Eighty-Five Illegal Migrants in Four Days

This was what Sumy border guards netted during the May holidays. Taking into consideration that this is one-third of the whole number of illegal immigrants they have detained in 2003, the figure is quite impressive. First, on May 7-9, servicemen of the Sumy Border Detachment stopped a group of thirty Chinese citizens from crossing Ukraine’s border. On May 10 the border guards had an even busier day, arresting 55 illegal migrants mostly from India and Pakistan. Sixteen of those detained have stamps in their passports indicating that they arrived through Russian airports. According to one of the Indian citizens, the group formed in Moscow came to the Ukrainian-Russian border by car. However, although there are no doubts as to where the unwelcome guests came from, the Russians are in no hurry to take them back. Almost half of these people have no identity papers. Moreover, the Sumy border guards believe that rumors in some Russian mass media outlets on the arrested migrants suffering some dangerous infection has also influenced the situation. With the SARS epidemic, of course, nobody wants to invite problems or have them return. However, though the rumors proved to be false and all the trespassers are under medical supervision, the number of migrants arrested by the border detachment grows constantly: recently it reached one hundred. Incidentally, this costs our state substantially: 50 hryvnias are spent every day to maintain every illegal migrant under detention.