Prudent measure: laws that strengthen supervision of migrants will hit students
At the end of last week, three bills were submitted to the State Duma at once, which should strengthen supervision over the medical examination of foreign citizens, including migrant workers. A single 30-day medical examination period is being established for everyone, fines for refusing it are being increased, and criminal liability for falsifying medical certificates is being introduced. One of the reasons for accepting the documents, stated in the explanatory notes, is the likelihood of mass infections with dangerous diseases due to foreign workers. However, experts note that the new bills will not directly affect migrant workers, but will primarily affect international students. Izvestia dealt with the situation.
What is the essence of the draft laws
The bills were submitted to the State Duma on January 16, on the same day, the committee of the lower house of parliament on state construction and legislation made a proposal to adopt the documents. Obviously, this will not be the case — they have the signatures of all 450 deputies.
The explanatory note to the first of the bills states that "a significant part of foreign citizens do not undergo medical examination," which creates a risk of the spread of infectious diseases in Russia. Therefore, it is proposed to amend the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation, increasing the administrative responsibility for the refusal or evasion of a foreigner from a medical examination. According to the new rules, if they are adopted, a fine of 25 thousand to 50 thousand rubles will be imposed for this, and administrative expulsion from Russia is also possible.
At the same time, it is proposed to punish foreigners for violating the established procedure for conducting medical examinations for possible drug use.
The explanatory note in support of the bill states that Roszdravnadzor conducted 90 inspections last year and in 57% of cases revealed violations of the procedure for conducting medical examinations. Among the most common violations of the procedure for conducting medical examinations are, in particular, the lack of results of a fluorographic examination and incomplete chemical and toxicological studies. In this regard, 12 medical organizations were already deprived of their licenses last year.
The second bill proposes to establish a single period of medical examination for foreign citizens — within 30 calendar days from the date of entry into Russia. It also introduces an obligation for authorized medical organizations to post medical reports on the results of these examinations in the unified health information system. If a dangerous statement or the fact of drug use by a migrant is revealed, medical organizations should inform the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia and Rospotrebnadzor about this.
And in order to block the market of gray services in this area, the deputies propose to establish a direct ban on organizations that are authorized to conduct medical examinations to transfer this right to third parties.
The third bill establishes criminal liability for forgery and trafficking of forged official documents on the absence of diseases that pose a danger to others. It is proposed to supplement the Criminal Code with article 235.2.
Now these actions fall under Article 327 of the Criminal Code on forgery of documents. But the deputies consider the punishment too lenient. At the same time, as stated in the explanatory note, there were cases when employees of educational, medical and children's institutions used fake medical books and other official documents, and this "led to massive infections, including children, with dangerous diseases."
According to the first part of the new article, the maximum penalty is up to four years in prison, up to five years if a certificate of absence of a dangerous infectious disease is forged, and up to eight years if these actions have led to mass infection of people.
Who will be affected by the changes
According to the collection "Labor and Employment in Russia" by Rosstat, in 2024 the average annual number of foreign labor migrants was 3.2 million people. Their number decreased relative to 2022 and 2023, when there were 3.4 and 3.6 million, respectively. Data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs generally confirm this figure: 6.3 million foreigners arrived in Russia in 2024, about half of them for work purposes.
Currently, according to the legislation, mandatory medical examination is provided for foreigners and stateless persons who entered Russia for the purpose of work. All those who have been in the country for more than 90 days for other purposes are required to take it.
Migrants are usually tested for HIV, syphilis, tuberculosis, and viral hepatitis, and examinations are conducted by a psychiatrist, dermatovenerologist, phthisiologist, and other specialists. A drug use test is required. The medical examination is carried out by accredited medical organizations from the official register of the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. This is for a fee: depending on the region, a medical examination can cost from 2 to 15 thousand rubles.
