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Demonising migrants

Since March 2024, raids on migrant dormitories and factories where large numbers of foreign workers are known to work have become more frequent, and there have been increased reports of Central Asian migrants being detained at Russia’s borders.

A month after the Moscow terror attack, deputies representing all the main parties in the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, sponsored a bill expanding the powers of the Interior Ministry, which has already passed its second and third readings.

The bill, which must still be passed by the Federation Council and signed by Vladimir Putin, fundamentally alters Russia’s “deportation regime” for migrants found to be in Russia illegally. Once the bill becomes law, police officers will be handed powers to deport illegal migrants as they see fit, as the legislation lifts the requirement for a deportation order to be made by immigration officers or the courts.

Furthermore, the bill will prohibit migrants on Russia’s National Register of Illegal Migrants, whose deportation is essentially imminent, from opening a bank account, accessing medical care or enrolling their children in school.

Though there are many ways for a migrant to find themselves added to this register, being suspected of extremism is perhaps the most surefire. However, in most cases, the security forces deem a migrant “suspected of extremism” simply in order to extract a bribe in exchange for removing their name from the list, according to human rights activist Valentina Chupik, who also notes that accusations of extremism have become easier for Russia’s security forces to make since the recent bout of terror attacks.

Despite working in Russia for 22 years, Kiyemiddin Fakhriddinov one day found himself suspected of extremism. After being interrogated for 26 hours at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport, he was deported to Tajikistan and barred from entering Russia again.

Fakhriddinov recalls being interrogated by the security forces: “We were taken to the basement and interrogated one by one. They asked us why we killed people. I was personally asked: ‘Did you kill people for money?’ I said, ‘I didn’t kill anyone.’ Then one of them hit the table with his fist and shouted: ‘Your fellow countrymen killed!’”

The new law encourages the indiscriminate blame of migrants, with false allegations made by immigration officers now set to become standard practice.

State Duma members argue that the new law will motivate illegal migrants to seek legal residence in Russia, though human rights activists reject this argument entirely, insisting instead that the new law will serve to push migrants out while the security forces profit from bribes to prevent deportations. “The desire of the Interior Ministry to receive bribes prevails over any state interests,” Chupik said, who added that migrants find themselves illegally detained by the police twice a month on average, and are required to pay bribes of around €150 to secure their release.

Indiscriminate raids

Justified by the Kremlin on the grounds that 14 of the 15 suspected Crocus City Hall perpetrators were from Tajikistan, police raids on migrants have quickly become a fact of life across Russia.

On 25 March, the Russian security forces raided a construction site in Sevastopol, the largest city in occupied Crimea, where they detained nearly 70 migrants, the vast majority of whom were from Central Asia.

“They showed up and threw us on the floor. They beat up my friend, took him away and kicked him out of the country,” Rakhmon, a Tajik migrant working in the catering industry, told Novaya Gazeta Europe.

Rakhmon’s experience is fairly common among Tajik migrants who live and work in Russia. Since the terrorist attacks, all are now vulnerable to expulsion should the authorities decide to raid their home or workplace.

However, the raids are not only used to expel migrants, they also have a role in helping the Kremlin bolster its war machine in Ukraine.

The head of Russia’s Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, admitted at the St. Petersburg Legal Forum in June that the government uses raids to forcibly recruit migrants for military service. Russia has deployed thousands of migrants to the front using this strategy, instead of deporting them.

Ramil, a Tajik migrant with Russian citizenship, told Novaya Gazeta Europe that he was detained by security forces during a raid and asked why he was “not yet digging trenches”. “I came to Russia to work and live, not to kill and die,” Ramil said.