23 July 2002 00:00
ON SECOND MEETING OF GOVERNMENT COMMISSION FOR MIGRATION POLICY
The Government Commission for Migration Policy is planning this September to consider a draft concept of state regulation of the migration processes in Russia, Vladimir Zorin, the Russian Federation Minister for Nationalities Policy, announced at the end of the second meeting of the commission.
As Zorin noted, the blueprint will contain the basic aims, objectives and directions of the migration processes, as well as specific mechanisms concerning migrants' entry and exit. In addition, it will envisage the imposition of quotas for foreigners wishing to work in Russia. Special taxes are expected to be introduced for employers using foreign manpower, at a rate from 200 to 3,000 rubles per person.
Zorin also said that migration is an important resource of replenishing the number of inhabitants. "The state is interested in migration from the economic point of view, for in the recent years the number of permanently resident Russians has been dwindling by 500 to 600 thousand per year. Migration will replenish labor resources in the country," said the minister. He also noted that "migration policy ought to be pursued, above all, taking into account the interests of the state and to be regulated by it as well."
Commenting on the meeting of the Government Commission for Migration Policy, Zorin said the problems of financing the migration policy next year were considered at it. The required volume of financing, by his estimates, amounts to 4.1 billion rubles. These funds are intended to be used for the payment of compensation for lost housing and property in the Chechen Republic, for the accommodation of forced migrants, for the maintenance of the centers for the temporary placement of refugees, and for the purchase of food for the camps.
In addition, Zorin said that in 2003, it is planned to establish about 300 migration control posts. In the minister's view, these posts "will help prevent the infiltration of undesirable migrants as well as of those engaged in illegal activities within some or other regions." At present, according to his data, only about 100 such posts are in place on the borders, whereas the border posts number about 450.
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© Publication of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.
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