Six people died in a fire at a migrant workers’ temporary residence in the Russian republic of Tatarstan, highlighting the increasingly difficult conditions faced by those coming to Russia seeking work.
The regional Investigative Committee said a criminal investigation into the blaze on December 24 has been opened. It added that the wooden building on a farm housed more than three dozen Uzbek migrant workers.
Migrants, especially from Central Asian countries such as Uzbekistan, have long provided desperately needed workers across Russia even though the conditions they live in can be poor.
In October, the Russian government approved a measure that cuts the quota for residence permits for foreigners in 2025 by almost half even as the number of workers entering the country has fallen to a 10-year low, exacerbating an acute labor shortage.
The move came as public sentiment toward migrants grows increasingly negative, with some 80 percent of Russians surveyed expressing concerns about the high number of migrants, particularly from Central Asia and the Caucasus.
Hundreds of thousands of migrant workers from those areas legally reside in Russia on working visas allowing them to stay and work in the country for a limited period, while residence permits allow stays in Russia for years.
SEE ALSO: Russia's Ethnic Minorities Brace For 'Excesses' As Xenophobia Spikes After Crocus AttackBut many Russians turned against migrants from Central Asia after a terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall entertainment center near Moscow in March that claimed 140 lives.
Several Tajik citizens were arrested over their alleged involvement in the attack. The men appeared in court bearing clear signs of beating and torture.
Suspicions of migrants from Central Asia were further stoked last week when Russian authorities said they had arrested a man from Uzbekistan over the assassination of a senior general in Moscow on December 17.
The arrest of the 29-year-old, who Moscow claimed killed Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov on Ukraine's orders has triggered fear among Central Asian migrants in Russia. Kirillov was the highest-ranking Russian military officer to be assassinated since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
SEE ALSO: Central Asian Migrants Brace For Backlash After Russian General's KillingAuthorities in Tatarstan have not tied the fire to the backlash. In addition to the investigation, the republic’s president, Rustam Minnikhanov, has ordered a check of housing for workers at farms in Tatarstan and pledged assistance for the victims of the fire.
Alisher Ilkhamov, an Uzbek analyst and the director of the U.K.-based research entity Central Asia Due Diligence, said Uzbeks will be portrayed "to some extent as the villains” in the assassination.
"Anti-migrant rhetoric has been very popular with Russian politicians recently," Ilkhamov said. "Now that will be reinforced.”