Scholz, Mirziyoyev ink migration deal in Uzbekistan

Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz has signed a migration agreement with Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev on the first day of his three-day trip to Central Asia.

The bilateral deal, which was signed in the ancient Silk Road city of Samarkand, is intended to ease the entry of skilled workers from Uzbekistan to Germany, particularly those working in the healthcare sector.

The agreement will also speed up and simplify the repatriation of Uzbeks living in Germany without a legal residence permit.

The German press agency dpa estimates around 13,700 Uzbek nationals currently live in Germany and while the vast majority do so legally, around 200 are reportedly eligible for repatriation.

“With our agreement on migration and mobility signed today in Samarkand in Uzbekistan, we are enabling people with great talents to enter our country. Also, we committed to unbureaucratic processes so that those who cannot stay in our country must go back,” Scholz said in a post on X.

Scholz and Mirziyoyev signed seven other agreements covering areas such as sustainable water resource management and a critical minerals partnership.

Scholz will head to Kazakhstan on Monday and his talks there are expected to focus on oil and gas supplies to Germany and also on sanctions on Russia since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The Central Asian republics are traditionally close to Moscow and Astana has been accused of enabling Russia to circumvent trade restrictions.

But Scholz’s trip has also attracted criticism.

While he is in Kazakhstan, he’s expected to attend a summit with the heads of all five former Soviet republics (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan), the first German Chancellor to do so.

International watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW) says that summit would be a wasted opportunity if Scholz didn’t raise alleged human rights shortcomings in all five countries.

“The German government cannot pretend closer ties with Central Asia are possible without a significant improvement in human rights in the region. The upcoming summit offers a chance to make this clear,” HRW said in a statement.

The watchdog cited persistent human rights abuses in the region including the, “suppression of the rights to protest and express opinions, including online, jailing of activists, torture in detention, crackdowns on civil society, violence against women, impunity for abusive security forces, and a lack of free and fair elections.”