Turkmen labour migrants are increasingly heading to Uzbekistan, Belarus and Kazakhstan as an alternative to Turkey.

Turkmen have long left their natural gas rich, but economically underdeveloped, country seeking better opportunities, with Turkey being their preferred destination. But Turkmen and Turkish officials have collaborated in recent years to discourage migration to Turkey. As a result, growing numbers of would-be guest workers are heading in other directions.

Turkmen now make up about two-thirds of economic migrants in Uzbekistan, RFE/RL reported in January, and in Belarus, the migrant flow from Turkmenistan jumped eight-fold to become Minsk’s leading source of foreign labourers in 2024, reported Chronicles of Turkmenistan, an opposition-affiliated media outlet.

Anecdotally, migrants are increasingly packing their bags for Kazakhstan as well, Chronicles reported earlier in May. “Turkmen authorities, despite the vast potential of the country, can’t provide for people at least to the level of neighbouring governments,” Chronicles quoted one Turkmen migrant as saying.

Slightly more than 200,000 Turkmen citizens live in Turkey, according to the Turkish migration service. Thousands more are there illegally. 

Turkmenistan has gone to great lengths to stop the outflow, however.  In 2022, at Ashgabat’s request, Turkey cancelled its visa-free regime for Turkmen, and the following year Ankara tightened rules covering Turkmen migrants. Lately, Turkmen authorities have stopped renewing or replacing passports of their citizens in Turkey, Human Rights Watch documented.

Since 2018, when there was a spike in enforcement, Turkey has detained more than 70,000 illegal Turkmen migrants, according to the Ministry of Interior.

Turkey has also deported several Turkmen opposition figures at the behest of Ashgabat – most recently arresting two critical bloggers, Turkmen.News reported. Turkmenistan has, in some cases, refused to allow Turkmen women to rejoin their husbands in Turkey after they visited family back home, RFE/RL reported earlier this year. 

Meanwhile, Turkey and Turkmenistan have been strengthening economic relations. In March, Turkey inked a natural gas deal with Turkmenistan that will eventually see 2bn cubic metres of gas flow to Turkey each year.

The increasingly tough conditions for Turkmen nationals in Turkey have heightened Uzbekistan’s and Belarus’ attractiveness as labour migration destinations.

Between January and October of 2024, Turkmen made up two-thirds of those travelling to Uzbekistan for commerce and trade, with about 89,000 Turkmen visiting over that period, according to RFE/RL.

Uzbekistan is no longer seen as a poor country, and many of the migrants are women who work in the service industry in Tashkent, the outlet reported.

In 2024, 16,300 Turkmen entered Belarus, in large part thanks to migration reforms the country undertook in 2023 that made it easier for foreign workers to obtain legal status, according to Chronicles.

Russia also remains a prominent destination for Turkmen migrants, but it is difficult to discern a trend. Tens of thousands of Turkmen travel to Russia each year and the number of labour migrants in Russia was relatively small but growing after Turkey cancelled its visa-free regime in 2022, according to Migration Observatory, a monitoring initiative operated by the Prague Process. But there have been reports of Turkmen returning home due to discrimination and an official crackdown on foreign labourers over the last year.

Alexander Thompson is a journalist based in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, reporting on current events across Central Asia. He previously worked for American newspapers, including the Charleston, S.C., Post and Courier and The Boston Globe.

This article first appeared on Eurasianet here.