MOSCOW, December 31 (RAPSI) – Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the federal government to prepare procedures for the implementation of a ban on entry into the country for those found to have violated immigration law by July 15, 2014, RIA Novosti reported Tuesday.

The order aims broadly to tighten control on the inflow of foreigners and to account for their accommodation on Russian territory. Foreigners who violate immigration rules should be banned from entering the country for up to 10 years depending on the length of their residence in Russia without proper registration with the officials, the order published on the Kremlin website reads.

A bill imposing an entry ban for immigration violators was drafted by the Federal Migration Service (FMS). According to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, the bill aims to improve the efficiency of legitimate migration. It concerns violators who have breached immigration rules in the country, as well as violators who are subject to readmission, administrative expulsion and deportation, Medvedev said in April when the bill was considered by the government.

Putin said during his annual Federation Council address on December 12 that the duration of foreigners’ stay in the country needs to be shortened, while violators of the immigration rules banned from entering the country.

According to FMS statistics, almost 15,000 foreign nationals were denied entry to Russia for various reasons in the first half of 2013, three times more than in the same period last year.

The United Nations presented data in September showing that Russia retains the second largest number of such migrants in the world, after the US.

In order, the ten countries hosting the largest quantities of international migrants according to the UN data are: the US with 45.8 million, Russia with 11 million, Germany with 9.8 million, Saudi Arabia with 9.1 million, the United Arab Emirates with 7.8 million, the United Kingdom with 7.8 million, France with 7.4 million, Canada with 7.3 million, Australia with 6.5 million, and Spain with 6.5 million.