Cubans in Limbo in Russia Between Raids and Scams

What can they expect in 2025?

By Natasha Vazquez (El Toque)

HAVANA TIMES – Some shouts in Russian followed by a loud bang, woke Yoel on a cool early morning of the Moscow summer. The hostel where he was staying, in the Vidnoe area, south of Moscow, was the epicenter of one of the frequent police raids on places that house migrants. More than 75 Cubans, including women and some minors, mostly in irregular situations, ended up that night in a police station.

“They tore everything apart, they said they were looking for drugs or weapons, I don’t really know. The fact is they took all of us to a station, and we stayed there until the next day, lying on the floor wherever we could. It’s one of the hardest moments I’ve had in Russia,” he recounted.

Yoel, a 32-year-old from Havana, was one of the first to be released. Despite being in Russia illegally since 2021, the stamps in his passport indicated he was apparently “legal.” He arrived, like most Cubans, as a tourist, for which there is a visa exemption agreement between the two countries. Just two months earlier, he had traveled to Armenia to reset the count of allowed days in the territory of the Russian Federation. “Apparently legal,” since, although the current law stipulates that tourists can remain in the country for 90 days in six months, until now, authorities typically did not check prior stays.

Others, who had already exceeded the legal time limit, were detained for a few days but were eventually released with a fine and a deportation order. “We were lucky, after all. I know people who are or have been in detention centers for months, until someone pays for their ticket back to Cuba,” Yoel explains.

Not a Country for Migrants

Things could get worse for irregular foreigners in 2025, including thousands of Cubans, when a new immigration law comes into force. The law was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in August after quickly passing through the State Duma (Russian Parliament).

The federal legislation will, among other things, establish a new legal process for the expulsion of immigrants without legal grounds to be in Russian territory. It will authorize law enforcement to deport them without a prior trial, reduce visa-free stay periods to 90 days per year, and restrict certain rights of irregular foreign nationals, such as freedom of movement or changing residence without authorization. They will also be prohibited from driving, marrying, accessing phone lines, opening bank accounts, receiving loans, or transferring money. There will also be tighter control measures from the authorities.

To curb illegal immigration, over 20 new bills prepared by the State Duma’s Migration Policy Commission have been sent to the Supreme Court and the Russian government and are expected to be discussed and approved soon.

In recent years, there has been an increase in controls, raids, and deportations of migrants. The hostile environment intensified in March after the terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall concert venue, outside Moscow, which left 145 dead and over 550 injured, and for which Tajik nationals were blamed. This and other incidents, combined with the government’s stance, have led to increased expressions of racism and xenophobia in Russian society.

“The authorities are being strict. Security has increased in the metro, with more police checkpoints to control migrant documentation. If you’re in a taxi, they stop the driver [often a foreigner], ask for documents, and if they see you’re a foreigner, they ask for yours too. I’ve been stopped in my own car for no reason to check my papers,” says Pedro Luis García, a young Cuban with family and Russian citizenship who has lived in Moscow for a decade.

Although controls and raids primarily target Central Asian citizens (from the former Soviet republics), who make up the majority of the foreign population, Cubans are not exempt. Cuban migrants are increasingly a focus of the authorities due to their frequent irregular status and the limited legal avenues for settling.

Pedro, a legal advisor and creator of the YouTube channel “Moscowexpress, Cubans in Moscow,” has been aware of many deportation cases and has noticed a stricter enforcement of laws in recent months. “One of my clients is about to marry a Russian citizen, and she is pregnant. He’s awaiting trial for overstaying by 15 days and is at risk of deportation and a 10-year entry ban.”

This is partly due to the implementation of a digital registry that creates a profile for each foreigner when they enter or leave the country, which remains in the immigration authorities’ database. Moreover, Russia’s Ministry of Digital Development proposed a pilot project for biometric data collection from foreign nationals and those entering the country without a visa, which is set to begin this year.

