MOSCOW. Feb 4 (Interfax) - Russian society demands that things be corrected in the Russian migration policy and that some measures already be taken, the Interior Ministry said.
"Civil society is generally concerned about the present-day situation. The population demands that this area [migration] be put in order," Deputy Interior Minister Igor Zubov said at a Tuesday meeting of the Kremlin Human Rights Council dedicated to migration issues.
In his words, the police cannot be accused of giving excessive attention to law breaking migrants from Central Asia.
"A quarter of all crimes here are committed by foreigners and all [suspect] descriptions mention Asian looking persons; so what do the police do? They do exactly as they should. And it is the same everywhere," Zubov said.
Following the European Union's example, Russia is building up a deterrence of illegal migration. "We are also witnessing a trend towards stricter control," Zubov said.
The police keep fighting the so-called "rubber apartments," he continued.
"We are overburdened with statements from citizens reporting up to 50 persons who live in a single apartment, make full use of utilities and litter general-use areas. How should we react to that?" he wondered.
According to the Federal Migration Service, most labor migrants come to Russia from Central Asian countries, which enjoy a visa-free travel regime with Russia.
Federal Migration Service Konstantin Romodanovsky said in an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda published on Tuesday that the Service barred over 500,000 foreign law breakers from Russia last year.
Some 10.4 million foreigners are visiting Russia with various purposes now and 3.7 million of them may be employed illegally, he said.
"They came here with some private purposes. Most probably, they also want to work but they have no such rights. We block the access of this group to Russia," the Federal Migration Service head remarked.