All news

Moscow mayor concerned over big number of illegal migrants in city

Over the past year the number of illegal migrants expelled from Moscow rose by 2.5 times
Photo ITAR-TASS
Photo ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, October 18 (Itar-Tass) —— Over the past year the number of illegal migrants expelled from Moscow rose by 2. 5 times, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Thursday.

"We have set up a special coordination headquarters in every administrative city district, which incorporates police, the immigration service and the prosecutor's," Sobyanian said. The city administration has begun overall checks; reports about illegal migrants detained are regularly released by information services, Sobyanin said in a live broadcast on Moskva -24 television channel on Thursday.

The number of migrants we have expelled from Moscow and to whom the right of entry into Russia has been denied was 2.5 times up in comparison with last year, the Moscow mayor said. The rule is that if a migrant breaches law even once such a migrant has no right to come to Moscow ever again, Sobyanin said.

The overall number of migrants authorized to arrive in Moscow has not increased over the past few years and remains at approximately the same level of around 200,000, he said. This is no deadline, judging by the actual number of permits issued in Moscow, the mayor noted. It is not only illegal migrants who create problems in the city, there are also students, tourists, people who come to Moscow on business or people who come merely to look at and enjoy. Nevertheless, illegal migrants who come over to Moscow to get a job there account for a bigger share of illegal visitors numbering 200,000-300,000, according to different estimates, the mayor admitted. Their number is excessive, which we should fight against and take measures because a migrant for an entrepreneur is "a gold cup " with whom it is easier to deal with rather than with a citizen from Moscow or any other Russian region, the mayor said.

Both migrants and employers who give jobs to migrants should be charged extra taxes and forced to get health insurance to prevent immigrants from being treated at our clinics and hospitals free of charge, and they should also be charged extra insurance fees so as to make the cost of a migrant's labor be approximately equal to the cost of labor of a Russian citizen. Otherwise, entrepreneurs will face a permanent temptation to employ a cheap work force, the mayor said.

We are creating such conditions at our municipal enterprises so as to prohibit employment of people from far abroad altogether, the mayor said. In the best case the jobs might go to workers from Belarus or Ukraine, but the majority of workers should be the residents of other regions of Russia, the Moscow mayor said.