Immigrants from Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan face discrimination, violence, and arbitrary arrests in Russia. Despite a labor shortage, authorities are fueling anti-migrant sentiment, and security forces are increasingly forcing foreigners to join the army to fight against Ukraine. This is reported by Associated Press, writes UNN.
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According to the AP material, an immigrant from Uzbekistan entered a Moscow bank, but the cashier refused to serve him without explanation. For him and hundreds of thousands of other natives from poor Central Asian countries, such hostility in Russia has become commonplace. According to migrants, it manifests itself at every step - from hospitals and government agencies to bank queues, and sometimes escalates into outright violence.
The incitement of xenophobia is taking place against the backdrop of a severe labor shortage in Russia. According to the Central Bank, more than 20% of enterprises in the first quarter of 2025 complained about a shortage of personnel. At the same time, instead of easing employment conditions, the authorities are tightening control over migrants, restricting their rights, and complicating children's access to education. According to official data, there are 6.1 million foreigners in Russia, but the real number is much higher.
After the terrorist attack in a Moscow concert hall in March 2024, which killed 149 people, the wave of violence against migrants sharply increased. Despite the fact that ISIS claimed responsibility, and arrested citizens of Tajikistan appeared in court with signs of torture, the Russian authorities tried to shift the blame to Ukraine.
Human rights activist Valentina Chupik reported that in the first eight days after the tragedy alone, she received 700 reports of migrants being beaten. Human Rights Watch notes in its annual report that ethnic profiling, police raids, arbitrary arrests, and torture have become common practice.
Violence is accompanied by new forms of pressure. In April, the police staged a humiliating raid in a Moscow bathhouse, forcing half-naked visitors to crawl on the floor. Often, detainees are forced to join the Russian army under threat of deportation, deprivation of documents, or even imprisonment. Some are offered accelerated citizenship in exchange for service at the front.
The head of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, Alexander Bastrykin, stated in May that "20,000 young Russian citizens from Central Asia" are already fighting against Ukraine. For many of them, this was not a choice, but the only way to avoid persecution.
Experts warn: although some of the violence has subsided, the Kremlin's anti-migrant policy is only intensifying, and it is people from Central Asia who have been hit the hardest.