2.6 Other bureaucratic obstacles

As noted above, in order for the work permit to remain valid, a worker must submit to the Federal Migration Service within 30 days of receipt of the permit, medical documents indicating that the worker has undergone tests for HIV/AIDS, narcotic drug use, tuberculosis, and infectious diseases. According to Yulia Florinskaia, an expert in migration and human rights in Russia, "The biggest problem in regularizing migrant workers is the medical examination. There are huge lines and poor sanitary standards at the facilities administering the tests." [73] Often, a migrant seeking to collect all of the necessary documents must go to several different medical facilities that are designated by the local authorities. Often the facilities are in different locations.

A representative from the embassy of Azerbaijan in Moscow stated that the embassy frequently receives complaints about the cost of obtaining the documents and the necessity of visiting multiple locations across in the city to gather the necessary documents. In Ekaterinburg, migrant workers applying for a work permit must go to four different medical facilities to receive the necessary certificates. One 53-year-old worker told Human Rights Watch that when he went to Rostov, "I registered on the migration registry. Then I had to do four medical tests. I paid 3,000 rubles (US$127) to get all of these documents." [74]   Work permits issued to migrant workers who later fail to submit the required medical documents become invalid. Human Rights Watch research found that workers nevertheless are likely to continue working, although now illegally. Their irregular status in many cases may make them more vulnerable to the abuses documented in this report.