2,000 foreigners taken to Moscow police stations last night for migration checks - Interior Ministry
MOSCOW. Oct 17 (Interfax) - Up to 2,000 foreign citizens were taken to Moscow police stations last night as part of an ongoing crackdown on illegal migrant workers, a spokesman for the Russian Interior Ministry's branch for Moscow told Interfax on Thursday.
"Some 2,000 foreign citizens were taken to local police stations last night for checks. Administrative sanctions were imposed on more than 140 of them who actually broke migration laws," he said.
The Interior Ministry's press service reported earlier that a total of 150 migrant workers living in two non-residential buildings in the Biryulyovo district in southern Moscow had been taken to police stations.
The Biryulyovo district in the south of Moscow was swept by mass riots on October 13 in response to the murder of ethnic Russian man Yegor Shcherbakov. Biryulyovo residents demanded the closure of a vegetable warehouse, which they said employed illegal migrant workers. Several hundred people were detained after the protesters attacked a local shopping center, resulting in clashes with police.