3.5 Ill-treatment and Extortion by Police and other Officials

Human Rights Watch documented numerous cases of police extorting money from and physically abusing and humiliating migrant workers. In some egregious cases, police forced migrant workers to perform forced labor at police stations or other locations. Many migrants also stated that they were forced to pay bribes, often multiple bribes, to border guards, customs officials, police or other authorities, at the numerous border crossings in Central Asia and to enter Russia.

International human rights law guarantees the security of person and the right to be free from cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment or punishment. The latter right is protected in absolute terms against such abuse by state authorities, for all persons, irrespective of legal status or any other consideration.[235] Governments must investigate all allegations of torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and identify and punish those responsible. The Russian government has not taken sufficient measures to combat police abuse or made effective avenues for redress readily available for victims. Central Asian governments have also failed to confront routine threats and extortion by government officials of migrant workers at their countries' borders.

Ill-treatment and Extortion by Police in Russia

Human Rights Watch documented numerous instances in which police extorted money from and beat migrant workers. Some of the incidents took place when police came to workers' construction sites or homes. The majority happened when police singled out the individuals allegedly to determine whether their identity documents and residency registration were legal and valid. This discriminatory practice affects not only migrant workers, but any migrant visitor, or Russian citizen with a non-Slavic appearance, particularly in such large cities as Moscow and St. Petersburg. These inspections rarely produce evidence of a violation, and are often a pretext for the extortion of small bribes. [236] A 2006 study by the Open Society Institute and the Moscow-based nongovernmental organization JURIX determined that police in the Moscow metro engaged in widespread racial profiling and conducted document inspections of people of non-Slavic appearance 21.8 times more often than those of Slavic appearance. The study found that this "disproportion is massive and cannot be explained on non-discriminatory, legitimate law enforcement grounds." [237]

The majority of migrant workers told Human Rights Watch that during a document inspection on the street or other encounter, police would typically demand a bribe of 100-200 rubles (US$4.22-8.44), although some migrant workers reported paying up to 1,000 rubles(US$42). In most cases, if migrants simply paid the bribe, the police would release them without further incident. Some migrant workers told Human Rights Watch that, so long as their documents were in order, they did not have to pay any bribes to police during these 'inspections.' However, some migrant workers also suffered beatings, humiliation, and forced work at the hands of police. The most egregious of these cases are described in this section. Migrant workers also stated that they believed filing a complaint to a government agency regarding ill-treatment by police would at best be ineffective and at worst would do further harm. 

Police targeting migrant workers in public places

Many victims of police abuse were stopped by police while walking in public places. Dastan D., from Kyrgyzstan, worked as a welder in towns near Moscow. He had numerous encounters with police, who detained him, beat him, extorted money from him, and forced him to work. "I had a residency registration, but once two cops stopped me at the Kazan train station [in Moscow] and took my registration document and demanded 1,000 rubles (US$42). Then they hit me in the chest and stomach. They said my registration was fake." [238]

After working on a construction site during the summer of 2007 in Tyumen, on October 25, 2007, Dastan D. was on his way to the train station to go hme after having received his final month's salary of 13,000 rubles (US$549), when three policemen stopped him on the street. Dastan D. turned to walk away from them when one of them hit him in the back of the head, possibly with some kind of a wooden board. He described to Human Rights Watch what he could remember of the aftermath of this attack.

I lost consciousness and only came to in the hospital. My relatives found me there one month after the attack, on November 27. My brother and sister found me in the hospital and brought me home. All my money and documents had been stolen. I lost some of my memory. When I returned home I did not recognize my children. … My ear is injured … and my skull was broken in two places… and I suffered a concussion. … I will never go to Russia again.[239]

Although Kyrgyz police questioned him about the incident in January 2008, Dastan D. has no desire to pursue charges against the police who attacked him. He told Human Rights Watch, "What would I need that for? I already lost everything. It is enough that I am alive. … I still need to work in Kyrgyzstan. Why would I make a lot of noise about this?" [240]

Nurmakhmad N., who worked as a private construction worker, described the ill-treatment he received at the hands of police in Moscow in September 2007:

I was walking on the street and I had 15,000 rubles on me (US$633) because I had gotten paid.  Four police men stopped me and took me to the police station. They tore up my registration and took my money. They were even firing at me with a toy gun. I told them that I would go to the embassy and file a complaint. Then they decided to hold me for two days. … They beat me with truncheons. First one would hit me, then the second. … On the third day, in the evening, they let me go, after I said that I would not go anywhere and complain.[241]

While working in Russia from June 2006-January 2008, Kurmanbek K., a 24-year-old worker from Kyrgyzstan, said that during that time he was frequently stopped by the police, who asked him for money. Although sometimes they would let him go without paying, usually he paid 100 rubles (US$4.22), and once he paid 1000 rubles (US$42). [242]

Umed Tohrirov, a human rights defender from Tajikistan, told Human Rights Watch about an encounter he had when police stopped him at the Savelov train station and pressured him for a bribe. He had arrived in Moscow four days earlier and had not yet received his residency registration document. "One sergeant stopped me and checked my documents," he told Human Rights Watch. "The sergeant said, 'So, you admit that you were caught [without a registration]? Let's solve this problem or we will deport you and you cannot come back here." [243] A second police officer together with this sergeant then stopped three other ethnic Kyrgyz and humiliated them. Tohrirov remembered,

Three guys, around 20-22 years old were walking down the street. The cop said, 'Oh, look! Here are more of our clients!' One of them did not speak Russian. The cop said, 'You don't speak Russian!? Say, "I am a monkey. Repeat after me: I am a monkey." If you don't understand then why the fuck did you even come here.' The [cop] was mocking this guy, [saying], 'Dance for me! Come on, dance for me!"[244]

