Uzbekistan to scrap unpopular exit visas by 2019

Legal amendment will scrap the unpopular system of Soviet-style exit visas

Uzbekistan's president Shavkat Mirziyoyev has signed legislation that from 2019 will allow citizens of the secretive ex-Soviet country to travel abroad freely for the first time, state media reported Wednesday.

The website of the Central Asian country's state broadcaster reported that a legal amendment scrapping the unpopular system of Soviet-style exit visas will go into effect from January 1, 2019.

Currently Uzbek citizens have to apply for exit visas from the authorities to leave the country, unless they are going to neighbouring ex-Soviet countries.

The authorities sometimes refuse such permission and applicants can face long delays without explanation.

The move will be seen as more evidence of a thaw under Mirziyoyev, 60, who took charge last year following the death of his autocratic predecessor Islam Karimov at 78.

Mirziyoyev previously served as prime minister under Karimov for 13 years.



The state broadcaster's report acknowledged that exit visas, which can take more than a month to process, "are a certain deterrent for the free movement of citizens of Uzbekistan."

Uzbekistan already allowed citizens to travel to several other ex-Soviet countries without requiring the exit visas, which are valid for two years.

The Soviet Union forced its citizens to apply for exit visas in an attempt to control emigration.

Ex-Communist Cuba only scrapped its exit visa policy in 2013, while Uzbekistan's former Soviet neighbour Turkmenistan removed exit visas in 2002.

North Korea has retained the system. Late last year Uzbekistan also said it was scrapping entry visas for citizens of 15 mostly Western countries wanting to visit from April 2017.



Weeks later however it backtracked, and now says the visa requirement will only be lifted in 2021.

While observers have praised a number of reforms in Uzbekistan aimed at reducing the authoritarian excesses seen under Karimov, the security services are still viewed as wielding tremendous power in the country.