The Influx of Clients: How the Number of Cases of Human Trafficking Increased During the Ban on Men's Freedom to Leave Ukraine (infographic)

The number of criminal proceedings for the illegal transportation of persons across the state border increased from 327 in 2021 to more than two and a half thousand in three quarters of 2024, UNN reports, citing an analysis prepared at the request of the editorial board by Volodymyr Bohatyre, a lawyer, Honored Lawyer of Ukraine.

Based on the reports of the Prosecutor General's Office on registered criminal offenses and the results of their pre-trial investigation, we can form a fairly clear picture of the number of criminal proceedings registered year after year under Article 332 of the Criminal Code, which provides for the punishment for illegal transportation of people across the border.

"They show that before the restriction of the right of persons liable for military service to travel abroad due to the introduction of martial law, the number of registered criminal proceedings was quite low. For example, in 2019, there were only 252 entries in the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations, and in 2021, there were 327. It is clear that these offenses, since there was no mobilization, were not related to military service evasion. After the start of the full-scale invasion, when citizens who did not have legal grounds but wanted to go abroad formed a corresponding shadow market for offers, the curve of registered proceedings went up sharply: 1225 records in 2022, 2301 in 2023, and 2585 in the first three quarters of 2024. That is, the "market" for illegal trafficking of persons across the border has officially grown by an order of magnitude! And this can only be explained by the influx of new "clients" - evaders," the lawyer says.

Bohatyr also drew attention to the intensification of law enforcement efforts to detect and investigate such crimes.

"For example, in 2019, only 29% of cases of entering information into the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations were notified of suspicion, which rather indicates that law enforcement officers are not interested in working in this area. But in 2023, this figure rose to 67.2%. It is clear that the number of cases submitted to court with an indictment has also increased significantly. For example, in the relatively quiet year of 2021, 53 proceedings were transferred. And in the first nine months of this year, 1146. It can be predicted that by the end of the year this figure will be at least 1,500. In other words, the workload of the court in criminal cases under Article 332 of the Criminal Code has increased 28 times. It is clear that the number of cases in which no decision was made to transfer to court or close them during the reporting period is also growing," the lawyer explained.

Read more in the article Liability for smuggling fugitives abroad: what the law wants and how it is punished in practice