Russia is conducting raids on raids on dormitories and apartments known to house Central Asian migrants and is carrying out mass deportations in response to the recent terrorist attack on Moscow, Russian independent media outlet Meduza reported on March 30.
Several gunmen opened fire at the Crocus City Hall in Krasnogorsk, a Moscow suburb, on the evening of March 22, killing 139 people.
A branch of the Islamic State (ISIS) claimed responsibility for the attack shortly thereafter, and Russia detained four men from Tajikistan, the alleged perpetrators of the attack. In total, over a dozen people have been arrested under suspicion of having a connection to the attack.
Reports suggest the attack has exacerbated existing anti-Tajik and anti-migrant sentiments in Russia, a country that hosts millions of workers from Tajikistan and other former Soviet Central Asian nations.
In the last week of March, courts in St Petersburg "received 584 cases of administrative offenses in connection with non-compliance with migration legislation," Meduza said.
Of this number, 515 cases were reviewed, and 418 foreigners were ordered to go to special temporary detention centers to await expulsion.
"Another 48 people must pay a fine and leave the Russian Federation on their own," Meduza said.
Two planes of deportees took off from St Petersburg's Pulkovo airport on March 28 alone, an unnamed human rights lawyer told Meduza.
"All special detention centers are overcrowded," the lawyer said.
Tajikistan's Labor, Employment, and Migration Ministry reported on March 30 that more Tajik migrants in Russia were returning home than usual.
Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) claimed on March 29 to have prevented another "terrorist attack in a crowded place" in Stavropol Krai in southern Russia.
The FSB claimed to have detained three citizens of an unnamed Central Asian country who allegedly planned to cause an explosion.
Katie Marie Davies
