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Russia Imports Workers From Senegal to Fill Jobs Locals Won’t Take
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Authorities in the Russian city of Orenburg are set to bring in at least 70 workers from Senegal to fill municipal cleaning jobs amid a shortage of local labor, Mayor Albert Yumadilov said on April 14.
According to The Moscow Times on April 14, the mayor stated that the first group of 10 Senegalese workers arrived in Orenburg on April 12 and is ready to begin work. An additional 25 are expected to arrive next week, with the remaining workers due shortly after.
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The workers will be officially employed by city services, provided with housing, and supported by a French-speaking interpreter, while also taking part in Russian language courses as part of an adaptation program.
Yumadilov said the city had significantly expanded vacancies in municipal services but failed to attract local applicants.
“We have increased the number of vacancies in our municipal enterprises fourfold. But there are no people willing to work as janitors, cleaners, tree trimmers, and so on. I do not hide that migrants will receive 55,000 rubles (approximately $580). We offered the same salary to Orenburg residents, worked with employment centers, including in rural areas of the region. The result is zero. Local residents are not willing to work with a shovel and collect garbage on the streets,” he said.
He added that the decision to recruit foreign workers was made out of necessity. According to regional statistics, the average salary in Orenburg region stood at around $810 in 2025.
The mayor said the request for a quota to hire foreign workers was submitted in November 2025. The Senegalese workers are expected to work six days a week, including during winter conditions, as reported by The Moscow Times.
According to Yumadilov, the migrants will be assigned to more difficult areas of the city, including informal dumping sites, and will not work in central streets or residential courtyards. Contracts with the Senegalese workers are expected to run until April 2027.
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The situation also reflects broader labor challenges involving foreign workers in Russia. In the Far East, Chinese construction workers recently staged protests over unpaid wages.
Several dozen employees of the Petro-Hehua company gathered for a second consecutive day near the Komsomolsk-on-Amur oil refinery, where they had been working on a hydrocracking project linked to Rosneft. Russian security forces reportedly limited access to their residential compound during the demonstrations.
Local officials acknowledged that the protests were aimed at drawing attention to delayed salary payments. Komsomolsk-on-Amur city head Dmitry Zaplutayev said the workers were seeking to highlight the issue of unpaid wages, while prosecutors announced an investigation into the reported arrears.
The reliance on foreign labor is also becoming visible in other sectors, including healthcare. Russian media have reported the first known case of a North Korean doctor working in the country, suggesting a potential expansion of recruitment efforts amid a shortage of medical personnel.
According to reports, the practitioner, identified as Kim Myong Su, is employed at a Moscow clinic known as “Golden Fish,” which specializes in traditional Eastern medicine. The clinic has published his professional background and shared video materials outlining his treatment methods.
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