In January 2026, within just one day, two Uzbek migrant women were murdered, their bodies dismembered and dumped in garbage containers across Istanbul, Turkiye. Weeks later, another Uzbek woman’s body was found in western Turkiye. In all of these cases, the suspects are Uzbek men, revealing the systemic and multilayered vulnerability of Central Asian female migrant workers abroad. 

Parts of the body of a 37-year-old Uzbek citizen, Durdona Khakimova, were found by a scrap collector in one of the garbage containers in the Duatepe neighborhood on January 24. The head was missing. Khakimova worked at a hunting and sports equipment shop and her two daughters attended a lyceum in Turkiye. 

31-year-old Dilshod Akhrol Ugli Turdimurotov and 29-year-old Gofurjon Akmalkhonoviych Kamalkhodaev, both also Uzbek citizens, were arrested as suspects when they were leaving for Georgia through Istanbul airport. 

The details of Khakimova’s murder case are confusing, differing dramatically between what the suspects claim and what her friends and family believe. 

Turdimurotov reportedly told the investigators that he had been in a romantic relationship with Khakimova and killed her during a fight by stabbing her four times in the back. 

“I stabbed her. Later, my friend and I cut the body into pieces, placed the parts in bags and put them in a suitcase. We took a taxi to Şişli and threw the parts into different trash containers,” he reportedly said.

A 58-year-old Turkish taxi driver, Ekrem K. was also arrested but released under judicial supervision as the police are yet to determine if he had known what the packages contained. 

The romantic relationship and the fight ending in a murder do not seem very believable to Khakimova’s friends and family, let alone the other details of the case. Turkish prosecutors report that the suspects removed jewelry from Khakimova. Khakimova’s close friend, Murat Baskan, took to social media, claiming that Khakimova was helping the two suspects find a job in Turkiye at the request of one of the suspects’ mothers. 

Informal support networks are common among migrant workers, who often rely on one another for job placement, relocation, and navigating life abroad. Khakimova’s husband, Erhan Dursun, does not believe his wife cheated on him. Dursun said that on the day of her murder, his wife went to the suspects’ apartment with her stepson. The boy waited outside while she went in; she never came back out.

“My wife does not cheat on me at all, I believe 100 percent. If she intended to cheat, she would not have gone there with my son,” said Dursun in an interview with local Turkish media.

During the investigation, Khakimova’s friend, 32-year-old Sayyora Ergasheva, another Uzbek migrant woman, was also found to have been killed by the same suspects at the same place, reportedly, half a day before Khakimova.

The body of one more Uzbek migrant woman, Dilafruz Cholliyeva was found on February 28, in the rural Çamdibi neighborhood, Balıkesir. The 46-year-old woman from Samarkand had been missing for over a month and was last seen with an Uzbek citizen named Ilyaz, 44. Because her body was unrecognizable, a DNA test was conducted with samples from her son. Apart from Ilyaz, three other men were arrested. All four are reportedly Uzbek citizens.

These cases highlight the risks Uzbek (and by extension other Central Asian) female migrants face abroad. Exact statistics are hard to track due to the seasonal nature of migrant labor and unofficial employment arrangements. In 2025, 1.3 million Uzbeks were reported to be working abroad. Of them 20 percent were women. The real numbers are likely higher. Most Uzbek labor migrants work in Russia, Kazakhstan, South Korea, and Turkiye. Women labor migrants in Turkiye often engage in caregiving and domestic work. In 2025, over 58,000 Uzbek citizens were living in Turkiye, although how many of them were working is unknown. 

“Many Uzbek women come to Turkiye to work, and first of all they are recognized as workers in domestic services,” said Feruza Shokirova, an activist and lecturer at Antalya Bilim University who is originally from Uzbekistan, in an interview with The Diplomat. “And many [Turkish] people say, ‘An Uzbek works in my home.’ This is not because they look down on them, but because of the large number of Uzbek women working here. And of course, [there are many] Uzbek brides. Uzbek brides have for many years been competing with Syrians for first place.”

Uzbekistan heavily depends on remittances from labor migrants – without these remittances, the poverty rate would increase from the official 9.6 percent to 16.8 percent. Not only do labor migrants sustain themselves, but they often help their immediate and extended family by providing financial support and, frequently, by helping other friends and family finding jobs abroad. In 2017, migrant workers sent $4.9 billion to Uzbekistan, contributing the equivalent of 6.8 percent of the country’s GDP. This number increased to $14.8 billion (12.2 percent of GDP) in 2024. Uzbek female labor migrants reportedly sent about $3 billion home in 2024 alone. 

Tashkent has taken action to protect migrant workers’ rights abroad and diversify destination countries, mostly focusing on European or other developed countries. However, the major destinations remain the same – Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkiye, and South Korea. Europe expects skilled migrants with some fluency in their languages. Visa regulations are strict and getting there undocumented is difficult. Tashkent is pursuing bilateral agreements to organize work arrangements for its citizens in developed countries. In visa-free countries, informal arrangements are more common – labor migrants rely on friends and family for relocation, job hunting, rent, and documentation processes. 

