Moscow authorities intend to double "migration patrol"
MOSCOW. March 14 (Interfax) - The Moscow authorities are happy with the work of "the migration patrol", special neighborhood watch groups, in the Russian capital and intend to increase them to 300 people.
"We have created a core of vigilantes, who have been trained in the migration service. There are now around 150 of them. We have estimated that we needed at least 300 people to take action regularly," head of department for regional security of the Moscow Mayor's Office, Alexei Maiorov, told Interfax on Thursday.
The Moscow authorities consider the practice of "the migration patrol" to be successful, Maiorov said. "We have expanded the capacity of the migration service to cover places and areas, which demand attention because of migrants," the official said.
"The migration patrol" has participated in many inspections and has detected around 3,000 violations of the migration law. It has drawn up a total of 134 administrative offense reports and have found seven foreign offenders, who were later ordered out of the country, Maiorov said.
"The work is under way not only in the Central Administrative District but in other Moscow districts as well. We will expand this work," the official said.
Deputy Head of the Moscow Federal Migration Service, Nikolai Azarov, told Interfax on February 13 that the number of "the migration patrol" members could be increased to 600 in the long term. Azarov said that the increase would be gradual. "It's necessary to select people, to train them," Azarov said.
Russian Federal Migration Service Head, Konstantin Romodanovsky, offered at a migration service meeting on February 27 to apply the practice of the Moscow neighborhood watch groups throughout the country to fight illegal migration in Russia.
The Moscow authorities decided in mid-February to establish special neighborhood watch groups to help the Russian Federal Migration Service.
However, human rights activists were opposed to the initiative. "There are certain issues with which authorities have to deal and in which residents shouldn't be involved, because they are quite xenophobic currently," leader of the Civil Cooperation human rights movement, Svetlana Gannushkina, told Interfax in February.