As is known, since January 15, new simplified rules for registration and employment of migrants have been in effect in Russia, allowing them to register within three days after arrival (including by sending documents by mail) – and in just 10 days to obtain the right to work in Russia. However, without a migration card, which a visitor receives upon entering the country, it is impossible to legalize one's status. At the same time, millions of visitors in Russia live for years without proper documentation. All of them find themselves in a rather difficult situation – according to existing laws, they can simply be deported from the country. The FMS has already proposed several scenarios to solve the problem. Last week, officials announced another one.
“This action provides for the regulation of the legal status of a foreigner by voluntarily paying a fine of 2,000 rubles, after which the migrant receives a work permit within ten days,” RIA Novosti quotes Deputy Head of the Department of External Labor Migration of the FMS of Russia Sergei Boldyrev. However, he clarified that not everyone can take advantage of such a cash amnesty, but only those who apply for jobs in sectors of labor activity not in demand among the “local population” – such as construction, housing and communal services, transport, and agriculture.
Previously, the heads of the migration service called the very announcement of an amnesty for guest workers an ambiguous and extreme measure. However, last week, the FMS press service confirmed that a “plan of action to regulate the situation of foreign workers on the territory of Russia” does exist and is currently under consideration by the Ministry of Justice. It is also known that illegal labor migrants will be able to regularize their status until the end of 2007. The FMS is not yet disclosing details of exactly how this will happen. “The legalization will primarily affect those migrants who already have a legal employer here, who previously could not and was not obliged to officially hire a foreign worker,” explained press service head Konstantin Poltoranin.
According to FMS representatives, such an action will benefit “all three parties.” The state saves on the forced deportation of illegal immigrants from the country, which the FMS estimates at about 30,000 rubles per migrant. For the employer, such an amnesty provides an opportunity to avoid a large fine that he could incur under the new migration legislation for the illegal use of labor migrants (from 250,000 to 800,000 rubles). Moreover, the burden of the fine for illegal stay in the country, as established by the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation, falls on the foreign worker.
According to Sergei Boldyrev, the host party will only have to send a notification of the labor relationship with the foreigner to the territorial migration service office. In this case, guest workers from CIS countries will not have to buy a ticket to the border. “To legalize, they need to leave Russia, then return and register for migration within three days,” explained the FMS press service. In addition, migrants caught without legal status and expelled from Russia will not be able to return there for five years.
Discussions about the need for an amnesty for illegal immigrants have been ongoing in Russia for several years. In 2002, after the tightening of migration legislation, human rights activists began to talk about it actively. Two more years passed – and in 2004, the FMS gathered representatives of public organizations to discuss the issue. Subsequently, an expert group was created under the Commissioner for Human Rights Vladimir Lukin to develop a concept for immigration amnesty. A corresponding draft appeared and was even approved by the authorities – after which it was practically forgotten.
Nevertheless, as Gazeta.Ru notes, the migration service has repeatedly stated that it intends to bring illegal migrants out of the shadows, turning a blind eye to their lack of documents. In early 2007, two weeks before the introduction of new rules for registration and employment of migrants, the FMS planned to start an amnesty for illegal immigrants. It was planned that they would be granted permission to work and reside in the country regardless of when and how they entered the country and how long they had lived there, remaining “in the shadows.” This news received no wide publicity, and the initiative was preferred to be forgotten.
And a month ago, the migration service recommended that illegal immigrants leave Russia and then re-enter it and start life anew: with a migration card and according to all the rules. Moreover, the migration authorities for some reason decided that migrants, frightened by the ban on working in markets, had left the country. After all, as is known, since January 15, foreigners cannot work in retail trade where alcoholic beverages and medicines are sold, and from April 1, restrictions should come into effect, under which trading in tents and markets will be prohibited for all foreigners. However, for Moscow, these restrictions are already being reconsidered.
Until the beginning of 2007, the FMS said there were 10 million illegal immigrants in the country; later, a figure of 5 million began to appear. According to the FMS, the expulsion of such categories of foreign citizens from Russia leads to large budgetary costs. Moreover, the subsequent five-year restriction on their entry into Russia, as required by law, leads to “a one-time deprivation of the Russian economy of a significant amount of foreign labor,” notes the FMS.
The fact is that illegal immigrants who come to the attention of law enforcement agencies are sent to special detention centers (Centers for the detention of foreign citizens subject to administrative expulsion or deportation). According to human rights activists, keeping a person in a special detention center costs the budget more than 1,000 rubles per day, and many are held there for months. The cost of airfare is also mostly covered by the Russian budget. Therefore, the migration service decided that it is easier and more profitable to simply fine a voluntary illegal immigrant than to hunt down and deport him from the country.
However, human rights activists disagree that the legalization mechanism proposed by the FMS (Federal Migration Service) will suit everyone. Because of the reservations regarding professions not in demand among Russians, they do not consider the upcoming action to be a full amnesty, which hundreds of thousands of foreigners on Russian territory expect from the Russian authorities. According to the head of the public organization 'Migration and Law', Svetlana Gannushkina, such a 'half-hearted legalization of temporary workers' only demonstrates 'the state's utilitarian approach to human material.' 'In my opinion, the authorities have already been convinced many times that no matter how much they beckon Russians into certain labor sectors, they will not go there, so it is absurd to talk about the infringement of the labor rights of the indigenous population by labor migrants,' Svetlana Gannushkina told 'Vremya Novostei.' 'In the end, Tajiks and Chinese will find another country for earnings.'
As the newspaper 'Novye Izvestia' notes, a similar event was already held in September-December 2005. The experiment was conducted in ten Russian regions. In just two months, 7,500 migrants were legalized. The experience proved successful. And it is understandable: there is no other alternative for solving the problem of migrant registration in Russia yet.
'According to our data, about 5 million migrants are currently working illegally in Russia,' Nikita Mkrtchyan, chief migration specialist at the Center for Demography and Human Ecology, told the publication. 'Of these, just over 1 million are from far abroad. The rest are our former compatriots. And if we start deporting them now, there simply won't be enough transport. Moreover, the deportation centers are not designed for such a number of people. Of course, a fine would solve this problem. But then the question arises: what about those who cannot afford to pay even that money? After all, many come here with absolutely no funds.'