Thus, “it will be virtually impossible to maintain an ‘apparently legal’ status in the way many Cubans have done until now by leaving and re-entering the country,” Pedro Luis asserts.

The paths to legally and regularly reside in the country for Cubans are very limited. Options include marriage, having children with Russian citizenship, student visas, or work invitations from specific companies for particular positions, but all must be processed in the country of origin. There’s virtually no possibility for those who arrive as tourists and overstay, except joining the Russian army, under contract, to participate in the war in Ukraine.

The rest seem condemned to live day by day, constantly dodging law enforcement. “I understand that Russian authorities must ensure security and regulate migration, but the situation for foreigners, including Cubans, here in Moscow is very difficult,” emphasizes Pedro Luis.

Of Raids and Other Demons

What happened to Yoel and his companions is not new, although it has become more frequent and is now a part of daily life for migrants.

Betty arrived in Russia eight years ago, also as a tourist, and has “been through it all.” She has suffered the helplessness of her irregular migration status, the impossibility of legalization, corruption, fines, scams, and raids. She has witnessed several of the latter, though she has been lucky enough not to be arrested or deported.

“That the police stop you for any reason and ask for money to let you go is almost normal. Many times I’ve had to give up my salary for that. Raids have always existed; I’ve been present at several. I’ve had to hide for up to five hours, kneeling in a corner, so they wouldn’t catch me, but lately, they’ve become more frequent.”

To avoid raids, she tries to live alone and work in places with few immigrants. “Luckily, I can pass for Russian, and I try to dress like them so I don’t stand out,” she says.

With an online translation app and some broken Russian, she communicates with landlords and employers, even helping other Cubans find jobs or housing. But it hasn’t been easy.

“I first came to Russia in 2016. In Cuba, I was jobless after facing workplace harassment. I started by buying merchandise and car parts to sell. It went well until I trusted another Cuban who stole two shipments of parts from me. All my money was tied up in that. He ordered them in my name and didn’t pay, so when I entered Russia, I already had a debt of more than $8,000 without knowing it. They threatened me, and I had to sell my house to pay off the debt with my work.”

Betty’s story is quite common among Cubans in Russia, who have often been victims or perpetrators in cases of scams, thefts, and abuses, whether by Russians or fellow Cubans. The latest scam, which has flourished under the new laws, is the sale of supposed work visas that turn out to be fake, as Betty and Yoel denounce.

Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears

In nearly eight years in the Russian capital, Betty has cried a lot, though, like in the old Soviet movie, the city doesn’t believe in tears.

“I’ve gone through many tough moments. I’ve had to live under a bridge, literally. When things got a little better, I brought my teenage son. Here, some psychiatric problems he has have come to light, and it’s been very difficult for him to get the required care. I’ve sometimes been without money, without a job, sick, but I’ve always managed to get back on my feet.”

Finding housing is one of the toughest issues for Cubans in Moscow. Most have to settle for hostels like the one Yoel and his companions were in or shared rentals, where many people usually live in a very small space. Renting a place independently is not only expensive for most migrants but also complicated due to language barriers, irregular status, and the prejudices of many Russians.

Currently, Betty lives with her son in a small, old studio apartment (a single room with a bathroom and kitchen) in a peripheral area of the Russian capital, and she tries by all means not to lose that rental, even if she has to prioritize paying for it over food.

“One of the words I know in Russian is ‘Slavian’ (Slavs). Many of the ads, or the landlords themselves, tell you it’s only for Slavs when they realize you’re not from here,” she says. “Almost no one wants to rent to foreigners, although it’s also true that sometimes we have different customs, and not everyone behaves well.”

And if it was difficult before, finding a place to rent will become almost impossible if another proposed measure to control illegal immigration is implemented. At the end of July, a deputy introduced an initiative in the Duma to not only fine landlords who rent to illegal immigrants but also to offer a reward of 100,000 rubles (about $1,000) to those who report them. As far as is known, no official decision has been made on this yet.

