Sergei Markov: "Closure of markets will have no effect in the fight against illegal immigration"

By Vestnik Kavkaza

Migrants contained in a tent for the deportation center in the Golyanovo district may soon be transported to children's health camps. The situation related to the closure of the Moscow markets, which has involved the "discovery" of a large number of illegal immigrants, was commented on by Director of the Institute of Political Studies, Sergei Markov, in an interview to VK.

- It is unclear whether this is good or bad. If the markets are closed, but opportunities for competition in the trade are created, it will be good. The trade will be more legitimate, so taxes will be paid, therefore, the rights of workers will be protected. In the markets, as you know, taxes are not paid, and workers' rights are not protected. At the same time, parasitic and criminal elements who are fed out there will be cut off. At the same time there will be more control over the sanitary condition of the products. If this is done, it will be good.

But we need to organize this more competitive environment, and if a competitive environment is never created, it will be bad. This will lead to the monopolization of markets. This will lead to higher prices. In short, this will have a negative impact.

Not far from my house there is a market which I have often used for the past 10 years. If it is destroyed, all the people will be unhappy. Because instead of the demolished market nothing is offered except existing stores where prices are higher and the stores themselves are unpresentable. Markets in any case are necessary. Another thing is that these markets should be more clearly organized and controlled.

Nevertheless, the markets that existed were monopolized, the prices there were quite high, there was virtually no access for the farmers from the Moscow region or neighboring areas. The farmers have not been able to sell their products there. They chased away the trucks and illegally sold this in the yards right out of the vehicle. But these were the best products. They were always cheaper and of good quality. And they also were not able to get to the market. The bandits who controlled the markets did not allow them to sell their products there. Therefore, to some extent, we can say that these markets should be closed. But the problem is what to do now after that.

- Is the closure of markets effective in the fight against illegal immigration?

- The closure of markets has no effect in the fight against illegal immigration. We are not interested in illegal migration itself. If all the illegal immigrants were engaged only in helping everyone in the street, providing them with flowers and fruits, people would not have objected to illegal migration. The problem is that illegal migrants are engaged in theft, robbery, a criminal way of life. If you close 30 markets in which, say, 2,000 people work, we have 60,000 unemployed. Half of them will get a job, and the rest will be engaged in looting. That is the problem. This is the first issue.

Secondly, it is known that the majority of illegal immigrants do not work at all in the markets. Most of them work in construction. They work as cashiers in shops and so on. And most of these illegal immigrants do not want to be illegal immigrants. Do you think they want to work and live in bestial conditions, to be paid poverty wages without any rights, and if you do not like it, then to be beaten, killed and dumped? Of course, they do not want it.

There is no need to chase the poor migrants who want to be legal; we need to put in prison a dozen criminal businessmen who control this semi-legal business when people are working illegally.

The transition from illegal immigrants to legal ones will protect the rights of the people and give them the opportunity not to spend time gathering into a criminal group. We should attract people here to work without excesses so that they can leave it to their families then.

There is another group of migrants who want to come here, quickly become ordinary Russians and work. Also we have no objection to this. But all that is prevented by the semi-criminal business, which makes extensive use of illegal migrants together with corrupt law enforcers. They created the model, this system which affects our citizens, and the migrants suffer.

When I see these raids in hostels for migrants, to be honest, there is sympathy for these workers. I see that they are living in difficult circumstances; these are not some gangsters. It is known that they often work 12 hours a day. I think that any civilized moral person sympathizes with the Vietnamese, and the Uzbeks, and others who work honestly. But they cannot get the money earned. The money goes to the criminal elements.

We try to be civilized. A civilized person cannot help seeking the protection of human rights, especially the rights of a working man. It is necessary to separate the human rights of a criminal and the human rights of a victim. Illegal migrants are victims in 90% of cases. So we have to take care of their rights. We cannot feel relaxed, normal, when we know that next to us a hundred people in a room take shelter in inhuman conditions. These are people who want to be legitimate, but they are not allowed.