Tuesday, March 18, 2008

The Abolition of EU Border Control Measures May Increase Trafficking



From the Earth Times:

KIEV, Ukraine- The abolition of European Union border control measures leaves the porous 1,800-mile Ukrainian border the final barrier against illegal immigrants

Nine additional members of the EU signed onto the Schengen agreement Dec. 21, abolishing border control measures between participating countries, making Ukraine the last frontier between non-EU members and the Schengen zone, The Sunday Times of London reports.

A human trafficker boasting a 70 percent success rate in trafficking told the newspaper he expects "business to boom" because his clients can pass into the EU without showing their passports.


Ukrainian border guards detained nearly 3,000 illegal immigrants in 2007 and official estimates put the number caught at only 20 percent, the Sunday Times reported.

The trafficker said corruption plays a role and cites several instances of paying off border guards.
The smuggler said most of the immigrants entering the EU through Ukraine go through Moscow.

1 comment:

  1. This is interesting because I don't think its quite that easy to get into the EU, even paying off border guards. You might, might get away with paying off Ukrainian guards, but you still have to go through EU border guards, and they are much tougher to get passed. Poland may present the biggest problem because its border with Ukraine is so large, but the borders with Slovakia and Hungary are very tough to get passed. Prior to entering Schengen, these countries increased the technology used to monitor the borders and now Ukraine is experiencing more migrants being detained within Ukraine because they can't make it into the EU, which is causing all sorts of new issues Ukraine didn't face as much before.

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