Orenburg mayor Albert Yumadilov said the city had considered hiring citizens of North Korea as street cleaners, but abandoned the idea because of the level of pay they expected.
“As far as I know, workers from North Korea would not come for 55,000 rubles. Their wage level there is 2 to 3 times higher. Of course, their efficiency is also higher, they work like robots, I saw it with my own eyes, they really are like robots… But we simply cannot afford them in terms of salary,” the Orenburg outlet 1743.ru quoted Yumadilov as saying.
According to the mayor, the city’s housing and коммунal services sector already employs migrants from Senegal. The first 10 street cleaners from that African country arrived in Orenburg in April.
Yumadilov said that 31 Senegalese nationals are now working as street cleaners in the city, and that another four are expected to arrive soon. He spoke highly of the quality and productivity of their work.
Context
Russia actively recruited workers from North Korea until 2018, issuing more than 10,000 work visas a year to DPRK citizens. Later, the UN tightened sanctions against Pyongyang and, among other measures, banned the use of North Korean labor abroad. Russia complied with that requirement for several years, the report says.
After the start of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, the BBC Russian Service reported in 2025 that the Russian authorities had again begun actively bringing in workers from North Korea. According to the BBC, they enter the country on student visas to bypass the UN ban, work in conditions described as slave-like, remain under constant surveillance by DPRK security personnel, and cannot receive their earnings until they return home.