Council of Sochi National Communities discusses issues of migrants related to construction of Olympic facilities

At the recent meeting of the Council of National Communities, representatives of the Sochi Diasporas have discussed issues related to ensuring labour rights of migrant workers who came to the construction of the Olympic facilities and issues related to the safety of the city.

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent has reported that the meeting held on August 27 was attended by about 50 persons who represented 38 ethnic Diasporas of Sochi.

Sochi faces a problem with citizens of other countries who come to work on Olympic construction sites from Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and other former Soviet republics. This was reported by Nikolai Pelikh, the head of the city administration department for cooperation with law enforcement authorities.

According to the opinion of Nikolai Pelikh, the Sochi national communities can help those people to adapt to local conditions to prevent ethnic conflicts.

Anna Stepanova, a representative of the Labour Inspectorate of the Krasnodar Territory, has noted that the main difficulties encountered by non-native builders are lack of employment contracts and non-payment of wages.

According to the Anna Stepanova's information, since the beginning of the year, about 600 persons filed to the Sochi Division of the Labour Inspectorate the complaints about violations of labour laws. As a result, administrative proceedings were instituted against employers and advices were provided.

Meanwhile, the representative of the Labour Inspectorate believes that the Sochi Division faces lack of personnel. Only one inspector is to consider potential labour problems of 5000 Sochi residents. And, according to Police Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Belozerov, the deputy chief of the district inspectors for the Central District, one inspector does not have any time to physically respond to all complaints and conflicts.

Let us remind you that on February 6, the international human rights organization "Human Rights Watch" (HRW) claimed the violation of the rights of migrants in the Olympic construction sites in Sochi and called on the IOC to promote the observation of the rights of migrants.