MOSCOW, July 1 (RIA Novosti) – Special mobile facilities run by Russia’s Federal Migration Service have been placed around downtown Moscow to increase government control over migration into the Russian capital, the migration service’s chief said on Monday.
Last month the federal migration service unveiled a plan to equip Moscow’s railway stations, airports and transit stations with migration service units that would specifically target the flow of migrant workers into the city.
“Five units are already operational […]. The number of such units will grow,” Federal Migration Service head Konstantin Romodanovsky told reporters on Monday.
Most foreign migrant workers in Moscow come from the former-Soviet Central Asian republics and do not need a visa to enter the country.
Although Russia is highly economically dependent on this migrant labor, public opinion is broadly against increased immigration, and the issue has become a focal point in the upcoming Moscow mayoral elections, with many candidates calling for tougher measures against illegal immigrants.
Last week, Moscow police detained about 1,400 migrant laborers housed in unsanitary and illegal buildings on suspicion of immigration offenses.
