Biding Time Awaiting Deportation. Inside Detention Centers for Illegal Immigrants
Today is international tourism day. Millions of foreigners visit our country every year. But not everyone is interested in the attractions. Some come over with other goals, material ones. They work illegally or make money, using illegal ways. But in what conditions do foreigners, who break Russian laws, await deportation? Andrey Romanov reports on the issue.
Vakhtang Bassaria quickly makes his bed and packs his bag. Today, he will leave the center for temporary holding of foreign citizens. Vakhtang has spent 2 years and 10 days in a small cell. This is the maximum allowed term. He couldn't be deported.
The old man doesn't officially have a homeland. Vakhtang calls himself a USSR citizen. The only paper he has is a release form. "My family is here, they're all Russian citizens. My brother, my sister, my wife and kids, they're all Russian citizens. I'm a Georgian from Abkhazia, they won't make me a passport here or there. I don't need a Georgian passport. So, I've been living in Moscow since 1993", — he said.
The Center for temporary holding of foreign citizens appeared in New Moscow in 2014. Three buildings can accommodate over 1,000 detainees. Most of them have violated immigration laws. Some of them have committed crimes in Russia and have served their sentences.
Foreigners are brought here after a court's decision. Then there is only one way out — deportation to their homeland.
The Center for temporary holding of foreign citizens begins with this door. Bailiffs bring them here, then they are placed in these cells. There are only 4 cells, but up to 6,000 people go through each in a year.
Just like in prison, everyone has their own file. They take their fingerprints. It's important, often foreigners have no papers, and they can introduce themselves any way.
- People come, claiming to be someone else. They think that this way we'll let them go sooner. But they are wrong. Normally, this only makes them stay here longer.
For instance, Utkirbek Togilbaev could've gone home four months ago. He says the confusion began in the police department, where he was mistaken for someone else. Utkirbek decided to keep quiet. "My friend and I came there, they took our fingerprints. They mixed up our names", — Utkirbek Togilbaev said.
Now Utkirbek's friend, Nasabjon Rudziev is charged with illegal immigration. He left for Uzbekistan a while ago, and he has no idea about problems with the law. Togilbaev has another court date coming.
Alexey Lagoda, chief of The Center for temporary holding of foreign citizens: "If the person introduced themselves to be someone else, they used to stay here for 1-2 years. Now there's a new process of retrial, there's a new system, and it works. Basically, people that are here under someone else's information, they only stay here 3-5 months".
There's not much to do in the Center for temporary holding. They can visit the library, play board games with each other, read the news, sometimes they're allowed to use cell phones. It's not prohibited to make a short phone call home, unlike jail or a prison. Cells in this center are like those in a prison. The same bunk beds, nightstands, and a table. The only difference is the windows, with bars located outside. They can always open a window for some fresh air. And the conditions are much softer, than those in a prison. But it's really boring for the foreigners to spend days and months until deportation. Especially for those, who came here from prison. There, along with everyone else, they could learn a new profession. They could work and even get paid.
In Mordovia, they have a prison especially for foreign convicts. They're held there under common conditions, as compared to other convicts. Labor isn't assumed for these people in the Center for temporary holding. They simply await deportation.
Gita Lakatosh likes these rules. She came from a migrating nation and hasn't worked a day in her life. She has plenty of criminal talents, but no citizenship. So, she ended up in the Center for temporary holding: "When my mom had me, she never had any papers, so now I'm here. My family left me here, they all went home, and I stayed here".
But Gita is pleased with the conditions, awaiting lunchtime. She's really fond of the food, paid by the government, that they serve here.
- How is the soup?
- It's good.
This is the opinion of the Center's full time medical worker. They bring the food here, but he acts as the Chef, trying food before serving it. He says they usually finish everything they're served. Only dark-skinned ladies from the second floor may be picky. No camera, please, my stomach hurts. Exotic beauties, in broken Russian, explain that this harsh food isn't for their fragile stomachs.
They complain this wasn't the life they wanted, when they crossed the Russian border illegally. Do you call yourselves stylists? Ladies from far-away Nigeria hide their faces for a reason. Almost all of them have experience with the police and with the press. These girls go this long way between continents not for the Russian birches, they choose the most ancient profession.
But even after months in the Center of temporary holding and deportation, the exotic ladies return almost right away. They say after only a month working in a brothel, they can make good money in Nigerian terms.
But Vakhtang Bassaria believes that freedom is more valuable than money. He carries a small bag, when he heads for the gate. He says his warm goodbye to the Center's employees and promises to come back. He knows he'll end up here after his first run-in with the police without a passport.
Andrey Romanov, Sergey Evdokimov, Andrey Semenov. Vesti, Police call center.