Goodbye Illegal Immigrants!

Will the deportation of illegal workers be paid for by Russian citizens?

We have done it! Yesterday, a group of illegal workers was deported from Russia, people who worked at construction sites in the Moscow region. The group of Tajiks, making up 115 people, were put on an Ilyushin-76 transport plane and sent back to their motherland.

It should be remembered, that last month, the Moscow Region governor Boris Gromov promised that the authorities would start deporting all illegals who live and work in Moscow Region. The idea itself is a good one: It’s high time that these immigrants be sent packing. However, there has been no mass deportations, and it’s not sure that any will take place.

The current group of Tajiks should have been deported a week ago. However, something did not work out, and as result, the illegal workers remained for one week However, this isn’t interesting. What is interesting is if the authorities plan to continue this campaign There is the impression that the authorities simply want to put on a show. The latest deportation cost the Moscow government 1.5 million rubles. ($500,000) So, you can do the math and imagine how much these deportations might cost. There is information that in the future, deportations will be paid for by the immigrants’ employers.

According to Vladimir Sedykh, deputy chief of the visa department of Main Internal Affairs Office of Moscow Region, the firm should pay 22,500 to 45,000 rubles (approximately $ 750 to 1500) as a fine for every Gastarbeiter. For example, if there are 50 illegals at a constructions site, the fine will be hundreds of thousands of rubles. I wonder, at whose expense the firm will cover its losses. I dare say at the expense of the people who the apartments. However, it could be, that risks of the kind are initially included in the production costs.

Moreover, who can guarantee that the illegal workers will return to Russia and that they will not be caught again in a building site or in a market? Will the deportation process be repeated again and again?

I would suppose, it will sooner bother the Russian authorities. Fines paid by the employing firms also cannot save the situation: at least, Russian businessmen are smart people, and they will rapidly find another way. Moscow and Moscow region residents, as well as the residents of other cities and regions, will hardly rush to work at construction sites. Therefore, the deportations are unlikely to be on a larger scale. Most likely, we will see one or two shows, then everyone will forger about the problem of Gastarbeiters. Well, at least until something else happens.

Vasily Bubnov PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Vera Solovieva