Migrant Roundup After Crocus City Attack Leads to Collapse of Garbage Collection in Dagestan’s Capital

After police detained Central Asian migrants working for the contractor employed by the Makhachkala municipal authority, the street cleaning and garbage disposal problems the capital of Dagestan had already been suffering got worse, according to RIA Novosti on Tuesday, April 2.

The city administration posted on its website: “Over the past few days, there has been a deterioration in the sanitary condition of the city; for technical reasons, the regional operator (for the management of municipal solid waste) MBU Makhachkala-1 has encountered difficulties in cleaning the waste and container sites and in removal of solid waste.”

The mayor’s office tried to reassure residents saying: “With active interdepartmental cooperation, all possible measures are being taken to resolve the problem as quickly as possible.”

On Monday, men who normally work in the administration of the Makhachkala municipal offices took part in street cleaning and removing garbage in parts of the city.

This wasn’t enough for many residents who took to social media to complain of the presence of “mountains of garbage” around collection points saying: “the smell is everywhere, it goes up into our rooms.”

An unnamed source from the local authority told RIA Novosti that the problems arose because of the detention “pending the identification of” migrants working in the institution.

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The source also said that following the Sunday arrest of immigrants from Central Asia in Makhachkala and Kaspiysk on suspicion of terrorism, many of their fellow countrymen had left the republic, many of whom worked for the garbage collection firm.

There have been several reports of mass arrests as well as an increase in racist attacks and vandalism against Central Asian migrants since the deadly attacks at Moscow’s Crocus City Hall on Friday, March 22, after which four Tajik nationals were accused of carrying out the attack that killed 140 people.

Central Asian migrants make up a sizeable portion of Russia’s unskilled labor force as well as in the retail, transportation, and construction sectors.

Several Russian lawmakers have called for the tightening of migrant laws following the Moscow attack, suggesting migrants should be expelled from Russia “for the slightest offense.” As the Makhachkala situation shows, Russia is suffering severe labor shortages because of the war in Ukraine, which are largely being made up by an immigrant workforce.