Russian mayor says North Korean street cleaners cost too much for his city, so he hired Senegalese workers instead

Orenburg Mayor Albert Yumadilov said he had planned to hire North Koreans as street cleaners but that they would not work for the wages the city can offer.

“As far as I know, workers from North Korea won’t come for 55,000 rubles. Wages there are two to three times higher. Sure, their efficiency is higher too — they work like robots. I’ve seen it with my own eyes; over there, they really are robots… But we just can’t afford the wages,” Yumadilov said, as quoted by the Orenburg city portal 1743.ru.

Meanwhile, Senegalese nationals are working in the city’s housing and utilities sector, Yumadilov said. The first 10 arrived in April. Thirty-one Senegalese now sweep the streets of Orenburg, and four more are due soon. Yumadilov praised the quality and productivity of their work.

Russia recruited North Korean workers actively until 2018, issuing more than 10,000 work visas a year to North Korean citizens. The United Nations then tightened sanctions against North Korea, banning the recruitment of its workers, among other measures. Russia complied for several years.

The BBC Russian Service reported in 2025 that Russian authorities had again begun actively recruiting North Korean workers in large numbers after the start of the full-scale war with Ukraine, with the workers entering the country on student visas to circumvent the U.N. ban. North Koreans working in Russia are held in slave-like conditions, kept under constant surveillance by North Korean security service agents, and can receive their earnings only after returning home.