The regional public prosecution authorities met to discuss the law-enforcement agencies’ performance in the field of preventing undocumented immigration. The meeting attendees observed that despite all the measures taken, there have been no dramatic improvements so far.

Last year, the number of foreign citizens with a temporary registration exceeded that for 2005 by 18%, reaching over 145,000 people; only 52,000 people, however, obtained work permits. The meeting participants also commented on the need to prevent crimes committed by foreigners and the ways of prosecuting the offenders. Foreign citizens committed 1,326 crimes in the region in 2006 and 396 crimes in January-June 2007, including 18 instances connected with drug trafficking.

In addition, numerous regional employers have been reported to violate the labor regulations, that is, they fail to produce orders confirming a foreigner’s employment, don’t keep record of working hours or work record cards, and don’t pay the wages in time into the bargain.

The meeting resulted in a conclusion that to make the number of illegal immigrants go down, some changes had to be made in the current legislation.