MOSCOW. June 4 (Interfax) - Russia must increase control over migrant flows into the country and continue with the practice of conducting raids on places frequented by foreigners, the head of the Russian Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, said.
"The Chairman of the Investigative Committee of Russia has noted the importance of increasing control over migrant flows and improving the legal framework regulating this sphere, in particular, by making an employer responsible for migrant arrivals departures, and optimizing the mechanism wich sets quotas for the migrant workforce," the Committee said on Tuesday after a meeting on fighting crime in the immigration sphere.
The Committee also must "continue with the practice of conducting special raids on places where migrants tend to gather, such as shopping malls, construction sites, ethnic cafes, sports clubs and hostels, in order to detect law violations by migrants and to continue taking measures to enforce the conscription duty on naturalized citizens," Bastrykin said.
In the first four months of 2024, migrants committed 14,070 crimes, the Committee's data said. There was a 40% rise in rapes and serious crimes by foreign nationals increased by 13%.
"The number of crimes committed by persons staying in Russia illegally has more than tripled," the Committee said.
In the first four months of this year the number of criminal cases against foreign citizens, which were investigated by the Committee and sent to courts, increased by a quarter.
"As well as crimes by foreign citizens themselves, Russian Investigative Committee units investigate cases against officials who committed crimes in the sphere of migrant registration. The number of criminal cases in this category has doubled since last year, with 77 people being prosecuted, 31 of whom are officers from the police immigration units," the committee said.
"The antisocial behavior of migrants and their children has a serious destructive potential," Bastrykin said.
"More and more incidents are being recorded, increasing the discontent with the migration situation," he said.