SLOVAKIA'S BORDER WITH UKRAINE

C O N F I D E N T I A L BRATISLAVA 000428


DEPARTMENT FOR INR
DHS FOR OFFICE OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS AND VISA WAIVER PROGRAM
OFFICE/MARC FREY
VIENNA FOR DHS/ICE

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/1/2019
TAGS: CVIS PREL PGOV LO UP PINR
SUBJECT: SLOVAKIA'S BORDER WITH UKRAINE

CLASSIFIED BY: Susan M. Ball, Charge d'Affaires.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)



1. (U) Summary. On Monday, September 21, Embassy officers
together with DHS/ICE attachi visited the Slovak-Ukraine border
as the guests of the Border and Alien Police (BAP). Our
purposes were (I) to assess any security changes since visa
waiver accession; (ii) observe U.S.-donated inspection equipment
in action; and (iii) discuss the GOS's continuing efforts to
combat the smuggling of people, goods and money into and through
Slovakia. End Summary.


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Schengen's Eastern Frontier
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2. (C) The Slovak border with Ukraine stretches 98 kilometers
and has five official crossing points, three by road and two by
rail. (Note: Readers wanting a detailed description of Slovak
border security should see the (classified) Country Report of
DHS's Visa Waiver Program Office dated September 2008,
hereinafter "the DHS Report.") The border between official
crossing points is known as the Green Border. The southern 35
or so kilometers of the Green Border, where the land is hilly
but passable, is protected by a live-feed video camera chain
with floodlights and infrared capability. The northern portion,
more rugged and in places nearly impassable, is protected by
watchtowers and physical patrols. Starting last week, the
Slovaks began testing 3.5km of "virtual fence" along the
southern stretch using their RALEN technology, on which more
later, and they plan to install additional underground motion
sensors. Eventually, they intend to install further electronic
surveillance in the northern portion, including RALEN.


3. (C) Before visiting the border, Consul Simon Hankinson,
DHS/ICE Attachi Jim Plitt (based in Vienna),and Pol-Mil officer
Aaron Chase were given a preliminary briefing at the BAP
headquarters in Sobrance, eastern Slovakia, by BAP Director
Tibor MAKO and Sobrance Director Miroslav UCHNAR. The Sobrance
facility monitors the camera chain along the southern Green
Border and at official crossings. The BAP showed us video
footage, day and night, of small groups of people crossing the
frontier and of BAP response patrols intercepting them. The BAP
uses cars, SUVs, ATVs, motorcycles, and snowmobiles to patrol
and respond to alarms. They also have chartered helicopters on
call if needed, but no dedicated aerial surveillance and no
unmanned aerial vehicles. The motorized equipment seemed in
good shape, and it appeared they had enough of it to do their
jobs. Officers seemed well-trained, and morale good.


4. (C) Interceptions at the Ukraine border by BAP patrols in
2009 were around 1000, which combined with the 1300 or so
immigrants who fell out of legal status (as a result of
overstay, for example) account for a total of 2300 illegally
present foreigners counted by the Slovaks so far in 2009. In
2007, the number caught at the Ukraine border was 1,684, and the
total number out of status was 6,761. Primary countries of
origin of illegal entrants are Georgia, Moldova, and South Asian
countries. The Slovaks have an agreement with the Ukrainians to
repatriate anyone, regardless of origin, where it can be proven
that they came into Slovakia from Ukraine. This is not always
easy to prove, which is why they invest so heavily in video
surveillance. Indeed, one video from June showed two entrants
walking carefully backwards over the border, so as to give the
impression they were crossing from Slovakia into the Ukraine and
not the other way round.


5. (C) From Sobrance, we visited the Vysne Nemecke border
crossing, the busiest vehicle crossing point between the
countries. At peak times it can handle up to 150 trucks and
many more cars, but this was a quiet day; one truck and a
handful of cars were waiting to cross to one side or the other.
The BAP showed us the U.S.-donated radiation detection scanners
and Customs' x-ray hangar for cars and trucks. They then
demonstrated the RALEN system, a privately-developed Slovak
technology which detects humans through an electro-magnetic
scan, on an 18-wheeler truck. The system control looks like two
DVD-sized black boxes, with minimal switches, hooked up to a
server and monitor. These are linked to a series of sensors
outside that look like ceiling lights, maybe a foot wide and
three long, suspended in a line high above the truck. (There is
another RALEN system mounted under a rubber speed-bump mat which
is used for buses. We did not see this in operation as no buses
came through). Each sensor shows up on the monitor as one of
five zones. The scan takes around 30 seconds, at the end of
which each zone is either "alarm" or green (nothing detected).
The system is apparently calibrated to go off only for humans,
no other animal or object.


