Recommendations

To the Russian Government

• Establish accessible, effective complaint mechanisms and rigorously investigate complaints of abuse made by migrant workers, irrespective of a migrant workers' contractual status or migration status.

• Rigorously enforce the legal requirement for employers to provide written employment contracts to workers, including migrant workers.

• Ensure the same protections and access to redress mechanisms to all migrant workers, including those without employment contracts (trudovoi dogovor), such as workers who have only retainer contracts (grazhdansko-pravovoi dogovor) or no contracts at all.

oExpand the authority of Rostrud to investigate fully complaints of any labor law violations, including wage violations, even in cases in which there is no employment contract.

oEnsure that Rostrud has sufficient staff trained in addressing the complaints of migrant workers, including in cases when there is no employment contract.

oEstablish a separate department in Rostrud to work closely with the Federal Migration Service to address the specific complaints and circumstances of migrant workers.

oTrain prosecutors to more rigorously investigate complaints made by migrant workers, including criminal as well as labor claims. Emphasize that all labor claims should be pursued, even in the absence of written labor contracts, and encouraging pursuit of evidence other than written labor contracts to demonstrate employment relations.

oTrain judges to consider all cases of alleged violations of the rights of migrant workers, even those in which workers do not have employment contracts to demonstrate formal work relations, including by emphasizing the possibility that other evidence may be sufficient to prove employment relations.

oExpand the capacity of the Russian human rights ombudsman's office and regional human rights ombudsman's offices to respond to complaints by migrant workers.

• Rigorously investigate and prosecute employers who confiscate passports, deny workers legal contracts, withhold wages, and force employees to work long hours, or commit other violations of Russian law.

o Cooperate with the nine governments of the former Soviet Union with whom Russia maintains a non-visa regime to facilitate prosecutions and investigations of abusive employers in Russia, including by facilitating the participation in the investigation of complaints, and any legal proceedings, by victims who have already returned home.

o Establish and enforce minimum standards for company-provided housing and food for migrant construction workers to ensure that workers who live on the territory adjacent to the worksites are guaranteed adequate shelter and sufficient quality and variety of food necessary for long hours of hard physical labor.

• Take immediate action to inform and educate migrant construction workers arriving in Russia of their rights under Russian law.

o Conduct information and rights awareness campaigns as part of the work permit application process as well as for arriving migrant workers at train stations, airports, and other locations.

o Consider organizing these campaigns in conjunction with employers, NGOs, diaspora groups, and embassies of governments whose citizens work in Russia.

o As part of rights-awareness training, ensure that migrant workers are aware of the complaint mechanisms available to them and the location and contact information of relevant offices.

o To the greatest extent possible, written materials should be available in the languages of the migrants. 

· Remove remaining obstacles for migrant workers to quickly and easily regularize their stay in Russia.

o Revise the three-day rule for residency registration to allow more days for migrant workers to identify a residence or employer before being required to register on the migration registry.

o Ensure work permits are issued promptly, within the time limits established under law.

o Simplify the procedure for migrant workers to obtain the medical documents necessary for a work permit to remain valid. This may be achieved by allowing a greater number of hospitals and clinics to issue the necessary certificates; by working with medical staff to streamline and expedite testing; and by working with regional governments to establish a uniform documentation procedure and allow migrants to obtain the necessary documents in their home countries.

· Establish a clear regulatory framework for state and private employment agencies, individual employment recruiters and other intermediaries, and adequately fund mechanisms for regular monitoring of these entities, which should include, at a minimum, unannounced agency visits and document audits to verify compliance with the regulatory framework .

o The regulatory framework for employment agencies and individual employment recruiters should include a clear definition of what constitutes an individual recruiter, detailed operating requirements, and mandatory licensing procedures.

o Prosecute employment agencies and individual employment recruiters found in violation of laws, including by consistently applying dissuasive and proportional sanctions and, in cases of egregious violation, closing the violating agencies and revoking individual recruiters' operating licenses. 

o Establish laws requiring all employment agencies operating in Russia to provide workers with employment contracts prior to their employment. The contracts should clearly specify the terms and conditions of their employment and are signed by their future employers.

o Upon identification of falsified residency registration or work permit documents in a migrant worker's possession, the police or Federal Migration Service should notify the prosecutor's office, who should undertake an investigation to identify and prosecute those responsible for issuing false documents.

· Take comprehensive measures to combat racism and xenophobia.

o Issue statements at the highest level condemning racism, xenophobia, and discrimination, and racist statements or actions of any kind by public officials or private actors.

o All political parties should refrain from any anti-immigrant political rhetoric.

· Enact a comprehensive program to stop police abuse and discrimination.

o The General Prosecutor's Office should rigorously investigate all allegations of abuse by police, including ill-treatment and forced labor, and prosecute perpetrators to the fullest extent possible. Such investigations should have the full participation of the victims and be carried out irrespective of whether a migrant worker is in full compliance with migration and labor laws.

o The Ministry of Internal Affairs should incorporate, as part of the compulsory training of police and other law enforcement agents, international and Russian laws. prohibiting ill-treatment, forced labor, and discrimination. The Ministry of Internal Affairs should suspend from active duty all police under investigation and dismiss those convicted of serious abuse or for repeated violations.

o The Ministry of Internal Affairs should undertake a thorough review of the policies regulating spot document inspections and prohibit ethnic profiling and other discriminatory practices.

o The Ministry of Internal Affairs should collect and publish comprehensive data on investigations, prosecutions and sanctions against police guilty of abuses against migrants. 

