On 26 June, a rally against labour migrants from Asia was held in Ingushetia. Local police forcibly dispersed the rally, and several people were charged with violating public order.

The protest against the ‘domination of labour migrants from Central Asia’ was held on the outskirts of the city of Nazran. Around 100 protesters blocked a federal motorway forcing police to redirect all traffic through the city centre.

The protesters, mostly young people, were demanding the expulsion of migrants who they say ‘steal their jobs’. Local news agency The Magas Times quoted the organisers of the protest as saying that migrants were violating local laws and traditions, threatening the foundations of Ingush society.

‘ “They take away our jobs”, “they marry our girls”, “they sell drugs”, and so on’, the website quotes the rally’s participants.

[Read on OC Media: East wind: Central Asian migration to Kabardino-Balkaria]

Several minutes after the rally started, riot police moved in and forcibly dispersed the protesters.

‘Today we saw how the men who were rooting for their people were dispersed. Some of them were already taken to police stations so they can have fake charges pressed against them. We hope that our police and the Security Council [of Ingushetia] will limit itself to administrative fines and preventive talks’, The Magas Times quotes the organisers.

The Security Council of Ingushetia issued its own statement, which said that ‘destructive forces’ were checking their compatriots’ readiness to participate in unauthorised rallies. The Security Council also stated that labour migrants were doing jobs that most local residents were unwilling to do.

‘After all, we don’t work in these sorts of jobs, preferring to become directors, businessmen, or officials’, the statement reads.

[Read OC Media’s analysis: Who was in and who was out in Tbilisi’s far-right March of Georgians]