International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, 2 December.

The State Border Guard Service is one of the subjects of combating such forms of slavery as human trafficking, sexual exploitation, labor slavery, etc. Within its competence, the SBGS staff actively cooperates in this area with both Ukrainian law enforcement officers and colleagues from neighboring countries and international organizations.

Analysis of the results of the borderguard agency shows that one of the types of human trafficking is the recruitment of Ukrainian citizens for labor slavery, Ukrainian women for further sexual exploitation and illegal actions in the field of reproductive technologies (surrogacy).

Officers of operationat search divisions of the agence are actively working to reveal such crimes. Measures are being taken not only to discredit the channels of human trafficking, but first of all to eliminate them completely, detain the organizers and bring them to justice.

In total, since the beginning of the year, SBGS units have detained 4 organizers and 8 accomplices, and prevented the export of 24 potential victims of human trafficking. In addition, 19 criminal proceedings were initiated, 14 suspects were announced, and 3 convictions were handed down against 3 people, one of whom was sentenced to a real term.

Also, the involvement of Ukrainian citizens in the underground production of cigarettes in Spain was revealed by our service in cooperation with foreign colleagues. In particular, within the joint operation ALECRIN, in May-July, the law enforcement agencies of Spain and Portugal conducted 125 searches during the cooperation between law enforcement agencies of Spain, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in coordination with OLAF and EUROJUST. As a result, 29 people were detained. It was decided that some underground factories use forced labor of our compatriots.