· Ensure that initiatives by regional and municipal authorities to provide subsidized housing and other services for migrant workers provide for integration of migrants and reduce segregation

o Services for migrant workers should be organized in accordance with the 2008 Resolution of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (1618) "State of democracy in Europe. Measures to improve the democratic participation of migrants." In particular, assess initiatives for creating separate housing centers for migrants and consider other forms of assistance that would reduce the risk of segregation such as:

• Providing and facilitating fair access to quality housing, including subsidized housing, in existing neighborhoods;
• Developing incentives for employers to provide quality, subsidized housing to migrant workers;
• Developing incentives for employers to provide free language courses where such need exists.

• Sign and ratify the following international treaties relevant to protection of migrant workers and in all cases comply with treaty-body reporting requirements and recommendations

o The International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.

o The Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

o The European Convention on the Legal Status of Migrant Workers and ratify the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings.

• Implement the recommendations of the concluding observations by the Committee for the Elimination on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination published in August 2008 following its review of Russia, concerning non-citizen and ethnic minority workers, including providing effective remedies for victims and by training judges and labour inspectors on the application of articles 2 and 3 of the Labour Code.

• Issue a standing invitation to the UN Special Rapporteurs on the Human Rights of Migrants and on Trafficking in Persons to conduct country visits.

• Comply fully with Resolution 1509 (2006) of Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe "Human rights of irregular migrants" and issue statements at highest level reaffirming the need to observe the rights of irregular migrants. 

To Labor-Sending Countries' Governments

• Develop or expand public rights education and awareness-raising for prospective migrant workers.

oDisseminate information on rights under international and Russian law; the obligations of employment agencies and other intermediaries; and mechanisms in Russia and the home country for filing complaints against employers, intermediaries, and police.

oCooperate with local NGOs and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in developing and implementing these programs.

oEnsure that awareness-raising programs function not only in major cities, but also in villages. Consider conducting rights education programs for students about to graduate from secondary schools and for university students, as well as at state unemployment agency offices. 

oEnsure that awareness-raising programs also function at major train stations, bus stations, and airports from which migrant workers regularly depart for Russia.

· Cooperate with Russia to facilitate prosecutions and investigations of abusive employers in Russia, including by facilitating the involvement of victims who have already returned home.

• Establish a clear regulatory framework for state and private employment agencies, individual employment recruiters and other intermediaries, and adequately fund mechanisms for regular monitoring of these entities.

oProsecute employment agencies found in violation of laws, including by consistently applying dissuasive and proportional sanctions and, in cases of egregious violation, closing the violating agencies and revoking individual recruiters' operating licenses.  

oEstablish new laws or enforce existing laws requiring all employment agencies to provide workers with employment contracts prior to their employment. The contracts should clearly specify the terms and conditions of their employment and are signed by their future employers.

oEnsure that the examination of complaints brought by migrant workers against employment agencies is conducted by a body independent of the body responsible for licensing of employment agencies, to guarantee a fair hearing.

oEstablish cooperation between private and state employment agencies and consular or migration representatives in Russia and assist the agencies in evaluating prospective employers. 

• Enhance the labor departments of embassies and consulates in Russia to assist migrant workers.  

oAssign at least one labor attaché or other labor specialist to the embassy.

oCooperate with private and state employment agencies and individual recruiters, both in Russia and in workers' home countries, to help them evaluate prospective employers and conduct follow-up assessments, including by maintaining a database of employers found to have committed labor rights abuses.

oRegularly conduct rights trainings for migrant workers arriving in Russia, including at train stations, bus stations, and airports where migrant workers most frequently arrive.

oConduct rights trainings in Russian regions where a large population of the home country's nationals are living and working, whether through trips to that region, through cooperation with local NGOs or diaspora groups, or in other ways.

oEstablish an embassy hotline specifically for migration and labor-related questions, and ensuring that the staff of that hotline have training to provide information and referrals to relevant legal, social, and other services to those who call.

· Cooperate with Russia, including through bi-lateral and regional mechanisms, to create mutually recognized medical examination certificates.

To International Donors, Including Private, State, and Inter-governmental Entities

·Provide greater financial support for local NGOs and others providing support to or capable of providing support to migrant workers in Russia and sending countries.

o In many cases this may mean identifying existing human rights organizations, lawyers' associations, or others not currently engaged on migrant workers' rights, but capable and interested in doing so.

o Expand support, training, and resources for lawyers to pursue cases of migrant workers.

o Projects designed to promote the capacity of migration bodies to protect migrant workers, should include assistance in the development of fair and transparent procedures for licensing employment agencies;  effective monitoring of agencies; and an accessible, effective complaint mechanism. To the greatest extent possible, including the involvement of NGOs in developing and implementing these policies.