Constantine Romodanovsky, Director of the Russian Federal Migration Service, believes that a visa regime for some CIS states to protect from illegal migration is inefficient. It would be more reasonable to make harsher punishments for the violation and adopt exams for newcomers. Romodanovsky said that there were 2.3 million foreigners working in Russia legally and 4 million working illegally, Kommersant reports.
The official believes that a visa regime is not the simplest solution to the problem of illegal migration because Russia has obligations to fulfill for CIS states, besides, the state is on the course of a visa-free regime with the European Union. He emphasized support for the initiative of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to make punishments for illegal migration and its organization more harsh.
The chief of the Federal Migration Service proposed amendments to article 322 of the Russian Criminal Code and make punishments of the first part of the article 5 years in jail and the second 10 years.
Romodanovsky has common grounds on compulsory exams of Russian language for migrants with Putin. About a quarter of migrants from Central Asia, born in 1986, cannot speak Russian. The number of such migrants increased from 22.2% to 24.2% in a year. Studies of Russian will benefit the education level of migrants.
Knowing Russian allows migrants to watch films, TV and understand what people are talking about, the official concludes. The measures are not part of political conjuncture. They are a real tendency and subject to the demographic and economic situation, which requires more foreign workers, he adds.
