Companies and individuals that employ and register illegal migrants should face criminal charges instead of fines, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Thursday.
Violations for arranging the illegal transit of migrants into Russia are currently punished with "a symbolic fine, and here the migration service is simply powerless," Putin said at a meeting of the Federal Migration Service, Interfax reported.
"I contend that here penalties of a criminal nature should be stipulated," Putin said.
Property owners who illegally register hundreds of people in their apartments should also face criminal charges, the prime minister said.
(MT)