RUSSIA TO LEGALIZE MIGRANT WORKERS

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RUSSIA TO LEGALIZE MIGRANT WORKERS

Novye Izvestia, April 6, 2002, p. 5

Russian police officers may soon lose one of their illegal sources of income. This concerns illegal aliens, who are often prepared to pay considerable sums to police in order to avoid being taken in.

The Federal Migration Service of the Interior Ministry may soon introduce immigrant cards for foreigners. These cards would be a sort of passport for foreign workers.

Yury Arkhipov, deputy head of the Department for Migrant and Refugee Affairs, told us that the system of immigrant cards is not as complicated as it may seem. Any foreigner entering Russia should get such a card. Foreigners who have stamps certifying that they entered Russia via normal passport and visa channels will not need such a card. It is clear that this measure will only apply to guests from former Soviet republics.

The Federal Migration Service says this card will be given to immigrants from former Soviet republics free of charge.

Arkhipov believes the card will make it possible to monitor not only immigrants, but also employees of law enforcement agencies. From now on, it will not be necessary to produce a traveling ticket to learn the duration of an immigrant’s presence in Russia. If a foreigner is not registered in Russia, and has been in the country for less than the three days during which the law allows them to remain here without registration, they will not have to produce a traveling ticket, since there will be a date of arrival in Russia on the immigrant card.

The main value of the card is that it may bring in up to 7-8 billion rubles a year for the government. According to Arkhipov, if you have a legal card, you should also pay taxes lawfully. Thus, illegal aliens will have a choice: either to get the official card and give part of their income to the country that has given them refuge, or to maintain their usual unlawful position and fill the pockets of individual police officers.

IRANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER HAS VISITED RUSSIA

Tribuna, April 6, 2002, p. 3

On April 5, the visit of Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Harrazi to Russia came to an end. During the visit, Russia and Iran exchanged ratification certificates for the treaty on the foundations of mutual relations and principles of cooperation between Russia and Iran, and for an inter-governmental agreement on avoiding dual taxation.

During Harrazi’s meetings with his Russian counterpart Igor Ivanov and President Vladimir Putin, they discussed international security, combating terrorism, non-proliferation of mass destruction weapons, and export control. They also touched on the issue of multilateral cooperation between countries around the Caspian Sea.

Both sides displayed interest in developing a number of major projects in the fields of electricity, aviation, and transport.

Another topic discussed during Harrazi’s visit to Moscow was the possibility of joint participation by Russia and Iran in reconstruction of Afghanistan.

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