Loading...

Society, Russia

Migrants. Photo from newskey.ru

Migrants from Caucasus, Central Asia ‘killing’ Russia

Every day, hundreds of new migrants are coming to Moscow. Hoping to earn money, the metropolitan visitors find a job and, despite the low level of income, stay in the white-stone city for many months.
 
According to recent data, two million illegal aliens are now being employed only in Moscow. This figure was made public in November 2010 by Mayor Sergei Sobyanin. The migrants probably amount to about 7 million in Russia, although in view of the ‘staff turnover’ due to deportation of illegal migrants, it is not possible to provide the exact numbers.
 
Thanks to the influx of migrants, Russia gets cheap labor in a bundle with lots of diseases. Alas, illegals rarely go to hospitals or get a medical examination. Meanwhile, if, for example, just slightly more than 1% of Russians are sick with hepatitis, this number reaches 8% among the migrants! And this is not surprising: those aliens traditionally have the highest infection rates.
 
Russians naively believe that only healthy ‘guests’ sell watermelons at the markets and, therefore, do not think much about the migrants’ medical records. However, even these documents cannot serve an indication of the infection absence... Everyone knows that you can buy fake health certificates for 1.5 - 2 thousand rubles. Sure, the buyers of fakes are at risk of running into any checkup that can disclose the fraud. However... such examinations are rare, moreover, they are complex: the inspectors would check the storage conditions, the presence of disinfectants, the due-in documents... And if the checkup of a market with 150 salespersons is done by just one health officer, he will not be able to check all health records. At the most, he would see whether their number corresponds to the number of personnel. And the most that will threaten the owner of a fake is temporary suspension from work. Sometimes, – yes, we have to admit – markets are visited by the police – the law and order officers can check up to 7-8 thousand medical records a year. And 80% of the documents turn out to be a fake.
 
The increasing numbers of illegal migrants in Russia, besides diseases, contribute to the crime growth in the country. In January 2011, Mayor of Moscow Sergei Sobyanin said that only in the capital, half of the crimes are committed by migrant workers. Last year, for example, foreign nationals committed 12,000 crimes. 300 of them were violent, 62 murders, 130 crimes against sexual immunity of Muscovites (13 of these in regard to minors). This said, only 29 (10%) of the total number of accused migrants had an official work permit.
 
The most criminal activity, according to the RF Interior Ministry, was exerted by the citizens of the CIS member-states who had committed 91% of all offences committed by foreigners.
 
Small criminal groups, sometimes consisting of people of different nationalities, often deal in drugs, arms trafficking, carjacking and reselling of expensive cars. In Moscow, for example, the ‘congestion’ of migrants often takes place in the subway. For instance, immigrants from Central Asia are based at the station "Komsomolskaya". There, they flock together in groups of 50-80 people. And they have not changed their ‘place of deployment’ for 2 years now. Under the pretext of a meeting or waiting for the train while standing at the platform, migrants discuss job search (they organize something like a labor exchange), assist each other in providing fake documents, and possibly dabble in drug traffic.
 
They regularly send home the money earned in Russia. These amounts, small at first glance, are enormous for many neighboring countries. In Tajikistan, for example, about 60% of the population survives on less than $1.40 a day. Therefore, the ‘extra’ $500 earned in Russia for many Tajik families is very welcome.
 
According to the Rossiyskaya Gazeta, in terms of the numbers of migrant workers, in 2009, Russia took first place in Europe and second in the world after the United States.

By Illarion A. Simonov, BCM.ru staff writer
All publications by this author (2)

See also

15.08.2011 17:58 Young people want to leave corrupt Russia

24.05.2011 17:53 Russians celebrate Day of Slavonic Literature and Culture

24.05.2011 15:30 Medvedev and Putin demoralize Russian society

20.05.2011 16:12 Kate Middleton barren?

20.05.2011 14:34 Israeli attaché detained in Russia, suspected of espionage