500 000 foreign workers to flood Russia in 2004

According to the experts from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, nearly 425 000-500 000 foreign workers will come to Russia to find work, stated Vice-Minister of Internal Affairs Alexander Chekalin.

Approximately 378 000 foreigners from 127 nations have been working in Russia in 2003. Nearly 50% were from countries of the CIS. According to Chekalin, majority of those employees were involved in construction and manufacturing industries.

The Vice-Minister also mentioned that the ministry prepares a new program under a code name “illegal immigrant” before letting additional labor into the country. First of all, the program is aimed at locating and legalizing illegal labor immigrants. In addition, tax organizations will also be contacted in order to ensure that they will be paid a certain sum in tax money, stated Chekalin. The operation will be effective until March 30th, reports Prime-TASS.

Source: Financial Izvenstia