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Mayor urges to solve migration problem to make Moscow safest city in world

Migration problem is one of the most serious ones in the Russian capital causing social and political tension and growing crime rates, according to Sergey Sobyanin

MOSCOW, October 29. /TASS/. If the problem of migration were solved Moscow will be the most safe city in the world, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin told deputies of the Moscow Duma on Wednesday.

"I reiterate that this is one of the most serious and difficult problems in Moscow which is fraught with social and political tension and growing crime rates. If inter-regional and foreign illegal migration did not exist Moscow would have been the most safe city in the world," the mayor said.

"There is a surplus of work places in Moscow estimated at around two million, and the vacancies cannot be filled unless a migration resource is used. The point is that the migration resource had always been cheaper than the Russian labor resource. The planned amendments to the patent system which will take effect since next year envisage leveling up the economic intensives for both categories, which will downgrade the competitiveness of foreign labor force," Sobyanin said.

“We must establish order in Moscow, get rid of people hanging around without patents, job licenses and not registered anywhere."

Sobyanin reminded of a previous system of migration control, when migrants after a three months' presence in Moscow crossed the state border back into their home country. Under the law in effect now a migrant may stay in Moscow for three months in succession within a period of 180 days. More than 100,000 migrants have been expelled; but the number of migrants with legal job patents has grown 2.5 times," Sobyanin said. “Crime rates among migrants have dropped by 14-15%,” he added.

Over the past nine months a total of 1.519 million migrants had been staying in Moscow. Half of them are citizens of Uzbekistan (27.3%), Tajikistan (18.4% ) and Ukraine (13.4%), the Moscow regional security department said, citing data of the Federal Service for State Statistics. The population of Moscow numbers over 12 million.