Window on Eurasia: Russia’s First Illegal Alien Deportation Camp Opens in
Krasnodar
29 December 2004
Paul Goble
Tartu, December 29 – A camp intended to confine illegal
immigrants until they can be speedily deported from the Russian Federation
opened today in Krasnodar krai, the first such camp to be opened in
post-Soviet Russia and one organized in such a way that it seems certain to
exacerbate ethnic tensions not only there but elsewhere as well.
Krasnodar Governor Aleksandr Tkachev, who has long pushed this
idea, said at the opening that “we have begun the struggle with univited
guests, and we will continue this work to find, detain, and expell those who
do not wish to obey” Russian laws, Radio Mayak Kubani reported earlier
today. ( )
Tkachev added that people living in his territory “ought to be
able to live a peaceful life and not be afraid of going out to work or to
rest. And as experience shows, among these illegal [migrants], there are
criminals.”
In the near future, Krasnoyarsk officials have indicated that
they plan to open three additional camps elsewhere in that southern Russian
region. Each of these four tent cities will hold up to 150 people pending
deportation and will be heavily guarded, according to “Novyyze izvestiya.”
(See .)
This action comes following a significant increase in the
reported number of illegal aliens coming into the region from the Caucasus
and Central Asia and the apparent inability of officials there to control
the situation, even though in the last year alone they had increased the
number of militia officers solely responsible for dealing with this issue to
400.
Officials both in Moscow and the regions are attempting to deal
with the anger many Russians feel toward illegal immigrants, especially
those from the Caucasus and Central Asia. But so far, most of the measures
they have tried have proved ineffective often because of the corruption of
militia officers who often are willing to allow illegal aliens to remain for
a price.
That has led to calls for more radical measures like those now
being introduced in Krasnodar. But there are three reasons for thinking
that these steps are likely to exacerbate ethnic tensions there even if they
succeed in reducing the influx of illegal aliens from the Caucasus or
further afield.
First, Tkachev has played upon popular prejudice by suggesting
that illegal immigrants are responsible for a rise in crime. Research by
the Interior Ministry in Moscow and by the noted ethnosociologist Emil Pain
have disproved that contention, but many Russians are inclined to believe
it. Tkachev’s remarks will only reinforce such attitudes.
Second, the Krasnodar authorities say that they will organize
the camps on ethnic lines. That is, they will put people from Ukraine and
Moldova in one of the camps, people from Armenia in another, and those from
Central Asian countries in a third. Intended to make the management of these
camps easier, this step could easily have just the opposite effect.
(Other Russian regional governments which have thought about
setting up such filtration camps in the past have concluded that it would be
a mistake to organize them along ethnic lines, lest that provoke an
explosion. ( ).)
And third, Tkachev and his staff say that they want to do all
this without putting undue burdens on Krasnodar taxpayers. To that end,
they have created tent cities with few amenities. And they plan to force
the illegal migrants to pay for their own deportations either on their own
or by getting money from their co-ethnics who are living in the krai
legally.
The logic behind that approach seems to be that this will make
the local non-Russian communities less willing to help their co-ethnics come
to Krasnodar, but it is entirely likely that in at least some cases, this
tactic will provoke anti-government and even anti-Russian feelings among
both those confined and those who are told to help them.
Tkachev’s policies may nonetheless be popular with ethnic
Russians there who are angry about illegal immigration. Consequently and
especially in the absence of serious criticism from outside, what he does
may very well be copied by others in other region’s of the country where the
influx of illegal migrants is large.
But even such draconian measures may not reduce the number of illegal aliens
any time soon. Economic and demographic pressures are simply too great. What
such steps almost certainly will do, however, is to further divide the
Russian Federation’s ethnic communities and thus make the achievement of
interethnic accord there that much more difficult.