skinheads and nationalists. Also, due to technical vulnerability, migrants are often victims of industrial processes. In 2012, during a fire in Moscow, a big group of migrant workers from Uzbekistan was burnt alive.

Statement of Islam Karimov that migrant workers are lazy deserves special attention and analysis. In Uzbekistan, a practice of forced, unpaid labor of schoolchildren, students and employees of budgetary institutions is systematically used at a state-level. Karimov’s government has a psychology to force people to work either for free or for very cheap, which violates one of the central principles of the market economy – the rights and dignity of people. The word “lazy” (in Uzbek “dangasa” – Jarayon) implies a lack of human will, aspirations and movements to address the basic needs. But several million migrants from Uzbekistan do completely contrasting actions – they annually travel to Russia for the most vulnerable and hard work, while taking on many risks.

Several observations can be made in evaluations of Islam Karimov. First, president Karimov stressed that the political regime, built by him in the last quarter of a century, is a sophisticated dictatorship, devoid of any empathy for their citizens. Second, the president does not have any understanding of the real meaning of the word “lazy”.

In fact, a real “lazy” is Islam Karimov himself, who, being in power unlawfully, does not have knowledge about the real situation of millions of migrant workers, and does not work with the state apparatus to offer real protection for migrants. It is the state controlled by Karimov that fully and completely deserves to be called “lazy” and “disgusting” for controlling the society by means of force, violence, and not by means of innovative ideas and constant efforts to implement reforms, updates and improvements.

The head of the International human rights organization “Fiery Hearts Club”, Mutabar Tadjibayeva, believes that president Islam Karimov’s statement may have dangerous consequences for migrant workers, and become “an encouraging signal” to states and societies for further humiliation of Uzbek migrants.

International human rights organization
“Fiery Hearts Club”

Paris, France