DUSHANBE, November 25, 2011, Asia-Plus – Introduction of visa regime with a number of Central Asia’s countries, including Tajikistan, is currently impossible, Russia’s Federal Migration Service (FMS) head Konstantin Romodanovsky noted.

“There ought to take into account the creation of a common Eurasian space and the move toward the Asian Bloc.  Only the person who did not apply himself may speak about imposition of visa regime on citizens of these countries,” Russia’s FMS told RBK in an interview.

He added that the existence of visa-free regime with those countries was also explained by requirements of the demographic situation.  According to experts’ estimates, some 330,000 migrant workers are needed per year to ensure regular work of Russia’s economy, Romodanovsky said.

At the same time, he noted that according to the statistical data from the Ministry of Interior, some 3.4 percent of crimes in Russia are committed by migrants.  Illegal migration causes a serious loss to Russia’s economy, the MFS head said, noting that tax losses amount to some 40 billion Russian rubles.

“At present 1,700 illegal migrants are being held at special detention centers of the FMS; they were detained in Moscow in November for violation of migration law and one third of them are Tajiks,” Romodanovsky noted.

According to him, illegal migrants will be deported following appropriate decision of a court.  He added that detention and deportation of Tajik illegal migrants was not connected with the conviction of pilots of Rolkan Investment Ltd in Tajikistan.

Meanwhile, hundreds of Tajiks have been arrested in Moscow alone in the week since a Tajik court sentenced a Russian and an Estonian pilot to prison sentences on November 8 for their unauthorized refueling stops en route from Kabul.

We will recall that rumors about imposition of visa regime on Tajik citizens appeared against the backcloth of a political scandal caused by the verdict passed on a Russian pilot by a Tajik court.