Boris Panich, director of the PSP Charitable Foundation, an interregional resource center for migration and interethnic relations, notes that in practice, all foreign citizens who come to Russia to work must already undergo a medical examination within 30 days, while the rest must undergo up to 90 days.
"The main categories that will be affected by the proposed reduction from 90 to 30 days are foreign students and unemployed family members of EAEU citizens," he said in an interview with Izvestia.
Vladimir Volokh, a professor at the State University of Management (GUU), also draws attention to the problems of international students and suggests that they still increase the duration of their medical examination to at least 60 days.
It should be noted that, according to the Ministry of Education and Science, more than 400 thousand foreigners are currently studying in Russia.
Will there be any problems with medical examination
Nikolay Kurdyumov, President of the Union of Experts and Consultants in the Field of Labor Migration, the International Labor Migration Alliance, noted that the proposed bills would require regulation in the regions, primarily in terms of ensuring the work of medical organizations.
According to him, only in Moscow the examination for diseases is carried out in one place — in the GBU MMC Sakharovo, in other regions migrants have to go to several different medical institutions. He believes that the new bills "will significantly increase the number of applications to medical organizations of foreign citizens." The Union of Experts and Specialists in Labor Migration compares this situation with exams in the Russian language: when they were banned from being held in third-party organizations, universities simply stopped coping with the flow of those who want to take the exam.
In this regard, Nikolai Kurdyumov suggests separating the flows of foreign citizens and the local population, and for this he suggests conducting mandatory medical examinations of foreigners in one place — on the basis of branches of temporary detention centers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs or on the basis of mobile medical complexes created at checkpoints across the state border.
At the same time, the Union emphasizes that the draft laws will not reduce the interest of migrant workers in Russia, because nothing actually changes for them. The deadlines remain the same, and the new rules will not affect prices.
Project Manager legality.ru Elena Trainis also notes that in Moscow there is no problem with migrants passing medical examinations, and it is almost impossible to forge a certificate. Previously, it was possible to undergo medical examinations in a large number of private medical institutions, but now it is only possible in authorized state medical centers, and all data is already entered into a special register.
Vladimir Volokh also calls the medical examination procedure uncomplicated. According to him, a medical examination can be completed in one day and within 6 thousand rubles. Nevertheless, Professor GUU supported the introduction of additional liability for forged certificates and administrative expulsion of persons who violated or evaded medical examination.
Do migrants cause mass illnesses
Boris Panich notes that cases of foreigners detecting diseases that pose a danger to others, as well as cases of their using fake medical reports, exist, but they are definitely not widespread. Nevertheless, he calls the increased responsibility for forgery of documents confirming the absence of diseases and for evading medical examination the right measure.
Vladimir Volokh also emphasizes that the draft laws will not reduce the risk of the spread of dangerous diseases, since the existing procedure met the requirements of sanitary and medical control over foreigners. He is also unaware of any serious incidents involving the spread of diseases by migrant workers.
Elena Treinis notes that there are a number of migrants who do not understand the requirements of Russian migration legislation and ignore the procedures prescribed by law, including passing a medical examination.
— But this is more a question of the general culture of the incoming migrants. If we talk specifically about migrant workers, then if their admission is carried out on an organized basis and employers are responsible for the correct paperwork and for their departure to their homeland in case of health problems, then the problem, in my opinion, will be solved for this category of migrants," she said.
The Union of Experts and Specialists in Labor Migration noted that the purpose of the draft laws is rather to streamline the existing system, rather than to stop the spread of dangerous diseases.
"Neither the explanatory note provides any specific examples of the spread of diseases due to migrants, nor do we in our Union know about this,— the Union told Izvestia.
The representative of the Union emphasizes that there is virtually no market for fake medical certificates for migrants: there is no point in this. There were unscrupulous schemes, but rather on the part of medical institutions: for example, several years ago, syphilis and gonorrhea were allegedly massively detected among those entering from Kyrgyzstan and sent for a second paid examination, which did not confirm the disease, the organization said.
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