According to local Security Service reports, over 1,100 illegal migrants were detained in Zakarpattia in 2002. This year has also reaped a bumper crop because the local populace, embittered by their own hardships, now tend to be enemies, not friends, of the border guards. The underlying motive is earning money (the fee is $50 for one person to be taken from one migration point to another) enough to build a house and lead a well-to-do existence.
Zakarpattia has been flooded with illegal aliens from the world’s various nooks and crannies. By August 1, 2003, 502 foreign nationals had applied for refugee status to the oblast administration’s branch of the State Committee on National Minorities and Migration. This number graphically illustrates the social and political tension in the countries they came from. The greatest number of applicants (138) come from Bangladesh, 56 from Iraq, 55 from India, 33 from Pakistan, and 27 from Afghanistan. Asia must be the hardest place to live in because 450 applications came from there and only 38 from Africa. Mykola Tovt, deputy chief of the nationalities and migration department and head of the territorial migration center, says the Ukrainian law On Refugees, passed in July 2001, was in fact inapplicable for a long time due to the absence of application blanks to be filled out by foreign nationals applying for refugee status in Ukraine.
“It is only in the summer of 2002 that we really began to accept this kind of application from foreign citizens. The final decision on this matter is made by Ukraine’s State Committee for National Minorities and Migration,” Mr. Tovt said.
“Are any of the illegal migrants seeking permanent asylum in Ukraine or do all of them just want to be in transit here?”
“We do not try to find out where they want to go. This is their own personal right. They apply to the authorities for asylum in Ukraine only, and we are supposed to handle their applications. Even if we turn them down, that is not the end. An individual can appeal our decision in court, as prescribed by the Constitution of Ukraine. If a court accepts the suit, we must issue a document (a lawsuit confirmation with a photo — Author) to certify that this individual legitimately remains in Ukraine while his case is being handled in the courts. This can last from a few weeks to several months. A foreigner can appeal our actions to Kyiv authorities within seven days. In this case also we issue a document certifying their legitimate stay in Ukraine.”
“Does the new Ukrainian law On Refugees help them?”
“It is a step forward. For the old law in force since 1993 was the object of criticism by international human rights organizations. The new law meets the international legal norms including the UN Convention on the Status of Refugees. We are thus working to bring Ukrainian law into conformity with EU and Council of Europe requirements. The only problem is to put this law into practice, for example, to ensure such rights of these people as temporary housing, employment, and means of subsistence.”
“Does the camp for illegal migrants at Pavshyn, Mukachevo district, not guarantee these rights?”
“It doesn’t because it is a temporary shelter for foreigners and stateless people who are illegally staying in Ukraine, actually a detention center. Some of these people apply for refugee status. We consider the applications on the spot. My personal impression is that many people languish there too long. I haven’t found a clause in Ukrainian laws that an individual can be held incommunicado for five months without a court order. When we issue a document, they must be released. But sometimes they are held even longer, as if this were necessary.”
“Could this be out of fear that some of those held in Pavshyn might attempt again to cross the border?”
“Maybe. There are such reports. But, sooner or later, these suspects will be released. And it is not ruled out that they will make another attempt. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh... They wouldn’t be fleeing if life were decent in there. The problem is Ukraine’s eastern border with Russia. The issue of the Russian-Ukrainian border has not yet been settled in legal terms; there is no law to this effect. Thus the Ukrainian side cannot demand an agreement be signed on the mutual readmission of individuals who have illegally crossed the state’s border. We are thus forced to receive foreigners handed over by Slovaks, Hungarians, and Poles if the latter have proved that the illegals came from our country. In reality, 80-90% of them came from the Russian Federation. We have no legal grounds to send them back. Ukraine has become a haven for illegal migrants because they in fact do not return to their homelands. This my civic position on this problem.”
INCIDENTALLY
March 2003. Six people, including a woman, are in the dock of the Velyky Berezny district court. Last year 30-year-old Maly Berezny resident Vasyl K., while in Uzhhorod, accepted the proposal of Eduard A. (now held in a different case) to participate in the organization of an undercover channel to transport illegal migrants across Ukraine’s border to Slovakia. Eduard was in charge of forming migrant groups in Kyiv, while Vasyl chose to look for — and found very soon — accomplices to help transport the “slave labor” to Zakarpattia. Yet, ten illegal migrants were spotted and detained by the Ukrainian Border Security Force. Then the whole ring was broken up by the Zakarpattia Branch of the Security Service of Ukraine.
April 2003. The Zakarpattia Branch of the Security Service of Ukraine arrested a group of people implicated in the organization of a channel to transport Southeast Asian nationals across the border. Police operatives stopped a KAMAZ tractor-trailer near the village of Holubyne, Svaliava district, on its way from Kyiv. While examining the trailer ostensibly loaded with eggs, law enforcement found 28 Chinese.
May 2003. Customs officers and border guards of the Uzhhorod checkpoint spotted 47 Southeast Asian nationals who, assisted by our compatriots, were trying to illegally cross Ukraine’s borders in a special hiding place inside a MAZ truck. Prosecutors of the Zakarpattia Branch of the Security Service of Ukraine instituted legal proceedings against Ukrainian citizen V. Vasko, who drove the MAZ offered by an unknown person after being given documents authorizing him to cross the border, and a phone number to call in Slovakia.
