Migrant workers in Moscow face discrimination and dangers

Kyrgyz migrant worker Belek Asanbekov sits at the kitchen table of his cramped Moscow apartment, scrolling through pictures on his mobile phone of friends killed days earlier in a fire at work.

One of his seven flatmates, Gulbara Boobekova, a 45-year-old mother of two, was minutes away from finishing her 12-hour night shift at a Moscow printing warehouse last month when a faulty lamp set ablaze the four-storey building, killing her and at least 13 other women from the Central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan.
 
"I called Gulbara, no answer," said Asanbekov, who worked at the printers for more than seven years. "I called again, no answer."    

Boobekova is one of the latest victims of lax workplace safety in Russian industries that rely on migrant labour, often from ex-Soviet Central Asia, as employees cut corners to save money with little fear of official punishment.    

For the millions of unskilled workers who come to Russia it is yet another hazard they face beyond the daily discrimination, low wages and bureaucratic red tape.    

Authorities have pledged to probe the incident and punish those responsible for the blaze, the second major fire that has killed migrants in Moscow this year.    

"This is negligence. This is a violation of the fire safety regulations outlined by Russian law," Maxim Reshetnikov, head of Moscow's economic policy and development department, told AFP. "Given the magnitude of this tragedy, the (city's) reaction will of course be harsh."    

In January at least 12 migrants from ex-Soviet Central Asia, including three children, were killed when a fire at a sewing workshop caused its roof to collapse.    

 Russia's prosecutor general said the print warehouse, whose...