US deports 44 Uzbek nationals on charter flight to Tashkent

A charter flight carrying Uzbek nationals deported from the United States arrived in Tashkent on the evening of 21 January, returning 44 citizens who had been residing in the country illegally.

According to Foreign Ministry spokesperson Akhror Burkhanov, the flight was organized in cooperation with relevant US authorities to ensure the safe and timely repatriation of Uzbek citizens. He said cooperation aimed at protecting the rights of Uzbek nationals abroad and facilitating their return home is ongoing.

Aviation tracking services show that the flight was operated by a Boeing 767-300 belonging to the US charter airline Omni Air International, which also carried out a similar deportation flight on 10 October.

The aircraft departed from El Paso, Texas, near the US–Mexico border, at 6:50 a.m. local time on 20 January (6:50 p.m. Tashkent time). It made several stopovers during the journey, resulting in a total travel time of more than 24 hours.

The first stop was in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where the plane landed at 12:30 p.m. local time (10:30 p.m. Tashkent time) before departing again at 2:43 p.m. It then arrived in Bucharest, Romania, at 5:33 a.m. local time on 21 January (8:33 a.m. Tashkent time), before continuing to Zvartnots International Airport near Yerevan, Armenia, at 1:39 p.m. (2:39 p.m. Tashkent time).

The aircraft departed Armenia at 3:39 p.m. local time (4:39 p.m. Tashkent time) and landed in Tashkent at 7:21 p.m., completing a journey that lasted more than a full day.