The border between Slovakia and Ukraine represents a gateway to the west for many. Just a few years back, the situation was rather messy. Before entering the Schengen zone in December 2007, Slovakia promised to overlook the dangerous zone.
The eastern border of the EU resembles a maneuver. The border patrol watches your every step. You have to endlessly explain what you are doing at this and that spot; other times, the border guards will force you to open your trunk. The border police claims to have the border under control and argues that the number of attempts at an illegal crossing are continuously declining. Those wanting to cross have shifted to Poland and Hungary.
People and other smuggling
Illicit cross-border transport of people used to be a luring source of income in the poor country. “The numbers are not official and it depends on the migrant’s country of origin. The award for a transfer might add up to as much as USD 6,000,” the deputy head of the foreign police in Sobrance, Marcel Gligonič, says.
But when charges intensified, people smuggling weakened, leaving a void for Ukranians to fill.
The 100-kilometer Slovak-Ukranian border is naturally divided into two stretches. The flat south is under camera surveillance; the border patrol, aided by choppers, scooters, three-wheelers, special belt vehicles and canines, of course, is responsible for making sure that no one crawls through the northern wilderness.
Big Brother in action
The brand new headquarters at Sobranec lies exactly where the two stretches meet. In its operational center, the video footage in analysed. The employees (unfortunately) know about every person’s and even animal’s and wind’s movement and are obliged to respond to it.
The high sensitivity of the system makes sense—the camera’s lens captured, for instance, packages with cigarettes flowing down the river. A while ago, a fallout disabled some cameras and certain areas couldn’t be monitored. The sabotage was staged by tobacco smugglers.
“Lately, despite the economic crisis and the cononomic situation in Ukraine, we’ve noticed a rise in smuggling of goods, particularly tobacco,” Gligonič explains. Since vehicles and trains are thoroughly checked, cartons of cigarettes travel in backpacks across the green border. The profit is immense. In your average shop in Uzhorod, for instance, a packet of Marlboro costs CZK 15.
“Those who have smuggled people in the past are now smuggling cigarettes. Last year, we only encountered foreign people smugglers,” Ján Ivoš, the head of the headquarters in Petrovice where inaccessible mountains seperate Slovakia and Ukraine, confirms right at the “green border”.
To the border by a taxi
But a runner must inevitably come out of even the densest of forests and that’s the long-awaited moment by border guards. According to stories by border officers, not so long ago, a twelve-member Albanian family headed for France emerged from a forest.
Most migrants attempt to cross at their own risk and don’t resist when detained. “They take the taxi in Uzhorod which takes them north, drops them off and the taxi driver tells them that Slovakia is this way,” Ivoš narrates.
The local border guards all remember well an expert who tried to cross the border thrice. “It must have been a sport for him,” the head noted. Imigrants are often no better off with a professional guide. Once the smuggler senses police, he/she will take off and leave the group behind.
“Most often, our clients are Moldavians,” Ivoš says. The number of Georgians has also risen following last year’s Kavkaz war.
The border guards are gradually getting accustomed to the interest from foreign journalists. From time to time, the mistrusful Austrians will probe it the area; they’ve even had a correspondent from Al Jazeera come to look at the border’s surroundings. “Not so long ago, two Slovak toursits got lost mushroom hunting. The Ukranians detained them,” Ivoš says by the rock marking the border line. “They wanted to keep them all weekend, but we brought them back in the end. It cost them each EUR 178, though.”
Vodka travels by bus
Next to cigarettes, alcohol is a favourite contraband. “I am carrying one-and-half liter and can only take one. You’ll help me carry one bottle over, won’t you?” An elderly Ukrainian woman approaches me when getting on the bus in Uzhorod. She plants more plastic bottles with unknown alcohol around the bus.
“Not at all, I’m bringing it for my relatives,” she responds to a question whether she’ll sell the vodka in Slovakia. “I’m going to Poland to do shopping,” the woman announces a while later to a border guard. The officer obviously doesn’t trust half of the passengers but everyone stays on and crosses.
The residents of near-border areas regularly profitably purchase cigarettes, alcohol, food and gas–which is half-the-price than in the Czech Republic. But it’s not easy. Customs inspectors are aware of it and a border check might take up to an hour.
On top, the allowed amount of imported goods is continuously tightening. The weekly limit for cigarettes is, for instance, two packs. Checks of fuel status have toughened as well. Customs officers have also began checking the tachometer of vehicles that show up at the border regularly. They make sure that the gas tank won’t run empty in a few kilometers. In the past, bargain hunters would tank at Ukranian gas stations a number of times a day.
