The Russiaт Ministry of Labor and Social Protection proposeв to lift the limit on the number of migrants from Uzbekistan who can enter the Russian Federation as part of a pilot foreign labour employment project, Kommersant said.

In October last year, the Russian government announced the start of testing a new mechanism for admitting foreign labor into the country. Under a special agreement with the government of Uzbekistan, a pilot project was launched, which involved hiring 10,000 Uzbeks to the Russian Federation to work in the construction industry and agro-industrial enterprises.

Russian construction companies had to report to the Ministry of Construction about their need for foreign workers through a special application, but the patent was not tied to a specific employer. According to the new mechanism, a foreign citizen will work for a specific employer who has issued a work permit for a visiting employee, the newspaper writes.

This, however, does not lift the current restriction on hiring foreigners in the form of quotas for various sectors of the economy. However, the ministry proposed to remove sectoral restrictions. Now only companies from the construction industry, as well as (since February) from the agro-industrial complex, can participate in the project.

The 1,100 people limit on hiring workers for the agro-industrial complex was set in February. The Ministry of Agriculture expected to increase this figure in the future. According to estimates, the sectors most dependent on attracting foreign labor are vegetable growing, horticulture, poultry farming, dairy farming, as well as the food and processing industry. In 2021, the need for seasonal workers in the agro-industrial complex was estimated at 38.2 thousand people.

Kommersant, citing the First Deputy Minister of Employment and Labor Relations of Uzbekistan Erkin Mukhitdinov, reported that the Uzbek side had already begun to select workers for the Russian agro-industrial complex.

In early April, the Agency for External Labor Migration under the Ministry of Labor of Uzbekistan reported that 133,000 labor migrants had returned to Uzbekistan from Russia since the beginning of the year, 50,000 of them in March. A survey of Uzbeks working in Russia showed that 60% of respondents do not plan to return yet.