MOSCOW, August 17 (RIA Novosti) - The Federal Migration Service (FMS) said Friday that more than 550 suspected illegal workers from Vietnam had been detained at an underground textile factory in central Russia.
"Operatives from the Migration Service, FSB and Interior Ministry arrested 553 Vietnamese nationals in the Borovsky district of the Kaluga Region, who resided in Russia illegally," an FMS spokesman said.
The spokesman said clothing manufactured at the underground factory in the regional center 188 kilometers (about 120 miles) southwest of Moscow was sold at one of the largest markets in the Russian capital.
"If an additional investigation confirms the illegal status of the detained foreigners, they will be deported from Russia," the official said.
According to the FMS, over 20 million people come to Russia every year, and at least half of them attempt to remain in the country illegally.
In January, Russia toughened its migration policy, reducing to 40% of the total workforce the number of migrants allowed to work in markets.
As of April 1, 2007, migrants have been banned from working in markets entirely, a move designed to bring order to the sector and curb a wave of ethnically motivated crimes in the country.
Some one and a half million civil cases were filed for violations of migration laws in 2005, and approximately 57,000 illegal immigrants were deported.
