Establishment of the National demographic registry of Ukrainians and stateless persons can solve the problem of illegal migration, expert of the working group, which conducted a study of the migration situation in the country, Oleh Rudenko said during the round table "How do migration processes influence socio-economic situation in Ukraine?", ForUm correspondent reports.
"Europe is closely following the issue of control over migrants. Ukraine is regarded as a country under risk of illegal immigrants’ transit corridors to Europe. However, Ukraine is not the only country having the problem. All the countries are trying to introduce the appropriate regisries, based on the information data. First of all, it goes about biometric technology," Oleh Rudenko said.
"According to official data of the Interior Ministry, there are 300.000 migrants in Ukraine. According to our research, there are 5-7 million people. As a result, the amount of unpaid taxes to the budget of Ukraine makes up to $2 billion, and outflow of money makes up 35-45 billion UAH every year.
There is also the transit illegal migration through Ukraine. Border services do their best to monitor these processes, although the organizers for illegal transfer of migrants are very creative - recently we became aware of the tunnels between the EU and Ukraine," the expert said.
According to the representative of the State Border Service Oleksandr Skigin, a decrease in illegal transit migration via Ukraine to the EU borders has been observed since 2008.
"In 2011, compared to 2010, illegal immigration has decreased by 59%. It has decreased by 18% after eight months of 2012. In 2012, there has been 22% decrease in the number of migrants from the CIS countries, and the number of illegal migrants from Asia and Africa (Somalia, Afghanistan, Eritrea) has increased by 10%," he said, noting that Euro-2012 has helped to improve and accelerate the migration controls at the borders of Ukraine.
In general, the experts agreed that the legalization of migrants living in the country has a positive influence on the economy of Ukraine, but it is not profitable for foreigners.
"Now legalization in Ukraine is complicated and long enough (about 4-5 months). It’s more profitable to work illegally. The main problem is not money but bureaucracy. Personally I think that foreigners have to pay taxes where they work," expert, the Universal Assistance project representative Mykola Holbin said.
