DUSHANBE, August 14, 2013, Asia-Plus – Ten Tajik nationals that were held in Moscow’s Golyanovo tent camp for illegal migrants have transferred to the Moscow holding center for foreign nationals and they will be deported to Tajikistan in the near future, Mohammad Egamzod, an official representative of the Tajik Embassy in Moscow, told Asia-Plus today.
According to him, Ms. Sadbarg Ghaniyeva, the chairperson of the Consular Department, Tajik Embassy in Moscow has visited the Moscow holding center for foreign nationals and met with its head Dmitry Sukhov to discuss the procedure of returning Tajik nationals to Tajikistan.
“In the course of the talks, Sukhov, in particular, noted that the number of Tajik nationals being held in the center has reduced. 35 Tajik citizens were deported home from August 7 to August 13,” Egamzod said.
We will recall that more than 600 immigrants from different countries have been forced into the Golyanovo tent camp in early August to await deportation.
Observers say the raids are aimed at currying favor with nationalist-minded Russians ahead of the regional elections. Thus, Russian politician Sergei Mitrokhin, the Yabloko party candidate for Moscow mayor, describes the recent roundup of hundreds of migrants as a “PR campaign” ahead of regional elections on September 8.
Russian migration authorities, however, argue that Russia is using the sweeps to rescue many migrants from squalor and abuse from slave-labor rings run by Central Asians themselves. They have called for more than 80 detention centers to be built nationwide, signaling that the battle against illegal workers is gathering steam.
