Migrants. "Come out, children, brush your teeth"

Morning visitors

The windows of the expensive supermarket "Prism" in the building of the Warsaw station are looking at the building with a half -wilted roof and shredded walls. But people live here. They pay for rent to the mysterious "owner" of the resettled house. Probably, for some time he managed to “negotiate” with local “organs”. But the house goes under demolition ...

Early on the morning of August 13, in the house on the embankment of the Obvodnoye Canal in the city of St. Petersburg, soldiers in the form of riot police and people in civilian clothes made a raid at the places of residence of labor migrants.

Human rights activist Andrei Yakimov from Memorial says: “At about 6:30 in the morning,“ police officers ”arrived-about 19 people in uniform and five or six in civilian clothes. Having kicked everyone out of the house - they did not skimp on insults and dumps, did not make concessions for pregnant women and mothers with infants - riot police checked all the documents and began the shmon of living rooms: they hacked the doors, searched for values. Migrants declare stolen jewelry, money, pulled out of wallets, stolen video cameras, cameras, tablets and laptops - many of the workers were already preparing to leave and bought gifts for their loved ones in Uzbekistan. Some took microcredits to buy tickets home, 90,000 rubles of a loan for medical services (paid birth) were selected from the pregnant woman. All this riot police handed over to people in civilian clothes, loading things in cars. The total volume of the loot was about six large plastic bags, behind things, robbers in uniform came several times. ”

Three days before the pogrom in the house, there was already a check of the FMS and the police. Then, once again, having looked at the documents, the authorities left, warning that the house would be boarded up and all residents must free it by August 20. The authorities knew that most of the workers were soon going to return to their native lands. So the robbery was made suspiciously on time.

In the house

On the threshold of the house on the Obvodnoye, I am met by the Uzbek worker Ibrahim. Lame, he leads me along the labyrinth of dilapidated walls. In some places, oilcloths cover a holey ceiling, close the breaks in the windows. In several rooms in the middle of complete poverty, it was possible to create some kind of residential situation. In one of the rooms, a middle -aged woman is sitting, this is his wife - Mavlyuda. Nearby is a pregnant woman, the one from whom the money taken on credit on childbirth was selected. Mavlyuda says: after the raid, she lost everything that she had earned. The riot police said “civilians”: “Come in and take what you want.” Not only rings, jewelry, money, new shoes were stolen, but even a disadvantaged bottle of shampoo (“What do they have, no shampoo? Still stolen!”). A new tracksuit was selected from a boy of about 12 years old. The police mocked the stocks of products. Washing powder was poured into the pots with food. The food was thrown into the windows broken by the same pots. They poured oil on the carpets, clothes and beds and poured flour. With special pleasure, they dealt with religious objects. In the hands of Ibrahim, a board in a broken frame is the minted verses of the Qur'an. Such boards Muslims hang over the door. The riot police trampled this board with their feet, spat on it.

Washing powder was poured into the pots with food. The food was thrown into the windows broken by the same pots. They poured oil on the carpets, clothes and beds and poured flour.

The builder from Uzbekistan Galib was beaten in the corridor of his shelter. He tried to interfere with robbery. He took a ticket to his homeland - and torn before his eyes. Women say that Galibu is a shame to tell where he was beaten. And they beat the kidneys and groin, so that he urinated with blood.

On the second floor, a girl of about 12-13 years old tells how the stones flew first in the windows, then people came and pulled up adults into the street, and they said to the children: “Come out, children, brush their teeth.” Then, televisions and home utensils flew from the windows of the second floor.

On this day, the wife warned the driver of the Azamat truck about danger, and he watched the pogrom from the shelter. Then he found that he had lost money and a gift for his father, a patient with cancer, a watch. Azamat tells how three beaten an unknown teenager. The boy of non -Slavic appearance did not live in the house (none of the residents saw him before), but simply was at a faulty moment nearby. “He was scared, ran, and they caught up and played football ... When they lifted him, he was like a rag.” Azamat raises an Olympic from a chair and shows how the boy’s body fell.

After the pogrom, the lawyer of the Memorial human rights center, Peter Krasnov, tried to help the victims: “At the scene, we filled out seven statements and about sixty copies left in the settled house in the hope that they will independently submit them to the department. Ultimately, out of seven people who signed the statements, only three got to the department with us, which it seems to me already a huge success. ” The battered Galib brought a complaint to the police. The first thing he was asked about: “Why are you living there?” He turned to the doctors. When they found out that riot police beat him, they refused to issue any certificates.

Illegal. How is it?

From communication with the residents of an abandoned house on the Obvodny Canal, I got the impression that they did not realize that they live in the territory illegal, that the “owners” that they paid for rent have nothing to do with this “housing”. “Everything is in order with documents” is the main code in the life of a migrant. And the residents of the house on the Obvodnoye repeat it like a mantra. Their life flows outside the legal field. Even without any ideas that it exists and acts somewhere. Migrants, especially young people, believe that it is not so important to buy in Russia - where the necessary documents are the right, legal path. For many, a surprise that bought “right to work” is fake.

Peter Zanev from the Novoprof trade union opens the newspaper and reads the announcement out loud: “Here, look:“ Citizens of Uzbekistan are required with work permission ... ”But the employer must get the permission to work. That is, it is issued with the participation of the employer . And if a person comes with a finished resolution, then it is bought by 99%. There are a lot of such ads. It is clear that the employer is to blame. And the migrant worker itself is already forced to play according to the given rules. ”

But this is not understood in the house on the Obvodnoye. Only the robbery was outraged. Checking documents, detention is everyday life. Regular requisitions on the streets, “Kidalovo” at hard and long work - all this had to be endured for the sake of the family ... and where is the reward now?

"When they lifted him, he was like a rag." Azamat raises an Olympic from a chair and shows how the boy’s body fell.

We speak with another woman - her husband is deported. With tears in her eyes, she speaks of three children in Uzbekistan that they will have to return, that her husband will now be closed in the Russian Federation for five years. At some point, she speaks not only about herself: “Tell the Russians that we are honestly working. Say that we are not criminals. My mistress in the kitchen, Russian, found out that I was leaving, almost burst into tears with me: "Where will I find how you will find?" She is happy with me! Why are you saying on TV that the Uzbek killed? We are not all like that ... tell them that the Uzbeks are honestly working. We will leave, will the Russian go to clean the streets, entrances, like us ... "

Yes, contrary to the widespread myth about the almost universal crime of migrants, according to the official information of the Prosecutor General’s Office (the body that verifies the police who are not interested in “straightening statistics”), most crimes are committed not at all with migrants and migrant workers, but by citizens of Russia (22.57% against 77.43%). And the Office of the Moscow Judicial Department reports that in 2012, 17% of crimes in 2012, and a quarter of them is a fake of migration papers and work permits.

Human rights activist and sociologist Andrei Yakimov also refutes another myth: “In fact, most migrants in the Russian Federation want to forget that they are migrants. They would be very quickly socialized if they were allowed to. The older generation recalls the USSR as a golden age, when they had everything. The younger generation of visitors believes that it is better to dissolve in Russian society than to return. And the notorious “Islamic solidarity” in practice is fiction: look at the mood in Tatarstan - there is the same xenophobia Tatars in relation to the visitors as for the Russians. ”

But while everything continues as before and will continue. According to the calculations of the Memorial, the so -called native Petersburger has 26 times less chance of falling under the youch of a police violence than a person with a “non -Slavic” appearance.

Leaving these robbed and humiliated people in their ruined shelter, you involuntarily catch yourself thinking that Herzen once expressed about Poland’s pacification: "It is ashamed to be Russian."