MOSCOW, June 17 (RAPSI) - The Federal Migration Service has reported a 12% decrease in the number of foreign nationals who have officially registered with the authorities in Moscow, while the number of foreigners checking in at hotels has nearly doubled, the service's Moscow department chief Olga Kirillova said.

"Around 660,000 foreigners have officially registered with the immigration authorities this year, down 12% from 740,000 the year before," she said.

At the same time, the number of people who have checked in at hotels has reached 220,000, up from 146,000 last year. "Hotels serve tourists and individuals arriving on business. These groups do not usually raise the authorities' concerns," she said. However, more foreigners have registered in the Moscow Region and neighboring regions.

"These immigrants will most likely work in Moscow," Kirillova said. There are around 5 million migrant workers in Russia of which about 3 million are illegal, the Federal Migration Service said in March.

Russia has the world's largest number of illegal immigrants, accounting for almost seven percent of the country's working population, according to a 2012 report by the OECD. In May, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Russia needed to look again at its migration legislation. "We need to turn migration into a manageable process," he said. The inflow of migrant workers is a trend that is "neither positive nor negative; it's just life," he added.