‘You will become a vagrant yourself’: Tashkent officers told to find vagrants (video)

On April 6, audio and video recordings circulated on social media allegedly showing an official from the Olmazor district Department for the Coordination of Internal Affairs Bodies in Tashkent instructing prevention inspectors to find vagrants and draw up administrative reports against them.

“Prevention inspectors, I am telling you again, one more time: the vagrancy figures are at zero, shameless. Are there no vagrants in Olmazor district? You keep letting vagrants go without drawing up reports. Where are the vagrants now?” the official says in the recording.

The audio also suggests that if no vagrants can be found, officers should classify even their relatives as vagrants and formalize administrative reports against them.

“The reports are all at zero. Every category is at zero: vagrancy, administrative reports, administrative supervision. What is wrong with you, shameless? Can even one of you produce a vagrant? Take your relative, lock him up, and label him a vagrant. You will become a vagrant yourself,” he says.

In addition, the official says there is only one hour left and that the number of reports must be raised to 500.

“Prevention inspectors, we have one hour left. The count will be checked soon. I do not want to go there. Come on, let’s push now, we have reached 300. We still need 200 more reports. Everyone, get out into the streets. Go, all of you. We have one hour left. Everyone get outside. There is a meeting going on, they are speaking, objections are being raised,” he says.

In another video, the same official appears to say that he had promised to produce 300 administrative reports.

“Prevention inspectors, I have just given my word. I need to make it 300 by 12:00. Now, my friends, if I offend any of you, do not be upset. All of you, move quickly, everyone go out now. I will go myself as well,” he says.

The Tashkent City Main Department of Internal Affairs later commented on the incident. According to the statement, an internal review is under way into the actions of the head of the Crime Prevention Department under the Olmazor district Department for the Coordination of Internal Affairs Bodies.

The department also said that over the past three months, 283 vagrants and 210 people engaged in begging had been identified in Tashkent, and legal measures had been taken against them.

“At the same time, we inform you that the Tashkent City Main Department of Internal Affairs has not assigned any employee a requirement to fulfill any kind of ‘quota’ in this area. However, it remains their duty to identify individuals disturbing public order. We ask the media to be objective on this issue and not to look for faults in internal affairs officers who are carrying out their duties in any and all situations,” the statement said.