{"id":173,"date":"2011-01-25T03:14:28","date_gmt":"2011-01-25T03:14:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/memorial.local:8888\/www\/173.html"},"modified":"2011-08-09T12:26:27","modified_gmt":"2011-08-09T12:26:27","slug":"adc-memorial-statement-for-international-migrants-day-december-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/news\/adc-memorial-statement-for-international-migrants-day-december-18\/","title":{"rendered":"ADC Memorial Statement for International Migrants Day, December 18"},"content":{"rendered":"

In relation to the 20th<\/sup> anniversary of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families on December 18, Anti-Discrimination Center Memorial urges the Russian Federation to ratify this most important document and ensure the respect of the rights of migrant workers in the country, which has one of the highest numbers of migrant workers in the entire region.<\/p>\n

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The question of migrant rights is most relevant in the current context, especially for those migrants coming from Russia’s southern and eastern borders- so called “visual minorities” who are often discriminated against based on their appearance. In the December of this year there were a series of massive nationalist demonstrations in Moscow, St.Petersburg, and other cities, which fulfilled every criteria of a “pogrom”: individuals identified by aggressively set groups of nationalists as “non-Russians” were subject to indiscriminate attacks, beatings, and physical and psychological terror.<\/p>\n

Actions of the security forces were clearly inconsistent with the seriousness of the situation: victims of the enraged crowd didn’t receive protection or assistance, while racists were allowed to easily overcome the barriers set up by the police. The ostensibly “spontaneous” actions of the enraged crowd (stemming from the death of a Spartak fan in a fight on December 6 in Moscow) were in reality undoubtedly carefully orchestrated by leaders of neonationalist groups, who used the conflict as a pretext for the mobilization of racist groups, so as to incite ethnic tensions. The mass hysteria was merely bolstered by the reactions of the media and politicians to the events, who merely condemned the violence, and did little to call for a rejection of the nationalist fervor that was a backdrop to the disorder.