Russia plans to introduce a special legal status - ‘controlled presence’ - for migrants that have no right to stay in Russia, but are forced to remain on its territory due to circumstances such as the coronavirus-related lockdown, a media report said.

"As one of preventative activities aimed at improving the efficiency of the mechanism ensuring safety and law enforcement in the migration field, it is planned to introduce a special legal status - ‘controlled presence’. It will be established regarding migrants having no legal grounds to stay in Russia, but remaining on its territory for whatever reason," a source in press service of the Russian Interior Ministry was quoted as saying by Russian news agency Tass.

The new legal status will be applied to foreigners, regarding which, for example, a deportation judgement has been suspended or exit from Russia has been limited due to necessity to execute the imposed punishment, participate in legal proceedings, the ministry explained.

 Around 1.6 million migrants have not left the country after expiration of the period of their stay in the country since last March when the coronavirus infection pandemic started, reported Tass, citing data provided by the ministry.

The measures that have been taken, have enabled around 400,000 people to legalize their status, it added.