Minsk police crack down on migrant workers from Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan

April 7, Pozirk. Police have arrested three men in Minsk for using forged documents to help migrants workers from Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan to legalize their stay in Belarus.

“For several years, three Belarusians, with the help of foreign citizens, organized illegal entry of migrants into our country and their stay here,” the interior ministry’s Telegram channel quoted senior police official Uładzimir Harahlad as saying.

The suspects submitted to state agencies “knowingly false documents from both fake and legal employers,” he noted.

They allegedly helped 210 foreigners receive Belarusian visas and temporary residence permits. About 100 foreigners who worked as cab drivers, laborers at markets and construction sites, were arrested and are to be deported, Harahlad said.

In July 2023, Belarus exempted companies from obtaining permits for foreign workers amid labor force shortages.

Also read: Belarus deports 23 foreigners over irregular border crossing