Human Rights Watch/Helsinki respectfully submits the following recommendations:
To the City of Moscow and the Moscow Region:
* The Moscow City Council should amend its law to cancel the discriminatory fee for temporary stays in Moscow imposed on foreigners who enjoy visa-free travel to Russia; it should amend the same law to eliminate the imposition and collection of on-the-spot-fines by police as a step toward controlling police corruption in the enforcement of registration regulations. The sanction system should be brought under judicial control;
* Denial of applications for permanent or temporary residence should be made only for compelling reasons of public health, public order, public morals, national security or the rights and freedoms of others. Unsuccessful applicants should given in writing the specific resons for denial. This document would be admissible in court reviews of registration cases;
* Instruct the Main Department of Internal Affairs (GUVD) of the city of Moscow to accept UNHCR refugee identification and Moscow Migration Service certificatin cards as valid and exhaustive documents for registration with the police. The Directorate for Visas and Registration (UVIR) should place a representativeat the offices of the Moscow Migration Service to carry out police registration. A committee of representatives from the GUVD and such law enforcement agencies should meet regularly with refugee advocates, beginning within one month of the dissemination of such an instruction, to check implementation;
* Cease conducting passport checks without warrants in private homes;
* Immediately cease detaining asylum seekers registered with the UNHCR on the grounds that they are not registered with the police as Moscow residents, and instruct the GUVD to release all those held in detention and awaiting deportation on such grounds;
* Launch a special campaign to encourage victims of police abuse to report their claims and to provide effective means for the public to do so;
* In order to more fully guarantee the right to freedom of movement and choice of residence, the notion of permanent residence for those who are newcomers to Moscow must be decoupled from the notion of ownership and rightful (within Russian civil law) claims to free or subsidized municipal housing; and
* Cooperate with independent reviews of Moscow and Moscow Region infrastructure, housing conditions, economic conditions, public health, and dangers of overpopulation, and re-structure the registration system to maximize freedom of movement for all those legally in Russian Federation;
To the Federal Migration Service:
* Provide refugees and the internally displaced full and regularly updated information on regions in Russia that are capable of receiving refugees and internally displaced persons and the addresses of relevant government offices. Such information would also include copies of Russian and regional laws and normative acts concerning refugee policy, registration rules for permanent residence and temporary stays, and objective data about housing and job opportunities and other economic conditions in the regions. Points of distribution should include all regional migration service offices, Russian consulates abroad, and refugee and human rights organizations throughout Russia and the CIS; and
* Provide full and accurate information on government-funded housing for refugees currently residing in Moscow hotels. In cooperation with refugee advocacy organizations, organize an independent conciliation commission that would investigate refugee claims of housing assignments to locations outside Moscow where such housing was inappropriate, uninhabitable or did not exist.
To the Russian Federation Government:
* Order the Moscow Migration Service to cease rejecting applications for asylum on the grounds that the applicant is not a resident of Moscow or has no close relatives in the city. Accepting an application for asylum should not be seen as a commitment to settle permanently the successful applicant in Moscow. Ensure that the Moscow city and region governments facilitate asylum seekers in remaining in Moscow until the end of the asylum process;
* Conduct a full review of the adherence of Moscow's regulations and practices in the area of registration to federal laws and rules, and of areas of divergence in which Moscow norms result in the violaton of freedom of movement, the right to privacy and refugee rights;
* the Procuracy General should oversee a full review of police abuse related to the registration system and should take disciplinary action, including criminal prosecution, action against violators; and
* Ensure that no refugees residing in Moscow hotels who challenge their new housing assignments are evicted from their premises without a housing assignment.
To the UNHCR
* The High Commissioner should personally urge the Russian government at the highest level to cease immediately the illegal treatment of asylum seekers documented in this report and to secure guarantees that UNHCR refugee cards will be accepted as identity documents.
To the International Community
* In the interests of securing freedom of movement for Russian citizens and those persons legally on Russian Federation territory, and of guaranteeing the fullest protection of asylum seekers, the international community should press for the Russian Federation to abide by its international human rights obligations and to cease tolerating in Moscow the abuse documented in this report. Furthermore, the international community should directly press Moscow authorities to reform its appalling treatment of non-Muscovites-Russians and foreigners alike-and especially of asylum seekers, and to this end it should condition the investment of financial assistance to the captial.