Migrant workers from Central Asia now face a new form of extortion at the
hands of Moscow police. In a series of "phony deportations", police have
rounded up illegal workers but instead of sending them back to their
homelands, they simply dumped them on deserted roads on the outskirts of the
Russian capital.

Police still strip the illegal migrants of all the cash they have on them,
an illegal practice common when real deportations occur, but they save on
the cost of sending the detainees back to their home countries.

Shavkat Shukrullaev, 33, was among 20 men from Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and
Kyrgyzstan who were picked up by police on March 7. He has been working on
building sites around Moscow for eight years, returning periodically to
Uzbekistan with money for his family. Life as a migrant worker has never
been easy, but recently it has become intolerable, he told IWPR.

"The Moscow law-enforcement agencies know that we all have fake immigration
cards, and they exploit that to the hilt," he said. "But in the past, they
simply took our money. Now they have started tormenting us."

The group was detained at a police station for three days, before a
deportation order was issued.

"We signed some papers and resigned ourselves to going home," said
27-year-old Bolotbek Dyikanbaev, from Kyrgyzstan. "Then we were put on a bus
to go to the airport."

However, about 25 kilometres outside Moscow the bus turned into a deserted
road off the main highway. The group were ordered off, given their passports
back, and the bus and police escort drove off.

"We didn't have any cash, because the police had taken it all," said
Dyikanbaev. "Fortunately, we were dumped only 15 km from the building site
where we worked. So we walked all the way back."

For many, this was not the first such experience.

"This time we were lucky," said Shukrullaev. "The man we work for turned out
to be a decent person. We offered our services again and he gave the police
some money to leave us alone as long as we're working for him. And he pays
us properly, which is rare."

IWPR has learned that records at the police station where the group were
held state that they were "deported to their place of residence", in other
words whichever Central Asian country they come from.

"The fact that the documents say they were deported shows that funds were
allocated to pay the deportation costs," said Anna Berezina, a lawyer at the
human rights organisation Moscow Partnership. "If the guest workers didn't
even make it as far as the airport, it's not difficult to guess where that
money went."

Berezina says there have been numerous similar episodes recently.

Migrant workers are vulnerable to such rackets because they often lack the
right documents allowing them to live and work in Russia.

In theory, they have the right to acquire legal status, but in practice that
is difficult. New arrivals must register with the authorities within three
days, but migrant labourers cannot do this themselves. They must be
registered by their landlords, which in most cases means their bosses since
almost all of them live in hostel accommodation provided by their employers.


Moreover, when employers do supply their workers with immigration cards, the
documents have often been faked. Newspapers are full of adverts for
registration documents.

"Russian businessmen hire guest workers for profit," said Polat Jamalov of
the Moscow House of Nationalities, a body set up by the Moscow city
government to look after the rights of ethnic minorities. "That is their
main interest. They don't want to waste time registering seasonal workers -
especially since there are benefits to be gained from their illegal status."


Employers are often in league with the police, who are fully aware of which
building sites employ unregistered workers, he added.

"Everyone knows about the behaviour of the Moscow law-enforcement agencies,
but no one can do anything to stop them," said Berezina. "That is the most
frightening thing about it. Russia has become a police state and human
rights initiatives to help the victims have no effect whatsoever.

"Technically, the guest workers are criminals who have broken the
immigration rules, so they cannot protect themselves. Illegal registration
is worth millions. It's a business, controlled directly by the
law-enforcement bodies."

An IWPR survey of guest workers found that almost half the Central Asians
employed on building sites have already experienced "deportation" to the
forests around Moscow.

"We now sew money into a concealed pocket so when we end up in the forest we
can wave down passing cars and offer the drivers some cash to take us back
to our workplace," said Abduvahid Khojiev from Uzbekistan.

Russian law stipulates that illegal migrants have the right to three
warnings, after which the immigration services can begin the deportation
process. In practice, the system often provides a license for extortion.

"We warn every illegal migrant about deportation, and give him a fine," a
senior police lieutenant within the Nagatin police department told IWPR. "Of
course, we exploit the fact that migrants are scared of deportation from
Russia, as this means a five-year ban on re-entering the country."

Central Asian migrants are desperate to stay, since even if they are at the
bottom of the employment heap and subject to discrimination in Moscow, the
wages they can earn here are still worth the hardship because life is so
tough in their countries.

"I was detained at the police station three times within ten days, and then
told that I would be deported," said Shukrullaev. "For us, the word
deportation is synonymous with death, because if we really are deported,
then we won't be able to come back. Then we can no longer make a living,
because you can't make this kind of money in Uzbekistan."

But this time Shukrullaev remained in Russia. Deportation would have stopped
him being a continuing source of income.

Erbol Jumagulov .