Migration Agency helped Uzbek citizens recover $850,000 in wage arrears over nine months

Nine-month results: appeals and recoveries

Over the first nine months of 2026, Uzbekistan's Migration Agency received from citizens working abroad 817 appeals, the agency's press service reported. The complaints concerned wage delays, document problems and other issues related to employment. Almost two-thirds of the appeals — 533 applications — came from Russia. They are followed by Turkey with 155 appeals and South Korea with 92; the remaining countries accounted for 37 complaints. According to the agency, thanks to its work migrants recovered a total of $850,000 in wage arrears from employers.

Return of documents

In addition to wage debts, the agency helped 532 compatriots get their personal documents back, which had been retained by intermediaries and employers. According to the Russian version of the Spot.uz article, 331 of these cases occurred in Russia, 185 in Turkey and 11 in Kazakhstan. The Uzbek-language version of the same publication additionally indicates 5 cases in South Korea, which are not mentioned in the Russian text; the discrepancy remains on the sources' side.

How to seek help

The agency recommended labor migrants who find themselves in difficult situations abroad to call the short number 1282. Complaints are also accepted around the clock via the Telegram bot @huquqiy_yordam_uzbot. The Uzbek-language version of the article adds that in the first seven months of the year migrants had already managed to recover $570,000 — meaning that in August and September the amount grew by roughly another $280,000 (editorial calculation based on the publication's data).

A precedent in Russia

In April 2026, the agency reported a large debt owed by a Russian employer to a group of Uzbek citizens: the company owed 100 workers a total of 24 million rubles ($324,000 or 3.81 billion soums at the current exchange rate). Uzbekistan's Consulate General sent a note to Russian law enforcement agencies, after which a criminal case was opened against the company. The employers began repaying the debt and resumed food supplies to the workers.

Context

Earlier, Spot wrote that doctors and medical staff from Uzbekistan are being offered jobs in Europe with salaries starting at €1,800. These articles are not related to the current appeal statistics, but they illustrate that labor migration remains a focus of attention for the agency and the media.

Why it matters

The figures show the scale of the problems Uzbek labor migrants face abroad: two-thirds of the complaints are linked to Russia, and wage debts run into hundreds of thousands of dollars. In practical terms, this means that citizens in difficult situations have concrete channels of assistance — the 1282 number and the Telegram bot, both operating around the clock — and the agency has demonstrated its ability to secure the recovery of funds and the return of documents, including criminal prosecution of unscrupulous employers. It remains unknown, however, what share of the total number of violations these 817 appeals reflect and how many cases remain unresolved.