The agreement reached by the Uzbekistan Migration Agency to open an official representative office in the Croatian capital, Zagreb, was presented to the public as another "great achievement." However, if one analyzes the real figures in this part of Europe, the labor market conditions, and the agency's track record, it becomes clear that this decision is driven more by administrative populism than economic logic.
If the number of migrants is compared with the costs of the new structure, it becomes evident that the economic efficiency is extremely low:
• Small quotas: The agency is working with the Croatian Employment Service to place only 50–100 specialists as an initial pilot project in the construction sector.
• Small total contingent: The number of official workers in Serbia barely exceeds 1,000, and there is an agreement for only 1,500 jobs with Slovenia.
• High administrative costs: Rent in Zagreb (within the EU), the maintenance of staff with diplomatic status, vehicles, and operational expenses will cost the Uzbekistan budget (i.e., taxpayers) tens of thousands of euros per year. Maintaining an entire separate state structure for just a few hundred or thousand workers is economically completely unjustified. The same task could have been solved with lower costs through labor attachés at existing Uzbek embassies in Europe.
Today, the optimization of public administration and the saving of budget funds have been elevated to the level of state policy in Uzbekistan. Under such conditions, the Migration Agency's creation of new staff positions and buildings abroad contradicts the spirit of general reforms. Exercising control remotely, through digital technologies or by concluding outsourcing contracts with authorized legal companies abroad, would be a more modern and cheaper solution.
In conclusion
Opening an Agency office in Zagreb is not a magic wand that will fundamentally solve the problems of Uzbek citizens in Croatia. It is an administrative step that does not correspond to the real volume of labor, is economically inefficient, and serves more for reporting purposes. It would be appropriate for the Agency to focus on reducing bureaucracy within the country and establishing direct, transparent digital connections with European employers before opening new offices abroad.
