Ukraine arrests over 30 illegal immigrants from SE Asia

UKRAINE: The Ukranian authorites have arrested over 30 illegal immigrants from south east Asia in two raids near to the country's frontier, the Ukrainian border guard service said Monday.

Fifteen illegal immigrants were captured on Sunday as they hid in a private house in Velyky Bereznyi, near to Ukraine's frontier with Slovakia the guards said.

They were discovered during a joint operation between the police, border guards and the security services.

The immigrants were found after being denounced by an Indian who had been arrested in the same region a day earlier.

Also on Sunday, 16 illegal immigrants and the Ukrainian who tried to smuggle them into the country were arrested in the Chernigiv region, eight kilometres (five miles) from Ukraine's border with Russia, the border guards said.

The 16 illegal immigrants included 14 Indians and two other people from an unnamed south east Asian country.

Ukraine has become a key transit country for illegal immigrants wanting to reach the European Union since neighbouring states Poland, Slovakia and Hungary joined the EU in 2004.

In the first eight months of 2006 2,616 illegal immigrants were arrested in western Ukraine. Last year 6,834 illegal immigrants were captured in the same area, a slight increase on the 2004 figure of just over 6,000.

Lviv, Tuesday, AFP