In the very near future the Russian authorities do not intend to consider the issue of an administrative amnesty for illegal immigrants, which will open the entrance to the Russian Federation for many foreigners who wish to return to the country for work. The head of the Federal Migration Service, Konstantin Romodanovsky, stated this during a press conference.
"I believe that an amnesty is not necessary. As for today, an amnesty itself is not required. Time will tell," RIA Novosti quoted him as saying. Romodanovsky also noted that this measure will not help fundamentally to solve the problem of illegal migration.
The Chairman of the Central Committee of the Trade Union of Migrant Workers, Renat Karimov, noted in a conversation with a correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza that the final decision of the authorities on an amnesty will depend on the situation in the labor market. "The Russian authorities will maneuver until the last moment in the conditions of economic crisis, looking at unemployment rates and the labor market. Once there is a feeling of a lack of migrant workers, they can return to the issue of an amnesty. I suppose that this is unlikely to happen this fall, or in the very near future in general, since the number of workplaces is now declining, and migrants that are already here are looking for jobs and cannot find them. Therefore, the authorities have no reason to grant an amnesty to illegal immigrants who, while coming here, just join the army of migrants that are seeking work," Karimov stressed.
The Chairman of the Public Council of the Federal Migration Service, Vladimir Volokh, first of all drew attention to the fact that the issue of an amnesty is extremely delicate, and we need to approach it with caution. "World experience shows us that such an amnesty has two sides. The positive side is that it decides the fate of people who really need to be able to earn money abroad. The negative side is the use of the amnesty by dishonest foreigners who believe that the amnesty allows them to continue to violate the law," Volokh noted.
