ADC Memorial is organising a round table «Migrants’ children in Saint-Petersburg: defending the rights of children from vulnеrable groups». Representatives of law-enfoercement bodies, FMS (Federal Migration Service), social services as well as ombudsmen, human rights defenders, journalists and parents of migrants’ children are invited to participate in the discussion.
The reason for the extensive public discussion is the recent police raid in the Krasnoselskij region which led the children belonging to the vulnerable ethnic minority of the Republic of Tajikistan to separation from their parents. The children were placed to Saint-Petersburg child care institutions. Such operations regularly take place in St.Petersburg and every time the institutions and bodies involved in the situation face complicated and almost unsolvable problems. The latest raid in February became a widely discussed topic in Russia and in Tajikistan: mass media published both the opinion that the children should be returned to their parents (the Embassy of Tajikistan in Moscow) and the explanations concerning the procedural difficulties preventing from the reunion of the families (children rights ombudsman service in St. Petersburg).
It has arosen the obvious neccesity of working out a realistic scheme of responding in such situations by all the interested parties. The main priority in this must be the respect for children rights and interests. The existing procedural and administrative difficulties require from both the countries (Russia and Tajikistan) as well as law-enforcement bodies, social services and the civil society to coordinate their efforts .
The round table will take place on March 22, 2013 (Friday) at 11 a.m. in the office of ADC Memorial: Krasnoarmeiskaya st. 25, room 410 («Leontievskij center»), St. Petersburg.