Rustam Minnikhanov: “There must not be any criminal migrants in Tatarstan”

On December 17 at an extended session of the Council for interethnic and interconfessional relations Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov said that Tatarstan leadership intends fighting illegal migration, and at the same time is ready to support law-abiding foreign citizens willing to live, study and work in the republic. He noted as well that citizens are concerned about migration issues and this problem also refers to authorities and law enforcement bodies.

Rustam Minnikhanov focused on several aspects concerning the raised problem. Firstly, migration flow is a global challenge, he said. Because of geopolitical processes, a lot of migrants came to Russia and Tatarstan. According to Rustam Minnikhanov, 170650 foreign citizens were registered in the republic within the last 11 months.

Secondly, migration is the way to attract skilled manpower resources, the President continued.

Thirdly, migration leads to conflict of religions, cultures and traditions. Though solid steps are taken in the republic to regulate migration flows, the situation is rather complicated, because migrants bring radical religious and nationalistic ideas. Therefore, the public and government must immediately correct approaches to migration process.

Tatarstan President called for analyzing the current situation, working out regulation of migration flows, and preventing interethnic conflicts.

Head of Tatarstan Department of Federal migration service Sergey Chepushtanov made report on implementation of migration policy in Tatarstan.

Tatarstan Prosecutor Ildus Nafikov and Minister of the Interior Artem Khokhorin also presented reports at the meeting.

Summing up, Tatarstan President called for suppressing corruption ties of migrants and authorities, and involving migrants in labour activity. He also addressed ministries and agencies with request to prepare their own legislative proposals for discussion on the federal level.