About half of crimes in Moscow are committed by migrants – poll

(Interfax – August 23, 2013) Half of crimes in Moscow are committed by migrants; in general, the situation with ethnic crime in the Russian capital remains tense; the head of the Moscow city’s central directorate of the Interior Ministry, Anatoliy Yakunin, told Russian privately-owned news agency Interfax on 23 August.

“I’d like to say that 50 per cent of all crimes in Moscow are committed by visitors, of whom foreigners amount to 22 per cent. Crime from Central Asia gives us more than 20 per cent,” Yakunin said.

“We cannot say that we have defeated ethnic crime, but there are some results. We are aware of Muscovites’ sentiments, of the fact they are concerned about migration and impudence of ethnic criminal groups. We are not sitting with our arms folded either,” he said.

This year the Moscow police have solved 10 times more crimes committed by ethnic organized criminal groups than in 2012, Yakunin told Interfax later.

“Eight hundred and five crimes, committed by ethnic organized criminal groups, have been solved,” Yakunin said at today’s Moscow government conference. This year the police have already arrested 600 active members of criminal groups more than in 2012, he added.

In 2012 a mere 89 crimes, in other words, 10 times fewer, were solved, he said.

In general, the Russians are concerned about migrants, Interfax reported earlier on the same day, quoting a poll, conducted by the Public Opinion Foundation (FOM). The poll showed that 65 per cent of respondents are apprehensive and wary about the arrival of labour migrants in Russia, 63 per cent would like to see law-abiding migrants, while 51 per cent oppose the setting up of camps for illegal migrants. The poll was conducted over the telephone among 1,000 people in 17-19 August.

Speaking about temporary camps for detained illegal migrants like the one in the Eastern Moscow district of Golyanovo, closed down on 20 August, 14 per cent of those polled said Russia needs deportation of migrants and not camps for them, while 10 per cent lamented that migrants are dangerous and they contribute to the criminal situation in the city. Apart from this, 8 per cent of respondents believe that the local population is more in need of employment than migrants, while 7 per cent oppose the idea of camps because they think taxpayers’ money will be spent on this while it can be spent better.

Meanwhile, about two-thirds of Russians, 63 per cent, would like to see migrants who speak Russian and do not have a criminal record. Some of those polled, 14 per cent, believe that “migrants do the work that locals do not agree to”. Approximately the same share of respondents are in favour of “law-abiding migrants who have legal grounds to stay”, 8 per cent have nothing against migrants who “speak Russian and respects us”, and, finally, another 7 per cent say “they are many good people among migrants”, the results of the poll show.

One third of those polled, 32 per cent, dislike the idea of migrants: 12 per cent believe “there are too many of them – they are forcing local population out”, while 11 per cent say “locals need jobs too.”

The poll showed that the attitude of 27 per cent towards migrants is calm, while in general, 41 per cent of Russians approve of camps for illegal migrants.

Meanwhile, the Moscow police are taking measures against employers who hire illegal migrants, Oleg Sigunov, deputy chief of the protection of public order directorate at the Moscow city’s central directorate of the Interior Ministry, told Interfax later.

“More than 300 criminal cases have been launched against employers who hired illegal migrants, 86 of them have already been sent to court,” he said.

Over the first seven months of 2013 policemen established more than 17,000 crimes committed by migrants, out of which 6,720 were committed by migrants from the near abroad, Sigunov told Interfax.