| Illegal immigration is rampant in European Russia's south. It is a bad headache for Alexander Tkachev, Krasnodar territorial governor. As he sees the matter, it takes filtration camps for aliens and stateless persons to deport illegal immigrants quickly enough. Vladimir Yeremin, recently appointed territorial top prosecutor, sees the governor's point, says the Novye Izvestia, major Moscow-based daily. The camps, each for 150 inmates, will appear all over the territory-in Krasnodar, Armavir, Tikhoretsk, and Temryuk on the coast of the Sea of Azov. Each camp will cater for a particular nationality. Ukrainians and Moldovans will be committed to the Temryuk camp, close to a Crimea-bound ferry, Armenian nationals to the Krasnodar, and Central Asians to several camps along the territory's eastern border. "The inmates will have decent conditions. We shall put them up in warm tents with stoves and plank floors. They'll be able to take a shower, share the guards' diet, and see the doctor when necessary. The camps will certainly need guards to keep local hoodlums off the premises-and, certainly, as trouble-shooters if, let say, inmates of the men's and women's quarters start a squabble between themselves," says one Colonel Gubenko. The immigrants will be deported at their own expense or of local people who have invited them. "We hope ethnic communities will pay the fares. It's easy to expel, say, a Tajik or an Uzbek--we'll pack them off by bus to the Russian frontier in the Astrakhan Region nearby. But how about the Vietnamese? They'll need air tickets--reckon the fares!" reasons the police officer. The territorial police board set up a 400-strong immigration inspection force under its migration squad to supervise aliens and their employment throughout the Kuban country. More than 400 aliens have been deported from the Krasnodar Territory since the year's start, and close on 50,000 held administratively liable. |