New restrictions on the work of migrant workers have been introduced in the Tomsk and Chelyabinsk regions and the Krasnodar Territory

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New restrictions on the work of labor migrants have been introduced in the Tomsk and Chelyabinsk regions and the Krasnodar Territory. From November 1, November 19 and September 22, respectively, it will be prohibited to hire foreign citizens in these regions for work, including in education, public catering, trade, sports and creativity. The full list for the Tomsk Region includes nine groups of professions, for the Chelyabinsk Region - nineteen, for the Kuban - five.

Tomsk Region Governor Vladimir Mazur said that the decision on restrictions, introduced for the first time in the region, was made by officials at an "anti-terrorist commission with the direct participation of representatives of national diasporas." He called the decision joint and collegial.

The restrictions in the Chelyabinsk Region and Krasnodar Krai expanded the existing bans. Moreover, some of them were introduced in 2024: for example, the ban on working as taxi drivers and public transport drivers - and a number of others existed before.

Bans on migrant work in certain areas exist in more than a third of Russian regions and occupied territories, more than half of which were adopted in 2024. Anti-migrant legislative initiatives became especially tough after the terrorist attack in the Moscow concert hall Crocus City Hall on March 22, the perpetrators of which were probably citizens of Tajikistan.

Labor migration

• Migrants in Russia face mass raids, military recruitment, labor abuses, and far-right violence. In 2023, there was a sharp increase in the number of videos of far-right groups attacking migrants and other vulnerable groups, according to the Nazi Video Monitoring Project, which keeps statistics on such materials. By November, the number of new videos had decreased , but the violence of the attacks had increased.

• Security forces are conducting mass anti-migrant raids, including with the help of far-right groups. "If earlier such events were carried out by the police independently, now "raids" are carried out at the instigation of nationalist-minded communities. The police are clearly bragging about these events, not only not hiding the violations of the rights of migrants and Russians with a migration background, and their disdain for them as people, but often directly emphasize all this, including by passing on the results of official filming to the administrators of far-right communities in Telegram," human rights activist Alexander Kim told DOXA. According to him, migrants have become a convenient target for demonstrating the effectiveness of the authorities against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine and the upcoming presidential elections.

• During raids, security forces detain migrants who have recently received Russian citizenship and force them to register for military service.

  They are also being recruited to fight in the war in Ukraine. In September 2022, the government simplified the process of obtaining citizenship for recruited migrants. However, mercenarism is prohibited by both international law and the laws of Central Asian countries.

• Another consequence of the anti-migrant raids was the mass deportation and expulsion of people whom the security forces accused of violating migration laws. In November 2023, the Ministry of Internal Affairs reported the expulsion and deportation of 15 thousand people from Russia as part of Operation Illegal-2023.

  Against this backdrop, the Russian State Duma is considering a bill that the authorities want to use to further curtail the rights of migrants. If adopted, foreigners who do not have the right to be in Russia will be added to a special register. People on the list will be prohibited from driving cars, obtaining a driver's license, getting married, opening bank accounts, and transferring money. A bill was also submitted to the State Duma for consideration that prohibits migrants, including those legally residing in Russia, from working in certain areas, such as education, medicine, and taxis. In some regions of the country, similar laws have existed for several years.

• After the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall, security forces began to conduct anti-migrant raids more often. At least 31 regions of Russia imposed a ban on migrants working in certain areas (most often in transportation, sometimes also in healthcare, trade, healthcare, construction and other areas).