News

Chairman of the Investigative Committee Takes Part in Russian Security Council Meeting

Chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation Alexander Ivanovich Bastrykin took part in a video conference meeting of the Security Council of Russia dedicated to integration and adaptation of migrants into the Russian society. The meeting was held by Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev. It was also attended by permanent members of the council and representatives of a number of government agencies.

“Today we will discuss a single, but a large-scale problem that countries with an intense influx of visitors face. We are talking about the integration and adaptation of migrants into our society. Economic, legal, financial, and very complex socio-cultural problems are associated with this. Undoubtedly, it is necessary to concentrate on this topic, since it causes both tension and resonance in the society,” D. A. Medvedev outlined. The deputy chairman of the Security Council noted that cultural differences, as well as dissimilarity of habits and rules of conduct caused mutual misunderstanding and led to disputes; he also emphasized the importance of timely response to the issues under discussion.

The head of the Russian IC noted that the problem of increasing migrant crime had not become less relevant over the past few years. At the same time, he stressed that the growing aggression of migrant workers was caused both by the visitors' maladaptation to the Russian mentality and improper organization of the social and living conditions of their stay by the employers. Moreover, illegal migration contributes to the unfavorable migration situation in the country in many ways.

More and more criminal acts are committed by visitors from the Central Asian countries of the CIS, and penetration of criminals into the migration flows is highly likely. Speaking about such trends, the head of the Russian IC outlined the priority of countering illegal migration, crimes perpetrated by foreign citizens and organized ethnic criminal groups, as well as of detection, suppression, and prevention of crimes related to extremism and terrorism. For these purposes, productive interdepartmental cooperation has been established, which facilitates identification and high-quality investigation of crimes of the category in question.

The Chairman of the Russian IC added that most crimes are committed by middle-aged migrants who do not work, have no a permanent source of income, and mostly have no professional education. Often, they do not speak Russian to the extent sufficient for normal socialization in the modern society. At the same time, there is a direct relationship between the level of education and the type of crime committed.

It was noted that in pursuit of profit, the business community is interested in preserving the existing situation of virtually slave labor of the migrants, and their legal insecurity. In this regard, in order to increase the efficiency of work on social adaptation of foreign citizens in the Russian Federation, it is necessary to develop and apply new state approaches to organizing economic activity involving foreign labor, including incentive mechanisms for law-abiding and socially oriented entrepreneurs, as well as additional measures to integrate migrants into the Russian society.

The Chairman of the IC of Russia paid special attention to prevention of crime among migrants and measures taken in this area.

In conclusion, a number of proposals were made to improve measures for the integration of migrants into Russian society, including social and economic ones. The proposed steps included measures to strengthen control over the migration process and to carry out systematic operational-preventive measures in places of mass residence of migrants in terms of identifying persons illegally staying in Russia, as well as items and substances prohibited for civil circulation.