Illegal Migration in Contemporary Belarus: Issues of Criminal Responsibility (Larisa Vasilieva, Oleg Bakhur)

Раздел "Международное право" - рубрика "Вопросы миграции"Due to the advantages of its geopoloitical location, its favourable social and political, social and economic conditions Belarus has become very attractive for illegal migrants who consider it as transit state in their illegal migration to Western European countries. Illegal migration causes serious problems in social, economic and political life of the Belarusian society. This phenomenon is becoming one of the most profitable spheres of organized and international crime which, in its turn, comprises a significant share of the black economy. Belarus has introduced criminal responsibility for organization of illegal migration of foreign citizens and persons without citizenship with the aim to combat illegal migration, its organized forms and to fulfil international obligations. The law from January 4, 2003 of the Republic of Belarus “On the Introduction of Amendments and Addenda to Some Legislative Acts of the Republic of Belarus” makes the following amendments to the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus: article 371-1 “Organization of illegal migration of foreign citizens and persons without citizenship in the Republic of Belarus” and article 371-2 “Violation of the law of residence in the Republic of Belarus as well as rules of transit passage through the territory of the Republic of Belarus”. The legal acts of the Republic of Belarus do not contain interpretation of the notions “migration of population”, “illegal migration”, “organization of illegal migration”. As for the scientific concept of the migration sphere, it is a system of notions open for gradual terminology enrichment while some of the terms do not have a single definition being in a permanent evolution and improvement process. The authors made an attempt to redefine some of the key definitions used by researchers in the study of the issues of illegal migration flows. The same treatment is given to the discrepancies of some definitions in the international legal acts regulating legal relations in migration. The authors consider the issues of the qualification of actions connected with illegal migration, give a detailed legal analysis of articles 371-1 and 371-2 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus, discuss the issues of collision between the norms of criminal and administrative law during regulation of some issues of illegal migration organization