6. (C) We observed RALEN scan a truck containing a man in the
passenger seat; the alarm went off in that zone. The man got
off, the truck was re-scanned, and the monitors registered all
clear. (For buses, they make all passengers get off before the
scan). They told us that RALEN is passive, i.e. detection of
existing phenomena rather than passing rays through the object
like an x-ray scan. On the Green Border, the RALEN system uses
towers, about 5 feet high and 30 meters apart, hooked up to a
central monitor to detect passing humans. There is also a
mobile unit which can be set up to cover an area just over a
kilometer in length. The Slovaks are clearly proud of RALEN and
keen to market it to other countries. Interior Minister Kalinak
has personally visited the U.S. with RALEN executives to
demonstrate the system and may be planning further visits to USG
contacts.


7. (C) Finally, we visited Petrovce BAP station, where we were
taken to see a watch-tower and then on to the actual border.
This is a strip of land cut into the dense forest and brush,
perhaps ten feet wide, with a Slovak pole (sort of a concrete
Washington monument, about five feet high, painted in the
national colors) facing a Ukrainian pole every 100 yards or so
along the border. The Slovaks try to limit trails up to the
actual border, to make it easier to detect new tracks. They
showed us a popular place for cigarette smuggling (very
profitable in the EU) and for our benefit, tripped up the hidden
motion-detection alarm which summons BAP patrols when humans
cross the border. The newly-built border station contained a
small, secure holding facility for less than ten migrants, which
was well-maintained. The BAP station officer said it was last
used a few weeks ago.

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Corruption
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8. (C) In informal discussions during the trip, we pressed the
BAP chief on the status of investigations and prosecution for
official malfeasance. For example, we were told unofficially
last year that Lubomir Janco, who was head of the MoI's
Department of State Citizenship and Registers at least as
recently as 2005, was under internal investigation for
malfeasance, though no one at MOI has confirmed this officially.
We were also told that the naturalizations of over 100 people,
many of them Chinese, were being reviewed in light of this and
possibly other malfeasance accusations. Despite the "smoke," in
nearly a year, there has been no "fire" in the form of charges
or prosecutions.


9. (C) The BAP's internal controls unit is the Bureau for the
Inspection Service of the Police Corps, reporting directly to
the Minister of Interior. Uchnar said that some officers have
been disciplined in the past, but could recall nothing new since
the DHS Report came out. The DHS Report, based on a May 2008
visit, said that "Slovak colleagues ~ described a recent case
where an officer from the Border Control Unit in Petrovce was
believed to have been bribed by smugglers to allow the [entry
of] contraband cigarettes from Ukraine. According to the
Director of the BCU Petrovce [Uchnar or his predecessor], the
officer suspected of corruption was immediately dismissed from
the Border Police and was being prosecuted." However, more than
a year later, there has been no public report of any such
prosecution. We made the point that the occasional prosecution
for malfeasance, which occurs in all countries and services, was
more credible than a perfect record, which implies at best a
reluctance to investigate charges and at worst a cover-up.


10. (U) Some smuggling of goods certainly does continue; for
instance, in August, a scanner inspecting trains from Ukraine at
one of the rail crossings was shut down for several weeks due to
alleged concerns from Ukraine about the safety of workers. It
was widely believed that the "smuggler mafia" was behind the
closure. In late September, a few weeks after the scanners were
turned back on, customs found 600 cartons of cigarettes hidden
in a train car.


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The Ones that Get Away~
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11. (C) Mako was reluctant to estimate how many illegal
migrants slip through the Green Border undetected. The Slovaks
(rightly) believe that those migrants are heading elsewhere in
the EU. They say that of intercepted aliens, they return about
80% to Ukraine under their agreement, 15% claim asylum and are
processed according to the EU's Dublin accord, and the other 5%
go to detention centers to establish where they are from so they
can be sent home. However, aliens ordered removed may only be
held in detention for a maximum of 180 days under EU rules.
Therefore, in cases where identity cannot be established, such
as migrants from places like Iraq, Afghanistan, or Pakistan,
whose civil records and diplomatic representation are
insufficient to identify their nationals, those who cannot be
proven to have come in from the Ukraine are ultimately released.


12. (C) Released migrants probably work their way into "old
Europe" to find work and meet up with ethnic networks from home.
In this way, it may be that several hundred non-asylees enter
the EU each year through Slovakia. This tracks with news
reports from April-May 2009 concerning the arrests in Italy and
Slovakia of a human-smuggling ring moving South Asians and North
Africans through Slovakia into Italy. Several hundred people
were thought to have been moved through Slovakia by the ring,
which had several operatives working inside Slovak refugee
centers.


13. (C) Comment. Our impression is that the Slovaks operate a
tight border, at least from an immigration point of view, with
Ukraine. Given the professionalism of the BAP, sophisticated
technology, and the apparent rapid response of patrols, the
Green Border (absent corruption) would not be the easiest way
into the EU. Still, we will urge the Slovaks to follow up on
allegations of malfeasance with investigations and prosecutions,
if appropriate. End Comment.


14. (U) This cable was cleared by DHS/ICE Vienna.


BALL