Illegal international migration is one of the key issues at present. In recent years, it has reached a peak. This is mainly due to the unstable situation in developing countries, the intensification of the activities of terrorist organizations. Military conflicts in the Middle East, unemployment, demographic problems - all this affects the flows of migrants that rush into Russia and the West. In the Russian Federation, illegal migration is a criminal offense. Let us further consider what measures are provided for in the legislation against this phenomenon.
General information
Usually 3 groups of countries participate in organizing illegal migration. The first includes states from which citizens leave in search of a better life. The second group consists of transit countries. And third states are destinations.
According to statistics, about a third of migrants are delayed in transit countries. Some of them are deported to their homeland. It is worth saying that of the remaining 70% of migrants, only a small part of them reach the goal.
Different countries take different measures to counteract illegal migration. So, for example, in Russia, the rules for entering and staying in the country are being tightened. In addition, criminal penalties are established for organizing illegal migration.
Urgency of the problem
In Russia, illegal migration is one of the key threats to the economy. The National Security Strategy until 2020 explicitly speaks of increasing the level of risk associated with the uncontrolled movement of foreign citizens.
Among the main negative consequences of the organization of illegal migration to the Russian Federation, experts note the growth of the shadow economy, international, cross-border, ethnic crime.
The uncontrolled movement of foreigners leads to interfaith and interethnic tension. Illegal migration contributes to the spread of terrorism and extremism.
As the head of the FSB of the Russian Federation noted in one of his speeches, foreigners undergo psychological and military training in the camps and gain experience in hot spots. Using migrants, they create gangs, spread to different regions and conduct criminal activities.
Features of the fight against illegal migration
Under the current conditions, countering the uncontrolled movement of foreigners is becoming one of the key tasks of law enforcement agencies. Its solution must be implemented in an integrated manner.
Combating illegal migration is aimed at identifying and eliminating factors contributing to its development. In Russia, migration legislation is constantly being improved. Currently, it contains more than 240 legal acts.
The active creation of domestic migration legislation began in the 90s. The need for it was due to an increase in flows of internally displaced persons. Today, much attention is paid to issues related to:
- labor migration and optimization of the status of working migrants;
- the return to Russia of compatriots who are abroad;
- countering and preventing illegal migration;
- ensuring state security through the formation of an effective accounting and control system.
Types of Responsibility
The implementation of the provisions governing the migration of foreigners is ensured by establishing administrative and criminal liability for their failure to comply. In order to prevent the illegal movement of persons across the border and to prevent crimes committed by them, several criminal norms have been introduced that provide for various sanctions.
So, for illegal crossing of the state border, the responsibility is enshrined in Art. 322 of the Criminal Code. Organization of illegal migration is punishable under Art. 322.1 of the Code. Articles 322.2, 322.3 establish sanctions for fictitious registration and registration of foreigners on the territory of the Russian Federation.
Administrative punishment for violation of the border crossing regime is enshrined in Chapter 18 of the Code of Administrative Offenses.
Illegal border crossing as a threat to the national security of the country
The sanctions established in the Criminal Code for organizing illegal migration are quite strict. This is due to the high risk of crime.
Illegal border crossing is considered if it is committed:
- Without valid documents giving the right to enter the Russian Federation.
- Without permission issued in the prescribed manner.
- A subject whose entry into Russia is prohibited.
- With the use of violence.
- An organized group or previously conspired entities.
The act is recognized completed at the moment of crossing the state border line.
Suppression of the illegal movement of foreigners prevents the development of illegal migration.
According to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation punishment is allowed on the totality of articles. For example, if illegal movement through the state border was associated with banditry, hostage-taking, hijacking of air or rail transport, the act is qualified under Art. 322 and the relevant Codex norm.
The international cooperation
Responsibility for illegal migration is provided in almost every developed country. Against the background of aggravation of the migration crisis, many states understand the need for close interaction. To ensure this, operational communication channels are created through which there is an active exchange of information between law enforcement agencies of partner countries. Such interaction allows for coordinated actions to regulate the flow of foreigners, control illegal migration, and combat cross-border crime. Russia, for example, is a party to the Cooperation Agreement signed between the SCO countries.
Interstate interaction undoubtedly brings results. So, over the past 10 years there has been a significant change in the structure of crime by foreigners. The number of grave, especially grave assaults has significantly decreased. These changes are mainly due to the improvement of the state migration policy, the application of measures of responsibility to violators of the law.
Statistical data
However, it is worth noting that, despite the many measures taken, illegal migration is still one of the main problems of modern society. According to various estimates, in Russia annually 3-5 million foreigners are located and work illegally. So, in 2014, more than 2 million administrative protocols were drawn up on violations. Over the same period, more than 45 thousand crimes of varying severity were suppressed.
Identification of illegal activities of migrants is complicated by the fact that their activity differs in focal nature. Mostly foreigners are concentrated in developed countries, in economically successful areas.
Features of labor migration
The modern world is faced with the inevitability of the formation of huge flows of migrants. This is due to a variety of reasons. In addition to the instability of the economic situation in the countries of residence of foreigners, problems are also created by gaps in the laws of the states that accept persons from abroad.
