Focus on new immigration law

A new law governing migration from Central Asian countries to Kazakhstan sets strict rules for people who come there to visit, work, or on business. In March this year, border posts were erected with armed frontier guards and passport control. The goal of the migration law is to regulate the inflow of foreigners, protect the home labour market, and curb crime. Police say that 40 percent of crimes in Almaty, the commercial capital of Kazakhstan, are committed by migrants. No independent figures exist to support this claim. According to the national press, the new rules are causing constant tension between the Kazakh Ministry of International Affairs and its counterparts in other Central Asian states, with the latter unhappy with the way their citizens are being treated in Kazakhstan. AT THE BORDER Each foreigner entering the country is required to obtain a migration ticket and within three days of arrival to register with the local migration office. Any individual failing to do so is classified as an illegal migrant. He or she can then be detained for two days while the police confirm identity, brought to court, then charged an administrative fee of US $120 - this in a country where the minimum monthly wage is set at $38. Many travellers from neighboring countries who have crossed the border freely for decades are still unaware of the new procedures and often find themselves locked up at the migration police station for violating the new law. For example, Galina Tsoi came to Almaty from the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, to visit a friend. She was unaware of the new rules: "Last time I came to Kazakhstan, there were no customs to pass. I didn't know about the change. I was sleeping in a taxi when we were crossing the border. No one approached me or asked me to get a migration ticket," she told IRIN in Almaty, after being arrested at the migration police station. "I did not know I had to fill something out, and now I am accused of illegal migration. They confiscated my passport. They said they will lock me up for two days. I am trying to bribe the police officer, to give him $20, so that they will let me go, but he says I am offering too little." IN THE CITY After arriving in Kazakhstan, a foreigner must register at a place of residence. The owner of the accommodation then becomes responsible for the individual's actions for the duration of his stay. Usually, this means that the visitor needs to have close friends or relatives willing to provide the accommodation and take this responsibility. Each time a visitor changes his whereabouts in the country he must contact the migration office, according to Berik Zharasov, a migration police officer, in Almaty. "When you want to rent an apartment on your own, or move from one friend to another, you are required to ask us for permission, after which you will get a new registration. If not, you will have problems with us," he told IRIN. MIGRATION POLICE At the migration police station in the Bostandyk area of Almaty, each day there are about seven or eight foreigners experiencing problems over registration. They complain about the bureaucracy affecting them and impolite treatment by the police. "As soon as you walk in here you are considered guilty. They will always find something wrong with you," says Irina Zaitseva, a Russian citizen who had come to Almaty three days earlier. "I came to visit my daughter, and got sick after the long journey. I was late by one day with this registration, and now I am an illegal migrant and have to go to court and pay the fee. They don't care about your situation, it's just a money-making machine." Tsistina from Nigeria, was also arrested by the migration police. She had moved from one friend to another without informing the authorities. "I am a free person, I don't understand what crime I have committed, I don't understand why they keep me here the whole day and make me pay," she said. Nargiza Algozhoeva, a migrant from Kyrgyzstan, described the new policy as unfair and her treatment by the migration police as humiliating. "It is unbelievable. I came to the migration office myself to do everything legally, and was accused at once. How was I supposed to know the tiny details of their regulations? No one at the customs or at the office warned me. There's no information in their department," she told IRIN at the migration police station. "When I asked a police officer, Irina Sydykova, to explain the situation, she shouted at me, telling me to behave. When I tried to pick up my documents from her table, she pushed me away and said I was offending a police officer and would be put in jail. She promised to put me close to the worst criminals to make sure I don't get out healthy. It is my worst nightmare," Algozhoeva said. Critics of the system and NGOs representing migrants and refugees, say each day, Kazakh migration police are required to trace a certain number of violators to ensure a constant flow of fee money into the state treasury and to prove to their superiors that they are working effectively. One police officer, Berik Zharasov, said it had been a very efficient day for his department. "It is a lucky day for us. Some violators showed up themselves. At least today we don't have to go out to the streets and look for more. Our norm for today is fulfilled. I am very proud that I am cleaning up this city from all these illegal migrants," he told IRIN after confiscating the foreigners' passports. Zharasov described all of them as guilty because they did not know Kazakh law, "It is their fault if they are not informed about our procedures. It's a foreign country for them and they need to learn our ways before they show up. Their ignorance is not a justification. If we punish them once, they will know how to comply next time. Officers who work in the migration office are not responsible for informing the foreigners about our law," he asserted. When there are seven people at the migration police office, they are taken to the court by a police car as criminals. Since only five people can fit inside the car, two are put into the cage behind. IN COURT When they arrive at the court, the trial for each takes less than five minutes. The judge, Rustem Zhansykbaev, found everyone brought by the migration police guilty. Zharasov, who brought them to the court, says he does not remember any case when the charges were dropped. All violators are ordered to pay the fee of $120 and are then deported. "There was only me, the judge and the police officer who brought me here in the room. They said I could ask for an attorney, but it would cost me too much, so I shouldn't. When I explained my situation, they just laughed at me. They asked me why I came to Kazakhstan at all and that I should've stayed at home, because they have enough workers of their own. They told me I think too much of myself and I am trying to look too smart," Algozhoeva told IRIN after leaving the court room. Meanwhile, the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law, a joint Kazakh-US NGO, in cooperation with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), has launched a programme to provide legal help for migrants. The Office's attorney, Viktoriya Tyuleneva, told IRIN that the Kazakh migration police were not interpreting the migration law correctly. "They say that a foreigner has to live where he is registered with the police, but that's not what the law says. We are constantly fighting to make them understand their mistake. If each of these foreigners accused today of illegal migration agreed to take our help and goes back to court to restate their case, we would win. It may take months, though, and not many of them are willing to sacrifice their time for this," she said. Tyuleneva asserted that in their treatment of foreigners the migration police themselves were constantly violating the law. "They are not allowed to intimidate or apply force. They are not allowed to confiscate their passports and detain them for 10 days. They do it so that people don't go to the court of appeal," she said. DEPORTATION Each month, about 14,000 migrants are deported from Kazakhstan. Once this happens, they encounter difficulties if they try to return. Many of them therefore try to obtain new passports, as their old ones bear the stamp "deported". Foreigners who fail to pay the $120 fee are jailed and later expelled from the country. According to the Kyrgyz press, there was recently a case when 500 Kyrgyz, Uzbek and Tajik citizens accused of illegal migration were held in jail in Almaty for four days without food. They were then taken to the border with Kyrgyzstan and forced to leave, with the Kazakh police firing into the air to get them moving.