Scholz signs migration agreement with Uzbekistan

Status: 15.09.2024 18:51

Workers are also expected to come to Germany from Uzbekistan. Chancellor Scholz signed a corresponding agreement on site. The visit to Uzbekistan is the start of a three-day trip to the region.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) visited Uzbekistan at the start of his trip to Central Asia. In the trading city of Samarkand, he and Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser (SPD) signed an agreement for closer cooperation in managing migration to Germany. It is intended to facilitate the influx of skilled workers, particularly in the care and health sector, and the repatriation of Uzbeks without the right to remain in Germany. The latter, however, only involves around 200 people.

Just last Friday, a similar migration agreement was signed with Kenya in Berlin. Similar agreements have long been in place with India, Georgia, Morocco and Colombia. Negotiations are already well advanced with Moldova and Kyrgyzstan, and talks are also underway with the Philippines and Ghana.

The agreements always concern the deportation of persons without the right to remain and the recruitment of skilled workers for the German labor market.

Olaf Scholz is presented with a bouquet of flowers upon his arrival in Uzbekistan.

Close relations with China and Russia

Scholz began his visit to Samarkand with a walk through the Registan, one of the most magnificent squares in Asia. There he also visited the Tilla Kori Mosque from the 17th century.

The country, with a population of around 36 million, has been opening up to the West for years. Under President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, it has implemented a number of liberal reforms, privatized parts of its state economy and thus attracted investors. Economic growth of over five percent is expected this year alone – thanks in part to the close trade relations with China and Russia.

As a neighbouring country of Afghanistan, Uzbekistan is also one of the countries that could help with the deportation of criminals to Afghanistan. However, it is still unclear “whether and within what time frame this will materialise in practice,” according to government sources.

On Monday, Scholz will travel on to Kazakhstan, the largest and economically strongest country in Central Asia. A summit meeting is planned there with all five states in the region located between Russia and China, which also include Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan.

Scholz wants to expand relations with these countries and agreed a strategic partnership with them in Berlin a year ago, focusing on the economy, energy, climate and environment. This partnership is now to be brought to life.

Kazakh oil for Schwedt

The raw material deposits in the Central Asian states are of particular interest to Germany. Kazakhstan, the region’s strongest economy, is already supplying the refinery in Schwedt, Brandenburg, with oil and is compensating for the cut in Russian supplies.

However, the authoritarian states in the region have come under international criticism for human rights violations. Gas-rich Turkmenistan, for example, is considered an isolated dictatorship similar to North Korea. The human rights organization Human Rights Watch called on Scholz to openly address grievances before the trip.

source site

Related Articles