Between 600-800 thousand illegal immigrants currently living in Moscow

At a news conference on Thursday, Moscow’s vice mayor Valery Shantsev and the chairman of the capital city’s committee for migration affaires Sergei Smidovich announced that between 600-800 thousand illegal immigrants currently living in Moscow. The number of foreigners who live and wok in Moscow on a legitimate basis amounts to 62 thousand, whereas the black market of foreign labour, according to the estimations of the city authorities, is twice as large. In the year 2000 inspections were conducted in 513 firms and enterprises in order to uncover illegal employment use of foreign labour. 9.5 million rubles of fines were collected from employers caught using foreign labour.This year 469 firms have already been inspected, 187 offenders were detected and over 5 million rubles collected. The vice mayor of Moscow Valery Shantsev also said that “Moscow has gained the status as a transit point for illegal migrants bound for the USA, Canada and other countries”. Given the transparency of the city’s boundaries and absence of the effective migration regulations, the city authorities are forced to handle the problem on their own, the vice mayor stated. Shantsev said that to resolve that issue it would be necessary to pass new laws on the federal level. In particular, a law on the abode of foreigners in Russia is needed. The vice mayor also said that in the near future will be signed an agreement on cooperation between the Ministry for Federal Affaires, the Ministry for National and Migration Policy and the Moscow City Migration Committee. The agreement will provide for the delimitation of jurisdiction between the federal and municipal agencies in the sphere of migration issues, the vice mayor said.