MOSCOW, September 25 /TASS/. The Russian Federal Migration Service and its fellow-colleagues from other CIS countries are discussing the Syrian refugee problem and a possibility of accepting them in the territories of Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Yekaterina Yegorova, the state secretary and the first deputy director of the Russian Federal Migration Service, told TASS on Friday.
According to her, Russia is unlikely to face such huge refugee flows from Syria as Europe. "I believe there is little probability that refugee flows into Russia will be that huge. But this is my personal point of view. On the other hand, we are discussing this problem and a possibility of receiving Syrian refugees with our CIS partners," Yegorova said.
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She noted that the Federal Migration Service had enormous practical experience in accepting refugees in Russia. In 2008, it received refugees from Abkhazia; in 2014, Russia had to deal with huge refugee flows from Ukraine’s war-torn Donbas region.
She said the absence of normal and effective regulation of the problem was the root cause behind Europe’s refugee crisis. "The EU countries are failing to agree on how they should act," Yegorova emphasized.
According to her, an attempt to erect walls on the borders with European countries is showing the impotence and inefficiency of their migration policies.
"If Europe is the target, then these people will get there anyway," Yegorova said.
"Russia is less attractive for Syrian refugees than Europe. We received 1,100,000 refugees from Ukraine and the influx was much stronger. But did you feel that? Did you see any kind of collapse? The state bodies reacted efficiently. A legislative base was formed very quickly. The state promptly allocated the funds and the receipt was well organized. There was no concentration of refugees in border areas," Yegorova concluded.