New repression imposed by the Parliamentary Commission on Migration Policies. In its sights, the bodies that issue mandatory certificates of knowledge of the Russian language and history and the websites that help obtain illegal documents. Unauthorized stay on Russian territory also becomes an aggravating circumstance for any violation of the law.
Moscow () – The Moscow Duma seeks increasingly decisive actions in the fight against illegal immigration, which for several months has been taking place in a context of growing xenophobia among the population, the effect of terrorist attacks and the consequences of the war itself in Ukraine, which also ambiguously involves Central Asian countries.
The latest measures concern the prohibition of mediation structures from the possibility of taking mandatory exams in the Russian language and history of the Russian Federation for those entering the country for the first time. In addition, all Internet resources that could help in any way to illegally prepare entry documents have been blocked, and fines of many millions of rubles have been imposed for falsification of them “for the purpose of organizing illegal immigration flows.”
The parliamentary committee on immigration policy issues is chaired by Vice President Irina Jarovaja of Putin’s United Russia party, known for bringing about changes to laws on freedom of religious belief that outlawed Jehovah’s Witnesses, the sect of the Scientology, Pentecostals and other religious groups. From it comes the latest proposal for five new anti-immigrant measures, supported by a very large group of deputies from all parties represented in the Duma, including President Vjačeslav Volodin.
The first two formulas already approved provide for a reinforcement of the responsibility of the organization of illegal immigration and assign to illegal stays in Russian territory a status that aggravates any other infraction, including the prohibition of parking. The other three Yarovaya legislative initiatives concern the necessary knowledge of the Russian language and history, as well as the foundations of federal legislation, and very strict and elaborate procedures are provided for the issuance of certificates in this regard, which will be subject to additional controls by educational institutions that receive this official responsibility from the government.
Jarovaja reported that the stricter controls “have already quadrupled the number of certificates issued”, but this still seems insufficient to the deputies, and more restrictions and prohibitions have been introduced for associations that are also quite qualified, but considered too favorable to immigrants. According to Volodin, it is necessary to restrict them to “professional fields” with specialists directly supervised by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Education and the Rosobnadzor agency. In language exam classrooms there must be “surveillance teams” to prevent “any form of cheating and corruption of examiners.”
Another proposal concerns Internet resources that offer services for carrying out work, and Jarovaja declared the need to “permanently close the market for illegal services”, supported by the head of the Information Policy Commission, Aleksandr Khinštein, who described this initiative as “very timely and significant.” Some deputies proposed merging all these changes into a single law that would automatically apply to each variant of these issues, but Jarovaja assured that “we need to detail the measures, to allow immediate and appropriate reactions before any legislative procedure.”
Finally, the latest bill presented adds to the numerous violations already contemplated punishments for legal entities that support illegal immigration in various ways, with fines and restrictions for falsifying or incorrectly formulating entry, work and residence documents in Russia. All the proposals were approved unanimously except the last one, in which there was one abstention, which Volodin declared an “obvious error in calculating votes.”
Photo: Flickr / Fred S.
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