Head of foreign labor migration agency arrested

Afzal Ermatov, head of the Foreign Labor Migration Agency, is suspected of committing a crime under Article 205 (abuse of official power) of the Criminal Code. He was remanded in custody. This information was confirmed by a Kun.uz source in the government.

The press secretary of the agency, Ortikkhodja Norov confirmed that his head has not been at work since January, and noted that he does not have information about the criminal case and the proposed accusation.

According to foreign publications, the criminal case opened against officials of the Migration Agency was initiated by the State Security Service, and on January 3, a search was conducted in the agency’s building. Three more officials were summoned for interrogation as part of the criminal case, some of them were arrested.

Earlier this year, the head of the department responsible for overseeing the Migration Agency in the Ministry of Employment and Labor Relations was arrested. He was suspected of defrauding migrants by overcharging them for air tickets.

It is known that the arrests in the agency and the imprisonment of the ministerial official are related to the exposure of the corruption scheme that was launched while sending citizens to work in South Korea. However, neither the Ministry of Labor nor the investigative body has made any statement about it.

The PGO information service stated that whoever initiated the criminal case against the officials of the Foreign Labor Migration Agency should provide information, and at the moment there is no such case in the work of the prosecutor’s office.

From 2010 to 2013, Afzal Ermatov, who worked as a manager at the Foreign Labor Migration Agency and returned to this position in March 2022, was arrested in 2018 under Paragraph “a” of Article 168-3 (fraud) and Paragraph “a” of Article 211-3 (bribery in a large amount) of the Criminal Code, and he was imposed a fine.

He was appointed acting chief from March 17, 2022, and officially became a full chief from November 1, 2022. Earlier, Kun.uz drew attention to the fact that there was no information about his resignation as an acting head. According to the law that came into force on November 8, individuals who have been found guilty of a previous corruption crime cannot be admitted to the state civil service.

Afzal Ermatov is the seventh head of the Migration Agency in 5 years.

In March and April 2017, following the conflict observed during the tests conducted on the registration of applicants for work in South Korea, the head of the agency at that time, Ulugbek Nazarov, left his post. In the spring of 2018, Khojibakhlil Asamov was appointed to replace him. Later, Asomov vacated his post to Ravshan Ibragimov. However, after he was arrested, at the end of 2019, Bakhtiyor Tursunov came to the agency. He left his post in the summer of 2020 and was replaced by Muhammadzokir Mamakhonov. After Muhammadzokir Mamatkhonov started working as the governor of Uychi district of Namangan region in February 2021, Khayrulla Umarov was appointed to head the agency.