A furniture factory in Transcarpathia really tried to involve 30 Bangladeshi citizens in its production, but none of them ever arrived at the enterprise because they could not obtain visas. Currently, new workers for the furniture factory will be sought with the help of the Ukrainian employment center.
Social network users, as well as Russian media, claim that in Ukraine, employers, who are «scared by the threat of mobilization» of employees, are allegedly going to replace Ukrainian workers with workers from Bangladesh. A video about 300 workers who have allegedly already arrived is also being spread.
«The minerals were sold to the USA, the country is being flooded with cheap labor from third countries. This is the aftertaste of the Maidan», propaganda claims.
The narrative that Ukraine will be filled with migrants, since the country has practically no workers left due to the war, is one of the most common in Russian propaganda.
This time, they spread a manipulation that is however based on real information. A furniture factory in Transcarpathia actually decided to recruit foreigners and attract workers from Bangladesh to the enterprise. But the attempt was a failure – they did not receive visas, and none of the workers from this country ever arrived at the factory. As the commercial director of the enterprise Yaroslav Shcherban reported in a comment to TSN.ua, the Foreign Affairs Ministry responded that they were acting in accordance with current legislation to «ensure national security under the conditions of the ongoing martial law legal regime in Ukraine.»
According to the head of the Tyachiv Regional State Administration, Timur Averin, the invitation of foreigners to work has been withdrawn from consideration, and now new workers for the furniture factory will be sought with the help of the employment center. According to Averin, the company also guarantees reservation from mobilization in accordance with current legislation and provides free housing.
According to Yaroslav Shcherban, problems with the workforce in Transcarpathia existed even before the war, because local men went to work abroad, where they could receive much higher salaries.
It is also worth noting that in the video, with the supposed workers from Bangladesh, there is no confirmation that it was filmed in Ukraine or that people in the video are from this country. The man who comments on the video speaks with an obvious Russian accent.
Previously, StopFake also refuted other fakes about migrants in Ukraine, for example, in the articles Fake: Migrants Attack the Border in Chernihiv Region, Fake: EU to Force Ukraine to Absorb African Refugees.
