Uzbekistan new indd

part of the Uzbek state’s strategy to hamper labor 
migration.
rationales for the Abolishment of the Exit Visa
The Exit Visa Is Going against a Basic Human 
Right, the Freedom of Movement
The exit visa is a violation of the right to freedom of 
movement. In visa regulations are at odds not only 
with Uzbekistan’s international obligations, such as 
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), 
and the International Covenant on Civil and Political 
Rights, but also with its own constitution, whose 
Article 28 states that “a citizen of the Republic of 
Uzbekistan has the right to freedom of movement 
across the state, to enter the Republic of Uzbekistan 
and exit from it, except for in cases restricted by law.”
The Exit Visa Is a Political Tool Against Human 
Right Activists
The exit visa is also used to prevent human rights ac-
tivists from engaging in international activity or, sim-
ply, going abroad. At the end of 2013, for instance, 
Surat Ikramov, the leader of the Independent Human 
Rights Workers Initiative (IGNPU), was prevented 
from leaving the country for an Organization for 
Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) confer-
ence.
48
 He told Uznews.net that he was not allowed to 
board his flight to Istanbul because he did not have 
an extension for his exit visa for Uzbekistan.
49
The Exit Visa Fails to Combat Human Trafficking
The exit visa has not helped in the fight against hu-
man trafficking. According to the International 
Migration Organization (IMO), in 2011, Uzbekistan 
was ranked fifth in countries of origin for victims of 
human trafficking. It had 292 recorded victims (the 
undocumented numbers are probably at least of sev-
eral thousand more), falling behind only Ukraine 
(835), Haiti (709), Yemen (378), and Laos (3 5 9).
50
 
The most immigrants falling under the trafficking 
category are women who travel to the CIS states 
(Russia, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan) and to Turkey, 
Thailand, UAE, and Israel.
51
 Most of them are recruit-
ed by private tour agencies or bridal agencies, and are 
45 “Data on migration situation in the Russian Federation in 2012,” Federal Migration Service of the Russian Federation, http://www.fms.gov.ru/
about/statistics/data/.
46 “International Migration 2013: Migrants by Origin and Destination,” UN Department of Social and Economic Affairs, Population Division, http://
www.un.org/en/ga/68/meetings/migration/pdf/International%20Migration%202013_Migrants%20 by%20origin%20and%20destination.pdf.
47 D. Trilling, “Uzbekistan’s President Attacks ‘Lazy’ Labor Migrants,” Eurasianet, January 21, 2013, http://www.eurasianet.org/node/67157.
48 “Surat Ikramov prevented from leaving the country to attend OSCE conference,” UzNews, October 24, 2013, accessed at http://www.uznews.net/
news_single.php?lng=en&cid=3&nid=24166.
49 Ibid.
50 “Case Data on Human Trafficking,” IOM.
51 Ibid.

---

Yevgenia Pak
106
taken abroad illegally under the promise of high-
ly paid jobs as bartenders, dancers, babysitters, etc. 
The overly optimistic numbers reported by Uzbek 
law enforcement agencies say they conducted 1,013 
trafficking investigations and 531 trafficking cases in 
2012 (compared with 951 investigations and 444 cas-
es in 2011).
52
However, the State Department’s annual Global 
Trafficking in Persons report for 2012 downgraded 
Uzbekistan to the lowest category, Tier 3. Although 
in 2008, Uzbekistan presented a written plan to bring 
itself into compliance with the minimum standards 
for the elimination of trafficking, it failed to at-
tain the standard set by Congress in the Trafficking 
Victims Protection Act (TVPA).
53
 In the 2011 and 
2012 TIP reports, Uzbekistan was granted consecu-
tive waivers from an otherwise required downgrade 
to Tier 3 based on the 2008 plan. TVPA authorizes 
a maximum of two consecutive waivers. A waiver is 
no longer available to Uzbekistan, which is therefore 
deemed to be not making significant efforts to com-
ply with minimum standards.
54