About 3.5 million illegal migrants are in Russia

Colonel General Andrei Chernenko, Head of the Russian Federal Migration Service, said at a Thursday press conference that at present about 3.5 illegal migrants were in Russia and that only 300,000 migrants were officially registered.

According to Andrei Chernenko, about 1.5 million migrants were the Soviet heritage. Most of them stay in Russia still illegally. The Colonel General stressed that the state should migrationally amnesty them.

Mr. Chernenko also emphasized that appropriate organizations had been set up almost in all constituent members of the Russian Federation to control and monitor migration. About 3,000 men have been recruited to be both state federal and police officers.

According to the Head of the Russian Federal Migration Service, a new act on "Legal Status of Foreign Citizens on the Territory of the Russian Federation" will be introduced on November 1st, 2002 in particular, to reinforce control over frontier guard and Russian Interior Ministry officers."