Don't suggest the police

The migration service will have its own security unit

The Federal Migration Service seems to be preparing to meet fully armed on April 1, when a complete ban on foreigners working in markets comes into force. At the end of last week, Deputy Director of the Federal Migration Service of Russia Vyacheslav Postavnin said that the service needs its own security unit, which will check the implementation of the government decree during raids.

The department may need its own “special forces” if in the future the FMS continues to demand in a rather strict form that visitors comply with the new migration legislation. At the same time, judging by Mr. Postavnin’s words, the FMS no longer wants to involve the police in the FMS to ensure the safety of its inspectors.

Migration officers have been talking about their own security unit for several years now, but the demands of the service intensified after the November incident at the market in Luzhniki , where Deputy Director of the FMS Mikhail Tyurkin and Head of the Migration Control Department of the Federal Migration Service in Moscow Viktor Makarov were injured during a clash with private security guards. Today, according to Vyacheslav Postavnin, the issue of creating a security and migration control service has been practically resolved - it is expected that the new structure of the FMS, numbering 4.5 thousand people, will begin work in early April.

There is no doubt that the migration security forces will not have to sit without work. The FMS has already intensified its activities after amendments to the legislation came into force, significantly tightening responsibility for violating the migration regime. Thus, according to Mr. Postavnin, over the past month and a half, over 200 million rubles in fines have been collected from companies that used the labor of illegal migrants. There was also a case of imposition of the maximum fine allowed by the Administrative Code of 800 thousand rubles. In addition, as the deputy head of the Federal Migration Service said, 15 criminal cases were opened against employers who hired illegal immigrants, and about 1.5 thousand violators of the new legislation were expelled from the territory of Russia.

In April, when the retail trade sector should be practically cleared of guest workers, the reasons for holding employers accountable will only increase. But the FMS, apparently, fears that the involvement of the police could reduce the efficiency of the service and give it a scandalous character. Vyacheslav Postavnin very openly hinted at “problems with corruption” among law enforcement officers and at the special style of work of police officers with guest workers. “There have already been quite a few cases when incidents occurred between police officers and foreign citizens, and not always justified,” the official said, thereby explaining why the FMS would like to “exclude the function of the police.”

At the same time, the leadership of the service prefers to avoid the question of the consequences of the current harsh migration policy, redirecting all complaints to the government. Vyacheslav Postavnin emphasized that the FMS performs only a supervisory function, and economic departments should deal with the problems of empty markets and rising prices. “Our task is to ensure that there are no foreign citizens left in the markets. And who will replace them there is, frankly speaking, no longer our task. This is what the government is doing: monitoring this issue in the most serious way,” he said.

Kirill MELNIKOV