MOSCOW, October 29. /TASS/. A criminal case has been opened against the Syrian nationals who are in the transit area of Sheremetyevo Airport outside Moscow, Russian Federal Migration Service (FMS) chief Konstantin Romodanovsky said Thursday.
"The situation with the Syrian nationals who are in the transit area of Sheremetyevo Airport is controlled by us. A criminal case over their illegal crossing of the state border of Russia with fake documents has been launched and is being investigated," Romodanovsky told TASS.
He said that following a court ruling on the case, the migration service will review once again the issue of granting the above-mentioned persons temporary asylum on Russian territory. "In case of a positive decision, they will be placed in one of a temporary accommodation centers for refugees," he said.
Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that the Federal Migration Service is working with the family of refugees from Syria in Sheremetyevo.
"Our migration authorities are dealing with that in strict accordance with our laws. It’s not an issue for the presidential agenda," Peskov said.
Earlier, a number of media reported that a family with children from Syria has been living in Sheremetyevo’s transit area for over a month. According to media, a native of Kazakhstan, her husband and their four children, who had fled Syria, were denied entry to Russia over problems with documents. The family planned to head to the city of Samara to their relatives.
"It has become clear that fake documents were used," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mariya Zakharova said. "It took time to understand who they are, citizens of what country… they are most likely from Iraq but this information needs to be double-checked."
"These people are not citizens of Syria," Zakharova said. "The talk is about forgery of documents, there’s no politics here."
In fall, when going through customs procedures in the airport, the refugees said they are asking for asylum. They told border guards that they are heading to the Volga Region where they have relatives.
A week ago, Nikolay Levichev, a deputy speaker of the State Duma, the lower house of Russia’s parliament, cited the Russia-ratified international convention on civil rights and asked the FMS leadership to transfer the family to one of temporary accommodation centers for the period of investigation.