Press Release, 27.06.2025

Photo by Dmitry Lebedev, Kommersant

The head of the Presidential Human Rights Council Valery Fadeyev called for expelling migrant families from Russia if their children do not go to school. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, there are almost 786,000 minor foreigners in Russia. At the same time, the number of foreign children studying in schools is about 192,000 people.

Earlier, the proposal to expel from Russia those migrant families whose children do not go to school was made by State Duma deputy from the New People faction Sardana Avksentyeva.

Both speakers motivate the need to expel non-residents of Russia from the country by increasing risks to social stability and security, as well as the increasing influence of the crime factor.

Meanwhile, on 1 April, the law banning the admission of migrant children to Russian schools if they don’t know the Russian language came into force. And 1.5 month later, the authorities announced disappointing figures of the consequences of the anti-migrant law: only 4% of children of immigrants to Russia were enrolled in general education schools after overcoming the entry language barrier.

Deputy Chairman of the Yabloko party Maxim Kruglov notes that the problem with a large number of minors who turn to be beyond the state supervision was predicted at the stage of discussing the law on the Russian language exam:

“This is a consequence of a stupid, ill-considered and populist decision by the authorities against the backdrop of anti-migrant sentiments. They are proposing to solve the problem, as always, in the most populist and radical way.

The head of the Human Rights Council has apparently forgotten what his job is. Human rights are the right to a decent life, including education. Today, thanks to the populism of the Russian authorities, thousands of children are deprived of this right.

Instead of defending children’s rights to education and cultural assimilation, guided by the law, the Constitution and the principles of Christian benevolence, he sides with populist MPs.

The problem created by MPs is obvious. It is necessary to reconsider the insane and thoughtless decision to ban migrant children who do not know Russian from attending Russian schools. It is necessary to introduce assimilation mechanisms, in particular, Russian language courses in primary schools.”