A meeting of representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine with the families of Ukrainian seafarers, detained in Greece, was held at the MTWTU Maritime Information Center.
At the invitation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the meeting was attended by the MTWTU Chairman Michael Kirieiev and his First Vice Oleg Grygoriuk, as well as the Head of the National Police Department for Combating Human Trafficking Artem Kryshchenko and the representative of the Chief Investigation Department Oksana Pustovaya.
Mr. Vasyl Kyrylych, Deputy Director-General for MFA’s Consular Service stressed the relevance of the meeting: “It is important for us to conduct a dialogue, maintain contacts with the relatives of the detained seafarers. We are here to update you on what is happening at the moment. We perfectly understand that you have your own understanding of the problem, but to make it objective, we require consolidated discussion and mechanisms to address the existing problem.”
According to Mr. Kyrylych, the number detentions of Ukrainian citizens for the transportation of illegal migrants, has not decreased since 2017. “We expected certain conclusions to be made, but this has not happen. Thus, during the period from January 1, 2018 to November 30, 2018, 45 Ukrainian citizens have been detained in Greece, and 40 of them for the transportation of illegal migrants. In 2017, for the same period, 39 Ukrainians were detained for human smuggling operations. We are very concerned at the numbers, as we were hoping to have created the understanding of the problem, of the risks... It is no secret that illegal migrants are a national disaster for Greece, therefore their legislation is that severe,” said Mr. Kyrylych.
At the same time, he reported of 25 Ukrainian seafarers, convicted of transporting illegal migrants, who have been released this year. 19 of them were imprisoned for 2.6 years, 6 people – for 1 year and 8 months.
“According to preliminary information, by the end of 2018, another 5 Ukrainian citizens will be released,” Vasyl Kyrylych noted. Hу also outlined two components of the problem resolution: “First is the prevention of such cases. This is the identification of groups of organizers, initiators and termination of their activities. Secondly, the legal settlement of the consequences. It is more difficult to combat the problem than to identify the reasons, since the crime committed is already a proven fact. Unfortunately, today we are like firefighters: it caught fire there, we run, another time we run to another fire, etc. We need systemic actions, otherwise this problem cannot be solved.”
In turn, Oleg Grygoriuk noted: “We all empathize with the families of our seafarers who find themselves in such a difficult situation. We are trying to help within our competence, but our competence ends where criminal violations start and no Union members are seen. In order to expand our own capabilities, get more information from seafarers, be able to help more effectively, carry out preventive work, the Union, together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, has created the Maritime Information Center. When the problem has already happened, it is thousands of times more difficult to solve it. Therefore, we are doing everything possible to anticipate such situations.”
