Russian Democratic Party YABLOKOInternational conference on migration problems takes place in Moscow

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International conference on migration problems takes place in Moscow

The way towards an efficient migration policy
should go through the solution of major Russia’s problems:
separation of business from government, building of a law-governed
and democratic state, said YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin
at the opening of an international conference on Migration.
The conference, organized by the YABLOKO party and the ALDE
party was held in Moscow on April 6.

According to Sergei Mitrokhin, the present labour laws fail
to balance the interests of the employee and the employer,
and virtually protects only the employer. “Where slave
labour is welcome, it will oust all other forms of labour
which will have its consequences,” Sergei Mitrokhin said.

Sergei Mitrokhin

Those who suffer from this are not only migrant workers, but
also Russian workers ousted from the labour market by cheaper
labour migrants and Russian pensioners who do not receive
solidarity payments to the pension fund, and the Russian society
as a whole, as the rise of ethnic-based nationalism is dangerous
for our multinational country,” he noted.

Eugenia Yurko, Bureau member of the Women’s
Organization of the Liberal Party of Moldova

Mitrokhin also quoted official statistical data: Russian
Vice Premier Olga Golodets announced that 38 million of the
70 million employees working in non-transparent conditions
“were employed nobody knew where and how”. “In these
conditions, any migration policy will resemble the texts of
plays from the theatre of absurd,” said YABLOKO leader.
According to Mitrokhin, the task of liberals and democrats
in these conditions should be to “develop solutions and
approaches close to reality in the midst of this absurdity”.

Robert Woodthorpe Browne, member of the Board
of Chatham House and Bureau member of Liberal International,
Muhammad Amin Majumder, Spokesman for the Federation of Migrants
in Russia, Sibylle Laurishk, Chair of the FDP group in Bundestag.

Mitrokhin also noted that migration policy should be based
on such values as human rights, equality and respect to the
individual. “When workers cease being slaves, their work
will be expensive, and will no longer be so attractive to
predatory businesses and so destructive to our economy, society
and the state,” said Sergei Mitrokhin.

Julius von Freytag-Loringhofen, head of the
Friedrich Naumann Foundation in Russia, Imre Sooaar, MP Estonia,
Jasenko Selimovich, Sweden’s State
Secretary of the Ministry of Labour

Grigory Yavlinsky, YABLOKO founder and member of YABLOKO’s
Political Committee, agreed that Russia, with its widespread
corruption, had been demonstrating a strong economic interest
so that the situation with migration would remain as it was.
Construction, trade and service companies using slave labour
and governmental structures associated with them are interested
in this.

Grigory Yavlinsky

According to Yavlinsky, all of the problems have been rooted
in the political and economic systems created in Russia in
the past 20 years by Boris Yeltsin and then by Vladimir Putin.
YABLOKO’s task would be development and implementation of
a comprehensive alternative to the system.

In his speech Yavlinsky also spoke of the importance of the
European experience with displaced persons and refugees. Russia
would inevitably face this problem after the withdrawal of
the US troops from Afghanistan, Yavlinsky noted.

Sir Graham Watson, ALDE party President, welcomed the conference
participants. Astrid Thors, Vice-President of the ALDE party,
delivered a key report on migration in the globalised world
and the liberal approach to the migration policy.

Astrid Thors, Vice-President of ALDE, MP

Four panel discussions were held within the framework of the
conference: “Migration dynamics and its political, economic
and cultural consequences”, “Integration of migrants of the
first and further generations: positive and negative experience”,
“Restraining and regulatory mechanisms: different countries’
experiences and international cooperation” and “Regulation
of migration: the tasks of the state and the society”. The
reports were made by Russian and foreign experts and politicians.