How migrant workers are protected in EAEU countries News

According to her, in the pre-pandemic year of 2019, about 163.5 thousand Belarusians worked in Russia. During the COVID-19 period, due to the restrictions introduced, this figure almost halved. In 2020, approximately 85,000 Belarusians carried out their professional activity in Russia. After the end of the pandemic, Belarusians continue to traditionally choose Russia as the main destination for labor migration. Last year, just over 174,000 Belarusian citizens were already working in Russia.

The representative of the EEC underlined that there is no discrimination based on citizenship in employment and remuneration. All employees receive a salary in accordance with the law on the basis of employment contracts. According to statistics, in Russia the average salary is 63,000 rubles.

Altynai Omurbekova also explained that Western sanctions against Russia and Belarus have not had a significant impact on migration processes within the EAEU. According to the representative of the EEC, in 2022 the total number of migrant workers in the territory of the Union amounted to 1 million 647 thousand people, which is 35 thousand more people than in 2021. Today, the market of the total work in the “five” is 93 million people.

In order to forecast the labor needs of the economies of the EAEU countries, the EEC publishes annually on its website a list of the professions most in demand in the single labor market. Today, most vacancies are in the fields of health, education, construction and housing and communal services. To search for a job in the EEU, a unified search system “Working without Borders” has been created. The service allows employers and job seekers to access national job vacancies databases from all EU Member States. According to the UNECE representative, approximately 140,000 users are currently registered on the portal and more than half a million job vacancies are posted.
The Eurasian Economic Commission advocates that the working conditions of all citizens of the EAEU countries should be the same. Commenting on Russia’s plans to strengthen migration legislation, Altynai Omurbekova said Russia has drawn up a draft federal law on entry and exit conditions for foreign citizens. The essence of the bill is that the continuation of the work activity of foreign citizens in Russia will be possible on the basis of two registers – employees and employers. That is, everyone who wants to work will have to register on these platforms. “The EEC expressed its position that some norms of the draft law may contradict the treaty on the EAEU. Initially, the main principle was equal conditions for admission of citizens to the labor market of the EAEU – the same conditions for the implementation of labor activity, employment, taxation and social protection, which is why we sent our proposals and asked the initiators that the standards adopted do not contradict the treaty on the EAEU,” the EEC representative said.