St. Petersburg plans to introduce ethnicity recognition to monitor migrants

The Russian city of St. Petersburg plans to equip 8,000 cameras with ethnicity recognition capabilities to monitor its migrant population, city authorities announced this week.

The controversial software was purchased from an unidentified vendor for 38.4 million rubles (US$434,000) from an unidentified vendor as part of the Safe City project.

The system is being introduced due to generally negative attitudes toward migrants in the wake of the terrorist attack on Crocus City Hall, according to Oleg Kapitanov, head of the Committee on Interethnic Relations and Implementation of Migration Policy. The March 2024 attack on the Moscow music venue left 145 people dead and was reportedly committed by Tajik nationals.

The Committee’s solution is to track the movement of migrants using surveillance cameras, Kapitanov added. St. Petersburg currently has 102,000 cameras, most of them located at entrances to multi-story buildings and public spaces, news outlet Kommersant reports.

The move comes amid tightening control over migrant workers, most of which hail from Central Asia. Although the exact figures are hard to come by, the country hosts an estimated 6.1 million foreign citizens.

In November last year, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin announced the introduction of electronic ID cards for migrants containing biometric data to control the influx of illegal migrants. Foreigners will also be obliged to provide biometric data when purchasing a SIM card in the Russian Federation.

The introduction of ethnic recognition-powered video surveillance, however, has raised concerns over rights violations. Questions also remain about how well the ethnic recognition will work given Russia’s diversity — the country has more than 180 ethnic identities.

“This announcement is a mistake, it only sows tension and ethnic strife. Ethically, it raises serious questions about the competence of people in government positions.” Valery Fadeyev, Chairman of the Human Rights Council, told Kommersant.

Chinese camera makers Hikvision and Dahua have developed software targeting ethnic minorities, implicating themselves in the Chinese government’s campaign to repress Uyghurs in Xinjiang.

Article Topics

biometric identification  |  biometrics  |  ethnicity recognition  |  face biometrics  |  Russia