Russia deported more than 80,000 migrants in 2024 — almost twice as many as the year before
Deportations of undocumented foreigners and stateless people in Russia more than doubled last year, rising from 44,200 expulsions in 2023 to more than 80,000. A source in Russia’s Federal Bailiff Service told the news agency TASS that roughly a quarter of people deported in 2024 (roughly 23,000) were expelled from the Moscow region.
Anti-migrant rhetoric from the Russian authorities has intensified since a terrorist attack outside Moscow in March 2024 that killed 145 people. Islamic terrorists claimed responsibility for the attack, and Russian police apprehended four Tajik nationals suspected of carrying out the massacre, in addition to several more suspected co-conspirators also from Tajikistan. In the months after the tragedy, Russian lawmakers adopted several new restrictions on migration and migrants’ rights, including limits on education access for migrant children.
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