DUSHANBE, August 15, 2013 Asia-Plus — Another group of Tajik nationals have reportedly been detained in a raid made by police on Moscow subway.
“50 foreign nationals were detained in the raid made by police on Moscow subway on August 14 and 12 of them are Tajik nationals, Ibrohim Ahmadov a spokesman for the Tajik migration service agency’s office in Russia, told Asia-Plus in an interview.
“We explained our nationals that in case of ill-treatment they may apply to the Tajik migration service agency’s office in Moscow,” Ahmadov said.
We will recall that Russia”s Federal Migration Service (FMS) has called for toughening the laws regulating the country”s migrants, many of whom are believed to be in Russia illegally.
More than 600 immigrants from different countries were 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.
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.
