http://uk.news.yahoo.com/15012007/323/r ... rkers.html

Russia gets tough with migrant workers
AFP Monday January 15, 01:50 PM

By Dario Thuburn

MOSCOW (AFP) - Russia has enforced tough measures against illegal immigration and markets that rely on migrant workers immediately emptied.

President Vladimir Putin last year called for more Russians to be given jobs in food markets, where many stallholders come from the former Soviet republics in the Caucasus and Central Asia.

There are millions of illegal migrants believed in the country and Russians often complain about the high number of foreigners. Anti-immigrant movements, as well
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as violent racist groups, have gained large followings in recent years.

The laws impose quotas for immigrants from former Soviet republics and set fines for employers of up to 30,000 dollars (23,000 euros) for each illegal immigrant found at work.

Illegal immigrants often work as builders, vendors and cleaners in Russia, taking on relatively poorly paid menial jobs that some experts say many Russians would not be willing to accept.

On Monday, television images showed markets in Vladivostok in far eastern Russia and Rostov-on-Don in the southwest lying nearly empty. One Moscow market, Cheryomushkinsky, was shut down last week for immigration breaches.

Another market in the southwest Moscow suburb of Konkovo carried a sign on the main entrance door recently reading: "We are looking for vendors with Russian citizenship."

The laws "will regulate the situation with around 12 million foreigners working illegally in Russia and so will offer more jobs to Russian citizens," said Denis Soldatikov, a spokesman for the federal migration service.

"We are cleaning up the markets for domestic producers," Soldatikov said. The official added, however, that the changes could mean food prices at markets will temporarily rise.

Russia has one of the highest illegal immigration rates in the world. The federal migration service estimates there were between 10 and 12 million illegal immigrants, many of them seasonal workers, in Russia in 2006.

Around 700,000 legal migrants were registered in the first six months of 2006, officials said. The migration service is setting a quota of a total of six million legal immigrants from former Soviet republics for 2007.

"Illegal immigration is a huge problem in Russia," Sergei Fateyev, leader of the Mestnye nationalist youth group, told reporters at a small demonstration against illegal immigration in Moscow on Monday.

The demonstration, attended by some 40 people, was held outside the the embassy of Azerbaijan, an ex-Soviet republic that is a major source of migrant labourers.

A government order has also come into force this month limiting the proportion of foreigners working at retail markets to 40 percent by April. That figure is then due to be reduced to zero by the end of the year.

Another law that went into effect on Monday theoretically should ease the compulsory registration procedure for immigrants. But experts said that new arrivals will continue to face difficulties in gaining legal status.

The lack of proper housing makes registering at a fixed address, as required by the law, nearly impossible for many immigrants forced to live in temporary housing or shelters and often discriminated against by landlords.