HRW Report: Central Asian Migrants in Russia Face Ethnic Profiling, Arbitrary Arrest - and Military Coercion as the Alternative to Prison

A 63-page Human Rights Watch report published on March 17, 2025 documents a systematic pattern of xenophobic harassment, arbitrary detention, and coercive military recruitment targeting Central Asian migrants in Russia - primarily nationals of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan.

The report, titled "Living in Fear and Humiliation," is based on interviews conducted between September and November 2024. Its findings are directly relevant to understanding the conditions under which Central Asian nationals end up serving in the Russian Armed Forces.

Central Asian migrants seeking work in Russia face ethnic profiling, arbitrary arrests, and harassment by police and private actors, including far-right nationalist groups. Migrants are also subject to new, often abusive administrative restrictions.

The coercion-to-recruitment pipeline is documented explicitly. One interviewee, Daler Kurbanov, a Tajik national who has worked in Russia for ten years, described how police stops of Central Asian migrants routinely end in demands for bribes. When migrants cannot pay, they are taken to police precincts and held in overcrowded, unsanitary detention cells - until detainees are either able to pay their way out, or since 2022, agree to sign a military contract with Russia's Defense Ministry and get sent to fight the war with Ukraine.

This is not an isolated mechanism. As of June 2024, nearly 30,000 new Russian citizens of Central Asian descent have been registered for military service, with 10,000 deployed to occupied territories, according to Russian media. Non-citizen migrants have reported being duped into recruitment for the war effort under the guise of regular construction jobs or service contracts.

The March 2024 Crocus City Hall attack accelerated existing trends. Russian authorities deported 85,800 migrants - many from Central Asia - in the first six months of 2024, double the number for the same period in 2023. Raids, arbitrary arrests, prolonged detention, and mass deportations for minor infractions have become more frequent. Ultra-nationalist social media channels published videos of violence against Central Asians tagged as "Revenge for Crocus City Hall."

Meanwhile, Russian authorities introduced a new "expulsion regime" in 2024 that significantly curtails the civic rights of migrants, while Russian politicians and public figures continued to make racist statements with impunity.

"We feel in constant fear and danger. It's as if we are not humans, but criminals by default. And this attitude keeps us in permanent fear and humiliation, it's like we have no right to a dignified life," Daler Kurbanov told HRW.

The picture is clear: Russia treats Central Asian migrants as a disposable labor reserve in peacetime and as a conscription pool in wartime. The choice offered is not between a job and military service - it is between detention and the front line.

The "I Want to Live" project has documented over 13,000 Central Asian nationals serving in the Russian Armed Forces . Citizens of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan are among the largest groups of foreign nationals currently held as prisoners of war in Ukraine - people who, in many cases, did not choose to fight but were given no other option.

Source: Human Rights Watch