Some police also target migrants at train stations in Moscow when they arrive or depart for their home countries. Migrants who are traveling home are likely to be carrying earnings with them from their work in Russia and those who are arriving would presumably have some cash for at least their initial stay in Russia. Zufar Z. described to Human Rights Watch his experience at the train station: "In order to board the train, you need to pay 1,000 rubles (US$42). A cop catches you, and it doesn't matter whether you have a residency registration or not. You pay [the money] and then wait to the side while they catch others. Each cop gets about 10 people. Then as you are boarding the train they scream, "That one is mine! And that one!" Indicating which ones of us had already paid. [245]

In October 2008, at the Kazan train station in Moscow, a Human Rights Watch representative witnessed police demanding a bribe from a passenger in possession of a ticket to Tashkent, Uzbekistan and attempting to board the train. They demanded 500 rubles (US$21) plus 200 rubles (US$8.44) "for a baggage porter." Upon the intervention of the Human Rights Watch representative, the police ceased demanding the 500 rubles but insisted on the 200 rubles.

Police targeting migrant workers at or near their workplaces or homes

Some migrant workers told Human Rights Watch about police harassment and attacks at their workplaces of work or at their homes. Several construction day workers living in make-shift housing in a village in Moscow oblast reported regular early morning visits by riot police (known by the Russian acronym OMON), who apparently use the pretext of document inspections to extract bribes and terrorize the residents with beatings. According to one resident, "My wife and I have lived here for three years. About every other day in the early morning the OMON come. They don't care whether you have a document or not. They beat the young people." [246]

A 31-year-old resident of the same make-shift housing confirmed:

In the middle of March 2008, we were asleep, and the OMON came. When we heard them, we ran. There were six of them in black uniforms… As I ran, they struck me in the back with a pole that was like the handle of a shovel, and I fell down. They hit me hard. When I fell, two started to beat me with the poles and their fists. They beat me in the legs and head but didn't touch my face. … And then they threw me into some water, and I was in up to my chest. There was still ice. I broke through the ice. [247]

Another resident from told Human Rights Watch how OMON police beat him as well (see Russian Government Protection Members and Gaps, below).

Ravshan R., a worker from Uzbekistan, described a raid by OMON riot police at his worksite in Chelobitevo, Moscow oblast, in 2008 during which police humiliated and intimidated the workers:

One day the foreman told us that the OMON would arrive at 7 p.m. and so we should stay in the woods that night. In the morning we went back to the site because we wanted our two eggs [that they provided for breakfast].

One day after lunch, when I was working, I suddenly saw a lot of policemen. Sometimes the police would arrive to check documents, but this time was different. They immediately started yelling and calling us names such as sheep and making fun of us. There were 35-40 of them. They forced some workers to try to tow an UAZ car with the breaks on. … The police came back again after three days. Since we did not have work permits, we ran away. … We did not have money to get work permits.[248]

Police repeatedly forced Dastan D., a welder from Kyrgyzstan, to do work for them or their friends, under threat of ill-treatment. He told Human Rights Watch:

I worked in Russia for four months in 2006. The police came to our work every day. They would detain me sometimes and hold me overnight in the police station. They forced me to unload metal barrels into the garbage truck. If I refused to do it, they would beat me. Sometimes they would detain us, take us to a village, and force us to work [doing construction on houses] belonging to their friends. Ten times or more they forced us to work in the village.[249]

In late 2007 24-year-old Kurmanbek K. and three coworkers were stopped by the police near the construction site. The police took them to the police department and told them to paint a room there, and then let the four men go. When asked if he complained anywhere about this incident he said, "There is no point to complain. The law is always on their side." [250]

Police at times may collude with employers to exploit workers. Kurmanbek K. also told Human Rights Watch that his employer apparently called the police to detain him and several workers after they had finished a two-month construction project. Kurmanbek K. did not receive any wages for the work. "There were six of us working for one man in Moscow [in 2007]," he said. "We worked for two months and he cheated us. We did finishing work laying tiles in a building entryway. One day before New Years, the owner called the police and they came and detained me. They let me go, but I had no money at all. I had to go home." [251]

A diaspora leader in Krasnodar described the use of police force against his compatriots. "It is often the case that the employers make deals with the cops. These workers work for three months and then the cops come to the site and throw them out of there," he told Human Rights Watch. [252]

Extortion by Officials during Travel to and from Russia

Most of the migrants interviewed by Human Rights Watch who traveled by train to Russia from Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan stated that they were forced to pay bribes, often multiple bribes, to border guards, customs officials, police, or other authorities, at the numerous border crossings in Central Asia and to enter Russia. A refusal to pay would result in threats of violence or removal from the train. According to Dastan D., who travelled from Kyrgyzstan, "The first time I went to Russia, I traveled there and back by train. At all border checkpoints, except the Kyrgyz one, they demanded money from us. They asked for 1,000 or 2,000 rubles (US$42-84). Once they even said, "Give me US$100!" [253]

Subhiddin S., a 45-year-old construction worker from Tajikistan who has worked in Russia seasonally for six years told Human Rights Watch that during the train ride to Moscow, "In Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, and Russia, the customs officers take 200-300 rubles at each border crossing." [254]

Tohir T., also from Tajikistan had had a similar experience. When going by train to Moscow, "I take with me 3,000 Russian rubles (US$127) and God willing, some of it will be left by the time I get to Moscow. At the station [in Moscow, the police] check you for drugs, and you pay each 100-300 rubles (US$4.20-12.67). There are a lot of checks in Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan. At each border they take a maximum of 400 rubles (US$16.89). They check your bags in order to take money. They scare you, … 'If you don't pay, we're gonna throw you off the train!' It's that way on every border." [255]