Stirred up: The Federation Council approved a law toughening the attitude towards migrant violators

Detention of migrants, illustration. Photo: Andrey Stenin / RIA Novosti
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Today, on August 2, the Federation Council approved a law that tightens the regime of expulsion of foreign citizens and stateless persons illegally staying in Russia or those who have violated the law. The document also establishes restrictions on the management of the machine, the opening of a bank account, a ban on marriage and the acquisition of real estate.

The Law "On the Legal Status of Foreign Citizens in the Russian Federation" defines the expulsion regime as a legal regime that applies to foreign citizens or stateless persons staying in the Russian Federation without legal grounds to ensure their departure from the Russian Federation or the acquisition of legal grounds for stay. It provides for the establishment of restrictions on certain rights and freedoms in relation to such persons, as well as the application of federal state control measures in the field of migration.

In addition, the law reduces the period of temporary stay in Russia without a visa for up to 90 days during the year. Now foreign citizens who have arrived in Russia, in a manner that does not require a visa, can stay in the country for 90 days in total during each period of 180 days.

According to the law, a foreign citizen who does not have the right to stay in the Russian Federation will be considered to be in the expulsion regime from the date of entering information about him into the register of controlled persons. After exclusion from this registry, the mode is terminated. The procedure for applying the new regime will be established by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. A foreigner in respect of whom the expulsion regime is applied has the right to receive, upon request from the territorial bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, information containing grounds for the application of the expulsion regime, to get acquainted with the decisions taken against him and to appeal against them.

A number of responsibilities are established for controlled persons. In particular, they must inform the territorial bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs about their location and about the occurrence of circumstances that prevent timely independent departure from Russia. In case of repeated non-fulfillment by a controlled person of duties, a decision is made to place him in a special institution and deport him.

At the request of a foreigner placed in a special institution, relatives, the administration at his place of work or study, a defender, a diplomatic mission or a consular institution of the State of his citizenship shall be notified of his location as soon as possible. In the event that he is the only legal representative of a child or an incapacitated person who is in In the Russian Federation, or the location of another legal representative is unknown or he is absent in the country, the guardianship and guardianship authorities are notified of the location of such a foreign citizen as soon as possible. His parents or other legal representatives must be notified about the placement of a minor in a special institution.

Also, a number of restrictive measures are applied to controlled persons. Among them are bans on the state registration of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs, the acquisition of real estate, transport, real estate registration for cadastral registration, state registration of transport. Restrictions are imposed on the right to drive vehicles, refusal of admission to take exams for the right to drive vehicles, refusal to open a bank account and perform a number of banking operations. In addition, such persons are prohibited from marrying. To do this, before entering into a marriage with a foreigner or a stateless person, the Registry Office checks whether it is in the register of controlled persons.

Also, the new law expands the rights of police officers. When carrying out state control in the field of migration within the framework of expulsion, police officers will receive, upon presentation of a service certificate, the right to access residential and other premises in which a foreigner lives or actually stays in the mode of expulsion. In addition, police officers will have the right to request from government agencies information and documents necessary for the implementation of state control, including those constituting commercial, banking, tax and other legally protected secrets, as well as to receive information from banks on the availability and numbers of bank accounts of a foreigner in the mode of expulsion, on the flow of funds on such accounts.

The police will be able to observe a foreign citizen who is in the expulsion mode, including using technical means. This rule also applies to individuals and legal entities that provide such foreigners with "assistance in staying in the territory of the Russian Federation." The police will have the right to use the data of mobile devices and geolocation, payment systems operating in automatic mode of special technical means of face recognition when carrying out control in the field of migration within the framework of the expulsion regime.

Amendments are also being made to the law "On the State Border of the Russian Federation." The passage of a foreign citizen across the state border to the country of his citizenship may be authorized by a document certifying the identity of a foreign citizen and recognized by the Russian Federation in this capacity, with expired validity, or by a document having technical malfunctions and allowing identification of the identity of a foreign citizen.

When conducting border control, an assessment of the risks of a possible violation of the state border regime or the creation of a threat to the security of the State is applied. Citizens of the Russian Federation, in respect of whom, in accordance with the procedure established by law, a decision has been taken to prohibit departure from the state border, are not allowed to pass through the state border. Russia.

In addition, the law establishes cases in which a foreign citizen or a stateless person cannot be allowed to cross the state border. In particular, we are talking about cases when such citizens were not allowed to enter the Russian Federation or there is a decision banning departure from Russia — until the expiration of the ban or cancellation of the decision.

This also applies to cases when the requirement of the border authority to submit biometric personal data necessary for identification has not been fulfilled, as well as if the risk of a possible threat to the security of the state by a foreign citizen or a stateless person has been identified during border control.

As reported by EADaily, the problem has repeatedly attracted the attention of the media, State Duma deputies and the head of the TFR Alexander Bastrykin. Speaking at the SPIEF in June, Russian President Vladimir Putin stressed that the problem of migrants requires a speedy solution, but so far incidents in Russian regions occur quite regularly.

"We have not built a meaningful migration policy yet. We need not just labor migrants, but people of certain qualifications, training, with knowledge of the language, with knowledge of our traditions," Putin said.

According to statistics, the most frequent participants in criminal incidents involving migrants are citizens of Tajikistan.