Millions of illegal migrants working in private households across Russia will get a chance to legalize their employment under new legislation regulating the legal status of foreign guest workers.
The bill, proposed by the Federal Migration Service and submitted to the State Duma last week, will allow private employers to obtain one-month work permits for foreign workers for 1,000 rubles ($34). The permits can be prolonged on a monthly basis.
“We are making the rules of the game very transparent, and employers will not experience problems if they follow them,” migration service spokesman Konstatin Poltoranin said Monday.
Violations will be punishable by fines of up to 5,000 rubles ($150).
The legislation aims to regulate migrant workers employed in apartments or dachas illegally. Under the current law, the number of migrant workers in Russia is regulated by government quotas that are calculated annually on requests from businesses. Private individuals willing to employ migrants do not figure in the law.
More than 1.32 million migrant workers were registered in Russia in 2009, according to the Federal Migration Service. There is no official data on migrants employed by private households, but migration officials estimate the number at 3 million to 4 million.
The migrants covered by the new legislation will be employed outside the existing quota system, and this is a positive move, said Oleg Shein, deputy head of the Duma’s Labor and Social Policy Committee.
“Those quotas are not worth anything because citizens of many former Soviet republics can travel to Russia freely,” he said.
Ukrainian citizens account for a majority of foreign guest workers, followed by migrants from Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, migration officials said. While many enter Russia legally and are given permission to work for 90 days, many end up illegally employed because their Russian employers are reluctant to sign contracts with them to avoid paying taxes.
The number of foreign migrants in Russia may amount to 7 million, according to some estimates.
Life can be particularly hard for migrants who work for private employers, who often refuse to pay them for their work and treat them cruelly, human rights groups say.
“Now they will be granted their rights and will not be kicked out into the street,” Shein said.
It was unclear Monday how officials would enforce the new legislation. A copy of the bill was not yet available in the Duma’s database of pending legislation.
The initiative has angered the Federation of Independent Trade Unions, which says it will encourage more foreign workers to travel to Russia and take away jobs from Russians.
“In a situation where the government is not strongly stimulating employers and not raising unemployment benefits, giving migrant workers more rights is not a good move,” union spokesman Alexander Shershukov said.