The number of migrant children in Russia has decreased by almost 25% over the past year, according to Irina Volk, the official spokesperson for Russia's Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD). She shared this information on her Telegram channel.
"Compared to the beginning of 2025, the number of foreign minors residing in Russia has decreased by nearly 25%," Volk said.
She also emphasized that serious violations by foreign citizens regarding the legal stay of children and their right to receive basic general education could lead to a decision to recognize their presence in Russia as undesirable.
Volk reminded that starting January 28, a federal law will take effect, which provides for the exchange of information about foreign children between the MVD and educational authorities.
"This initiative is aimed at monitoring the stay of foreign minors in Russia and includes interagency cooperation based on the MVD's information resources. In the future, this data will be included in the digital profile of the foreign citizen," she added.
Starting April 1, 2025, a new law will require migrant children to pass a Russian language proficiency test and undergo verification of the legality of their stay in the country before being allowed to attend schools.
In August, Vyacheslav Volodin, the Speaker of the State Duma (Russia’s lower chamber of parliament), announced a significant reduction in the number of migrant children allowed to attend primary and secondary schools in Russia.
Later, in November, Anzor Muzayev, head of the Federal Service for Supervision in Education and Science (Rosobrnadzor), reported that only 19% of migrant children were able to enroll in Russian schools following the introduction of the new requirements.
According to data from the Human Rights Council under the President of the Russian Federation, as of June 2025, more than 785,000 foreign minors were living in Russia, but only about 192,000 of them (24.5%) were enrolled in schools.
