Anti-Discrimination Centre “Memorial” has prepared an alternative list of questions for the 29th session of the UN Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families (CMW), which concerns violations of the rights of Azerbaijani citizens in Russia and the insufficiency of measures taken by the Azerbaijani authorities to protect them. Azerbaijan is a donor country, where a significant share of labor migration comes from.
One of the important questions on the list, in the light of the xenophobic sentiment that has intensified in Russia recently, is the protection of the rights and support of the Azerbaijani citizens, who have been victims of ethnically and racially motivated crimes and religious hatred. Another unresolved problem is the situation of violations of the rights of the Azerbaijani citizens caused by illegal actions of the Russian police and other law enforcement agencies, as well as expulsion and placement of labor migrants in specialized detention centers for violations of immigration legislation. In this respect, the government of Azerbaijan was asked about the assistance provided by the government to its citizens in the deportation centers, as well as organizing visits to these centers by the representatives of diplomatic missions of Azerbaijan in Russia.
Children, who have migrated with their parents, often become victims of discrimination and violations of their rights, as Russia’s strict immigration policy extends to children as well. They often do not attend schools and risk being separated from their parents if the latter are recognized violators of the immigration regime. Russian schools refuse to accept migrant children because of problems with their registration at the place of their residence. These children are forced to miss years of study, which certainly affects their development. This problem was raised in the section of the questions on measures taken by the Azerbaijani government to ensure the children migrating with their parents the right to quality education.
The International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1990 and entered into force on July 1, 2003. To this date, only 52 countries have ratified this document (these are mainly donor countries for labor migration).
The 29th session of the UN CMW is held on September 3-12, 2018. It will adopt the preliminary list of questions addressed to Azerbaijan.