VOA reports on the worsening security situation for migrant workers in Russia with the pressures of the global economic crisis.

But even before the global crisis hit, an opinion poll by the Russian Public Research Center, last June, found more than half of those surveyed said Russia should limit the number of unqualified foreign workers.

The SOVA human rights organization and others report about 300 violent attacks against migrants, last year. Nearly one-third were fatal, including the December decapitation of a young Tajik national in Moscow.

SOVA Deputy Director Galina Kozhevnikova says many Russians accept what she says are myths that migrants take away increasingly precious jobs and drive down wages.