"The CIS residents should enter Russia on foreign passports"

 

Interviewed by Daria Melikhova, exclusive to VK

 

Camp for migrants in Golyanovo will be closed in the next few days. The camp was set up two weeks ago after a major security operation in Moscow, during which the police detained about one thousand illegal migrants. The whole story has caused a public outcry. In Russia several pickets took place for protecting the rights of "prisoners” of the deportation camp. Professor of the Institute of Public Administration and Law, State University of Management, Chairman of the Public Council of the Federal Migration Service, Vladimir Volokh shared his vision of ethnic and migration problems for “Vestnik Kavkaza”.

 

Do you think there is enough being done in Russia to achieve national peace?

 

To say that enough is being done will probably never be right, even if a lot is done, even if everything is done brilliantly, there is always room for improvement. I think that a lot is being done, it is quite clear, in order to achieve peace, but probably it needs to be optimized. And most important here, it seems to me, is the great role of the media. The more positive pictures are shown, there more is said on this theme, the greater the result will be.

 

And what can be changed in legislation in order to regulate the relationship with migrants?

 

I think that nothing new should be done in the legislation. We have an accepted and valid Code of Administrative Offences and the Criminal Code, and the Code of Practice, the legislation is quite extensively represented. So I would prefer advocacy, educational work, if you like.

 

How do you feel about the tent cities for workers?

 

Negative. Because I believe that this may be a temporary measure, and in fact there should be centers of detention for persons who are subject to expulsion from the territory of the Russian Federation. This is the same around the world, such a procedure exists. If there is a decision of the court, I stress, then from the time when the decision is taken by the court, to the moment a foreign citizen is be expelled from the territory of the Russian Federation, it may take a while, and of course, he then must be in a center, which provides the necessary conditions for his residence pending expulsion from the territory of Russia.

 

What do you think about additional barriers, such as visas for entry of migrants into Russia from the CIS and foreign countries?

 

As for visas, this is is not being discussed now. The thing is that all citizens of the CIS, or rather, all citizens who enter on foot have various documents that they should enter the territory of the Russian Federation presenting a passport. This is normal. Most states operate the same scheme. I think there is time, it is no accident that the Russian president said that we should give time until 2015, these states should spend a lot of effort to produce these passports and to document their citizens. And after 2015, in order to enter the territory of the Russian Federation, everybody will need to present their passport. And accordingly, our citizens will also travel with passports. It's okay, and all over the world there are four types of documents: a diplomatic passport, a service passport for travel and a civil foreign passport, and a fourth - this is a national passport/ID. Everything is going to be moving in the same direction that the whole of civilized humanity is going.