“There are [in Turkiye] many undocumented migrants, and since more women are coming, I assume women make up the majority,” explained Shokirova. “In 2021, 4,817 Uzbeks were detained and deported for being undocumented; by 2025, this number had risen to 13,689. And in 2025, we ranked third after Afghanistan and Syria.” Shokirova attributed the increase not only to the growing number of migrants, but also to intensified inspections resulting from shifts in policies toward foreigners.

Although Turkiye has protection mechanisms against violence against women and other forms of crime, undocumented workers fear seeking help from law enforcement, and sometimes not knowing the local language also creates an extra layer of difficulty in seeking help.

“The fact that these cases became so high-profile was entirely due to the [three murdered] women having legal status. Their legality played a major role both in identifying them and in apprehending the suspects. If they had been undocumented, their identities might not have been established, and their killers might have escaped,” Shokirova said. “There are so many unidentified bodies found here whose identities remain unknown. We do not know, perhaps some of them could even be our fellow citizens.”

News about Khakimova’s killing caused a wave of protests in Istanbul and Ankara. While Khakimova’s murder reminds the public of another similar killing where an 18-year-old girl was murdered, decapitated, and thrown into a garbage container, there is also a link with a broader pattern of femicide, where systemic impunity of criminals breeds further violence. Reportedly, nearly 400 women were killed in Turkiye in 2025 alone. There are no officially reported numbers of femicide victims in Uzbekistan, but in 2021, the United Nations World Population Prospects and the UNODC estimated 179 women were killed that year. 

How many Uzbek women become victims of femicide abroad is unknown, but every now and then, news outlets report on an Uzbek woman killed by her husband in Turkiye, stabbed to death by an acquaintance in Russia, shot by her ex-husband in the U.S., strangled by her husband in England, killed and dismembered by her husband in Turkiye, and so on. 

Even abroad, femicide victims are mostly killed by men close to them.

“For me these cases illustrate both the transboundary nature of gender-based violence and a well-documented global pattern: women are most often killed by men close to them: husbands, intimate partners, or other family members,” explained Svetlana Dzardanova, a gender and human rights expert based in Bishkek, in an interview with The Diplomat. “This dynamic persists across borders. Migration can, in fact, exacerbate women’s vulnerability. Abroad, women often rely on significantly reduced support networks, face language barriers, insecure legal or migration status, and limited access to protection mechanisms. Such isolation can increase dependency on abusive partners and make it more difficult to seek help.”

“How states respond in such cases is very important (both in the country of origin and in the host country),” continued Dzardanova. “Their actions must send a clear message that the killing of women is unacceptable and will be prosecuted. This includes demonstrating effective cross-border cooperation, ensuring that cases are properly investigated, and making clear that perpetrators cannot evade accountability by moving between jurisdictions.”

“In Turkiye, NGOs working on women’s issues are quite active, and Uzbek associations are also being organized here. In particular, in the cases of these three women, they were actively involved and brought the murders of Uzbek women onto the public agenda in Turkiye,” added Shokirova, referring to Uzbek Women’s Rights Association, a group that actively helps Uzbek women in Turkiye who find themselves in difficult situations. 

Despite widespread coverage of such cases in Turkish news outlets, Uzbek media refrains from open reporting about suspects, including their names. Major local news outlets almost exclusively speak about Uzbek citizens being suspects and rarely mention their names or initials (see for example Kun.uz; Qalampir.uz). Only few outlets report the full names of the suspects (see for example Gazeta.uz).

“This observation is consistent with the findings of our recent research on femicide reporting in Uzbekistan, where we show that only a fraction of media reports disclose the full names of victims and perpetrators,” told Dzardanova. “This lack of personal information or ‘depersonalization’ as we call it has several important consequences. First, it contributes to the desensitization of the public: when cases lack personal detail, they risk being perceived as abstract, isolated incidents rather than as part of a broader, systemic pattern of gender-based violence. Second, withholding information about perpetrators may limit public scrutiny, and weaken the accountability function of the media. Holistic and responsible reporting is essential because media narratives play a key role in shaping how society understands femicide.  It also enables researchers, activists, and policymakers to systematically document and track cases, identify patterns, and ultimately inform more effective prevention and policy responses.” 

Khakimova’s body was returned to Uzbekistan along with her children on January 30. Ergashaliyeva’s body parts remain missing. According to the Uzbek Women’s Rights Association, 400,000 tons of garbage have been inspected to find her remains. Her family still hopes to have her body brought to Uzbekistan and buried. 

This research was supported by a Marie Curie Staff Exchange within the Horizon Europe Programme (CARSI, no: 101086415)