Тhe Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia and the Serbian Embassy in Moscow are fully engaged in resolving the issues of our workers who were detained by the competent Russian authorities in Sochi for exceeding the permit of stay in the Russian Federation.

Ambassador Terzic is in permanent contact with the relevant authorities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other agencies of the Russian Federation in order to help our workers and resolve their difficult situation promptly and in the best possible way.

A Consul of the Republic of Serbia has been in Sochi from the moment the Embassy received the first information concerning the problem of our workers.

The Consul is in permanent contact with the Federal Migration Service responsible for this problem. He visited "Vesela" construction site, talked to our workers there, and also visited and talked to our detained workers.

The competent authorities of the Russian Federation in Moscow and in Sochi are cooperating fully with our state representatives.

According to our knowledge so far, in the past few days, the Federal Migration Service carried out a thorough inspection of the stay of all foreign workers because of the upcoming Olympic Games and detained for interrogation all the workers who did not have valid licenses. They included about 40 Serbian nationals.

The Federal Migration Service informed us that the employer was responsible for providing a written guarantee that the workers would leave the construction site and the Russian Federation by the expiration of the period of their stay.

The employer of these 40 workers has not done that yet. The Embassy of the Republic of Serbia is trying to get in contact with the employer who is required to provide not only the organized return of our workers from the Russian Federation, but also to pay for their overdue salaries.

We assume that, in addition to these app. 40 workers, there are some more of our workers who could be faced with a similar situation.

The Ministry and the Embassy will continue to make every effort to resolve this difficult, humanitarian situation of our workers in Sochi. Our engagement is in close cooperation with all competent authorities of the Russian Federation and within the legal framework.

The competent Russian authorities have shown their full understanding of the humanitarian situation of our workers, and we have been assured that they will do their best to the effect of resolving the situation promptly.

Our Foreign Ministry has established a special telephone line at which the families of the workers may obtain the information available to the Ministry. They can call 011/306-8142 which is available until 10 p.m. and 011/306-8615 afterwards.