At the beginning of September, several media outlets reported on the creation of bots on Telegram to receive anonymous reports about migrants in various regions, including the area known as New Moscow, on the outskirts of the capital. The channel Cuidado, Noticias assures that the decision to create the bot was made during a meeting attended by local officials and the police. Through this platform, dozens of reports were received, leading to 42 raids and the deportation of more than 30 people.

The “Vigilante Popular” bot in the Kommunarka area, active on the Telegram platform, describes its primary goal as “receiving information about apartments known for housing many people.”

Our Daily Bread

“I’ve had to do everything, from construction work or shoveling snow at -30 degrees, to slightly ‘easier’ jobs like cleaning in stores or schools. I’ve done everything except prostitution. The hardest part is that you have no rights, no breaks, no limit on hours, no vacations. They always exploit you, and sometimes they don’t even pay you. And you can’t even protest, because they threaten to turn you over to Immigration.”

The newly approved set of laws, which will come into effect between late 2024 and early 2025, further complicates the situation. Among other measures, large fines are imposed on those who employ irregular migrants. “There’s work, I get calls from many places. Recently, more than 400 schools in Moscow were looking for staff, but everything is made more difficult because of the paperwork,” says Betty.

Currently, the unemployment rate in Russia is at a historic low, less than 3%. The labor shortage has become more noticeable in recent years, especially after the start of the war in Ukraine. Specifically, there has been a shortage of workers for low-skilled jobs, historically filled by immigrants.

“I know several restaurants that are desperately looking for dishwashers,” says Betty. “Taxi drivers are raising their rates because there aren’t enough of them. Construction projects are half-paralyzed due to a lack of workers. When winter comes, I don’t know who will shovel the snow. If they keep deporting immigrants, soon Russians themselves will have to do these jobs,” she states.

According to a study by the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, the flow of migrant labor to Russia has not yet recovered to pre-pandemic levels. In 2023, the number of foreign workers in the Russian labor market was about 3.5 million, nearly a million less than the pre-pandemic figure in 2019. Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan are the main countries sending migrant workers.

Cuba is not part of that statistic. For one, compared to Central Asian countries, the flow of Cubans is not as noticeable, and for another, most Cubans don’t appear as workers but as tourists.

No Way Home

According to the Russian border service, about 28,000 Cubans visited Russia in 2019. In 2021, in the middle of the pandemic, Cuba led arrivals in Moscow, supposedly for tourism purposes (44,300 people in the first nine months of the year). The numbers decreased in subsequent years, but Cuba still ranks among the top countries of origin for visitors. In the first half of 2024, Cuba was tenth, according to statistics from the Russian Border Service of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, with 8,500 visitors.

The exact number of those who decide to remain in Russia once their 90 days of legal stay are up is unknown. What is clear is that tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, have attempted to do so, either to settle or to continue on to other countries, something that has become more complicated with the war.

Yoel was one of the many who arrived during the record year of 2021. “I came here shortly after the July 11^th protests. I was one of those who went out that day in La Güinera (Havana), and when I saw that several acquaintances had been arrested, I decided to leave. My family is in Spain, and I was planning to go there, but I ran out of money, and then, when the war in Ukraine started, it became even harder to cross borders. I don’t know what will happen, but unless they deport me, I’m not going back to Cuba,” he says.

Betty also burned her bridges. “What are we going to do? It’s not that we like being here like this, but we have no other option. If we don’t work, we can’t leave either. Those who have been able to leave are no longer in the country. The ones who are left here are poor. Me, what am I going to do? Go to the airport? I don’t even have money for a ticket. How do I get my son out? Where do we go? There are thousands of us here who don’t have a home or anything in Cuba, and the situation there is getting worse and worse.”

Meanwhile, others continue arriving at Sheremetyevo or Vnukovo airports, unaware that the “Russian dream” can turn into a nightmare.

First published in Spanish by El Toque and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.

Read more from Cuba here on Havana Times.