their guest workers

Yesterday, the Ust-Ishim prosecutor's office of the Omsk region reported the first case of detention of illegal foreign migrant workers in the area. Three citizens of Kyrgyzstan were building an office in Ust-Ishim for Mega-Stroy LLC without registration with the migration service, and the head of the company did not have permission to attract foreign labor. As a result, the employer paid 6 thousand rubles. fine, Kyrgyz builders were deported to their homeland. According to Omsk entrepreneurs who attract guest workers, their colleague was forced not to register workers “due to a long clerical procedure” and the imperfections of the Russian Federation’s migration legislation.

Kommersant According to the Department of Internal Affairs of the Omsk Region, in 2004, foreign workers, citizens of 8 states, were attracted by 105 Omsk organizations. 65% of foreign workers in the Irtysh region are Chinese, 21% are Koreans. As of 2005, employers in the Irtysh region submitted 57 applications to the department of the federal employment service for the Omsk region to hire 3,243 foreign citizens. 82% of applicants are employers from Omsk and 18% from districts of the Omsk region.

As the prosecutor of the Ust-Ishim region, Mikhail Legovets, reported yesterday, in May of this year, three migrant workers from the Republic of Kyrgyzstan arrived in the district. By order of the Mega-Stroy company, which is a contractor of “one large Omsk organization,” foreign workers began to build an office in Ust-Ishim. However, the prosecutor's inspection of compliance with migration legislation in the region deprived Kyrgyz citizens of work. “We have established that guest workers entered the territory of the Russian Federation in April 2005. According to the law, they were supposed to register with the migration service within three days, but they did not do this, violating the stay regime,” explained Mr. Lehovets. In addition, according to him, the head of Mega-Stroy LLC did not have permission from the Omsk Migration Service to attract foreign labor. The guest workers and their employer were charged with violating clause 18.8 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation (“Violation by a foreign citizen or stateless person of the regime of stay in the Russian Federation”). The district court imposed fines in the amount of 15 times the minimum wage on foreign workers and the director of a construction company. “However, migrant workers have the wind in their pocket; the employer had to pay a fine for them,” added Mikhail Legovets. As a result, the director of Mega-Stroy paid 6 thousand rubles for himself and his failed employees. fine, and the citizens of Kyrgyzstan were deported to their homeland the day before.
According to Mikhail Legovets, the incident with guest workers from Kyrgyzstan is the first in the history of the Ust-Ishim prosecutor’s office. “The area is remote, foreign workers have not yet reached us,” Mr. Lehovec said. He believes that the head of Mega-Stroy could avoid communication with judges and financial losses by hiring workers in the area itself - “there are enough people here, and it would be cheaper.” The Department of Migration Affairs of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Omsk Region was also surprised by the unfortunate employer. As reported in the labor migration department of the department, the quota of foreign workers in the Irtysh region for 2005 was 1.5 thousand people, but guest workers from neighboring countries (including Kyrgyzstan - Kommersant ) are outside the quota. The management issues permission to hire such workers “as needed.”
Nevertheless, Omsk entrepreneurs who attract foreign labor believe that the head of Mega-Stroy had good reasons for not registering guest workers. On condition of anonymity, one of the businessmen said that recently the procedure for registering foreign workers has become much more complicated. “Sometimes it happens that a guest worker is needed for a month, and the paperwork for his registration, the clerical procedure, takes twice as long,” the entrepreneur said. According to his assessment, if federal migration legislation for employers is not relaxed, the number of illegal migrant workers in the Russian Federation will increase annually.
Alexander Kornev

Kommersant (Omsk) No. 106 dated 06/11/2005, p. 12

Mega-Stroy paid the bills