In Russia, for example, there is no effective mechanism for quoting labor. There are also shortcomings in the system of forecasting the needs of employers in the workforce. The existing practice of creating official applications of employers is focused on large enterprises. Small and medium-sized entrepreneurs, in turn, mainly use illegal migrants. Unscrupulous employers are attracted by the opportunity to save on foreigners' wages and to hide cases of work-related injuries.
Problem solving
In order to ensure proper control over the implementation of migration legislation, several regulatory acts have been adopted that significantly simplify the process of registering foreigners and the procedure for the work of people entering Russia under a visa-free regime.
Currently, a migrant needs to obtain a patent. This document allows you to work officially. On the one hand, the introduction of the patent system has solved many issues related to labor migration. On the other hand, to obtain permission it is necessary to collect an impressive package of documents. In addition, the process of obtaining it costs a lot of money for a foreigner. As a result, many labor migrants become illegal.
Analysis of the application of standards
As the research results show, there are many difficulties in the system of regulating liability for violations of migration legislation. The consolidation in article 322.1 of the Criminal Code of such objective signs as the organization of illegal entry into the country, stay and transit of foreigners and stateless persons, suggests that citizens involved in crimes commit organizational acts. Meanwhile, statistics show that most of the entities brought to justice only provide assistance to illegal immigrants in resolving issues of legalizing their presence on the territory of the Russian Federation. Usually they are persons who transfer to the authorized state bodies inaccurate information about the place of temporary residence of migrants.
In this regard, a number of experts suggest making amendments to the rules that provide for liability for facilitating the illegal entry of foreigners and stateless entities into Russia, their stay in the country and transit travel.
Features of the activities of control bodies
The key functions in the development and implementation of state policy and regulatory regulation in the field of migration are assigned today to the FMS of the Russian Federation. The system of regulatory authorities also includes:
- FSB.
- Ministry of Internal Affairs.
- MFA.
- FSIN.
It must be said that the tasks of these institutions of power are significantly different from each other in scale, authority, methods, forms, level of specialization.
The effectiveness of preventive work largely depends on the coordination of the authorized bodies. In this regard, coordination of the actions of law enforcement agencies to prevent and combat the crime of migrants is of great importance. It is carried out by the prosecutor's office.
In the process of implementing coordination tasks:
- analyzes the dynamics, structure, crime trends of migrants;
- the practice of suppression and prevention of illegal actions is being studied;
- proposals are being developed to prevent violations of the law;
- information materials are prepared and sent to local authorities;
- interdepartmental meetings and other events are held.
Preventative work
It is considered one of the effective methods of countering illegal migration. Preventive work is carried out by various government bodies together.In addition, special operations plans are being developed, during which places of illegal accumulation of foreigners are discovered, illegal activities of organizations and individuals, transnational groups are suppressed.
Over the past few years, the FMS together with law enforcement agencies have done a great job to eliminate violations in the consumer and labor market, transport, forestry and other areas in which illegal immigrants are involved. Much has been done to eliminate the channels of illegal migration.
Prosecution activities
A special role in the fight against violations of migration law is played by prosecutors. Inspections conducted by them are carried out with the involvement of employees of the Federal Migration Service, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, territorial divisions of Rospotrebnadzor, Rostrud and other controlling authorities.
In the process of these activities, special attention is paid to the observance by employers of the rules for admitting foreigners to forestry and agricultural enterprises. Based on the results of inspections, plans are developed to implement additional measures to detect foreigners who have violated the law and those involved in organizing illegal migration.
Promising areas
Based on the analysis of the practice of preventing illegal migration, several key tasks can be distinguished, the solution of which will improve the activities of controlling structures:
- Organization of comprehensive monitoring of compliance with migration legislation.
- Identification of gaps in norms and problems of law enforcement practice.
- Development of proposals for improving regulatory regulation.
- Organization of information and analytical activities.
- Improving methods for assessing the state, dynamics of illegal migration.
- Identification of crowds of foreigners.
- The prosecution of persons who violate the requirements of the law.
- The development of emergency response mechanisms. In particular, we are talking about actions during mass migration due to armed conflicts, man-made and other disasters.
- The development of interagency cooperation to tighten measures to combat illegal migration.
Equally important is the optimization of the number of people arriving in the country, the creation of appropriate conditions for them. An important area in the prevention of illegal migration is the provision of social guarantees for foreigners. First of all, it concerns wages. To increase the transparency of the movement of funds, it is necessary to oblige the employer using migrant labor to issue a bank card or account for transferring money to each foreigner.
Additional measures
One of the factors predisposing for the development of illegal migration is the low qualification of foreigners. To obtain a residence permit, labor activity, subjects need to confirm their knowledge of the language, the basics of legislation and the history of the Russian Federation.
To overcome the low qualification level of migrants, it is necessary to simplify the procedure for obtaining citizenship of foreigners who already live in the country and are specialists, investors, graduates of domestic educational institutions or recognized as native speakers of the state language.
All these measures contribute to the strengthening of interfaith and interethnic harmony, the prevention of conflicts, and the solution of the problem of social isolation of citizens of foreign states.
As a measure to prevent the development of illegal migration, there is a reduction in the need for domestic enterprises in low-skilled workers. It is necessary to reorient the economy to attract domestic labor resources.