Detained Migrants Living Better Than Before, Says Moscow Mayoral Candidate

Moscow mayoral candidate Sergei Mitrokhin

Russian politician Sergei Mitrokhin, the Yabloko party candidate for Moscow mayor, says illegal migrants held in the Golyanovo tent camp lived in far worse conditions before they were detained.

Mitrokhin, who visited the Golyanovo camp with health inspectors on August 11, said the sanitary standards were good and that the food was filling, if not delicious.

About 600 migrants, most of them Vietnamese, are currently being held in the Golyanovo camp as part of a Russian crackdown on illegal labor.

A first group of 31 illegal migrants, all from Vietnam, were deported home on August 10.

Mitrokhin told the Ekho Moskvy radio station that authorities should be targeting those who employ illegal migrants, not the migrants themselves.

He described the recent roundup of hundreds of migrants as a "PR campaign" ahead of regional elections on September 8.


Based on reporting by Interfax and lenta.ru