MOSCOW, October 16 (RAPSI) - Around 650 criminal cases over the organization of illegal immigration have been initiated in Moscow since the start of the year, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said at the City Duma meeting on Wednesday.

As a comparison, less than 20 migration cases were opened last year, Sobyanin said.  Sobyanin assured that the actions of the government and police against illegal immigration are not a short-term campaign.

Moscow police have again gained the right to detain irregular migrants because the Federal Migration Service is not keeping up.

On October 10, a young resident of the Biryulyovo neighborhood in Moscow was fatally stabbed early near the entrance to his apartment block. Hundreds of protesters were detained by police overnight Sunday and on Monday in Biryulyovo. Around 70 people have to date been charged with minor administrative offenses.

On Monday, more than a thousand people, most of them reportedly labor migrants based in or around Biryulyovo, were detained. The round-up seemed to be a response to anti-migrant sentiment.

The suspected killer, identified as Orkhan Zeinalov, from Azerbaijan, was apprehended by police special forces in the city of Kolomna, some 120 kilometers southwest of Moscow on Tuesday, and was flown to Moscow in a helicopter.