MOSCOW. Nov 3 (Interfax) - Russian Investigative Committee head Alexander Bastrykin has ordered that legislative amendments be drafted to ensure genomic registration of migrant workers amid the growing number of crimes committed by such persons, Russian Investigative Committee spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko said.
"The Russian Investigative Committee chairman has tasked the Main Investigative Department and the Legal Affairs and International Cooperation Department with drafting amendments to the federal laws On State Genomic Registration in the Russian Federation and On the Legal Status of Foreign Citizens in the Russian Federation to ensure mandatory genomic registration of foreign citizens with Russian work permits," Petrenko told reporters on Wednesday.
She explained the initiative with "the increasing number of offenses committed by migrant laborers that trigger social tension and make the crime situation in Russia worse."
"Law enforcement agencies investigated over 17,000 crimes committed by foreigners over six months of 2020, and that number neared 19,000 in the first half of 2021. Meanwhile, the share of grave felonies of high social danger has been growing in the structure of crimes committed by migrants," Petrenko said.
Bastrykin said in an earlier interview with Interfax that it was necessary to ensure mandatory genomic registration of migrant workers arriving from the former Soviet republics.
"All migrant laborers arriving in Russia from the near abroad must be subject to genomic registration," Bastrykin said in the interview.
"Hundreds of normative acts currently regulate migration. These norms are multifaceted and quite confusing. Obviously, it's necessary to codify migration laws," he said.
A new law "could lay down every form of migration, as well as the rules for the registration of foreigners and the issuance of labor quotas, the procedure for registering and fingerprinting migrants, and other types of control," Bastrykin said.
"It is also necessary to lay down the rules of interaction between law enforcement agencies and the border forces of security agencies for the sake of more effective and resultative migration control," he said.
"Such measures will enhance control over migration processes, will create an additional barrier to criminal elements seeking to penetrate our labor market, and will allow law enforcement agencies to be more successful in solving the crimes committed," Bastrykin said.
As to the structure of crimes committed by foreigners, there is an emerging trend of an increasing number of socially dangerous crimes; for instance, extremist crimes have grown by 33%, terrorist crimes by 26%, murders by 8%, and rapes by 5%, he said.