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Germany’s Scholz seals migration deal with Uzbekistan on Central Asia visit
Scholz will also attend summit in Kazakhstan with region’s five former Soviet republics, which are all heavily influenced by China and Russia
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German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Sunday signed a bilateral agreement on migration with Uzbekistan as he travelled to Central Asia for a three-day visit.
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The deal was signed in the ancient city of Samarkand and is intended to ease the entry of skilled workers from Uzbekistan to Germany, particularly in the care and health sectors.
It will also speed up the repatriation of Uzbeks in Germany without a legal residence permit. Of the 13,700 Uzbeks living in the country, only around 200 people are believed to be eligible for repatriation.
Bilateral agreements are a core component of the German coalition government’s migration policy, with the latest example coming on Friday in Berlin with the visit of Kenyan President William Ruto.
Scholz’s tour of Samarkand – a Unesco World Heritage List site and a key stop on the Silk Road – began with a walk along the Registan public square ahead of a visit to the 17th-century Tilla Kari Mosque.
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He is then expected to head to Kazakhstan, the largest country and strongest economy in the region, on Monday and Tuesday.
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