A people smuggler has recently asked for a shocking sum for his services, Transcarpathian newspaper Karpati Igaz Szo reports. According to the paper,
the smuggler offered to help military age men get into the European Union for a staggering 9 thousand dollars.
For this sum, he merely offered to forge an entry with the clients' data in the so-called Shlyah registry system. The suspect, a Transcarpathian man, also supplied his clients will the necessary advice for the border crossing and taught them what to tell the border guards. The Shlyah on-line registration system was introduced in 2022 to simplify border procedure for hauliers by allowing them to schedule their border crossings, thereby also eliminating corruption.
According to TV21, a televsion based in Uzhhorod, Ukraine, the border guards have denied the crossing of some 6500 people this year. The channel say that most of the abuses are committed by entrepreneurs who are allowed to register people in the Shlyah system, similarly to large transport companies.
Large companies are more careful about their reputation, but some entrepreneurs abuse the opportunity in return for money, registering individuals for a fee of between 3 to 7 thousand dollars.
The German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle reported back last summer that smugglers usually take four people to the river for $5,000 each and show them where to cross. For $1,500, a Telegram channel offers a certificate exempting a person from military service for health reasons. Another offer involves leaving the country ostensibly as the driver of a humanitarian aid truck. Allegedly, this allows ten men a day to get out of the country, at a price of $2,000. Users of social media platforms also shared advice on how to apply for scholarships at universities abroad. Last year, other reports said that refugees had to pay people smugglers up to three thousand dollars to get them to Romania.
In Transcarpathia last year, we also saw as a young man with a Hungarian passport was turned back by a soldier toting a machine gun, because the young man did not have the stamp proving that he had entered Ukraine, and was therefore suspected of being a dual citizen. Rumors had it that 100-dollar banknotes hidden in the documents softened the border guards' hearts on some occasions. Others reported that crossing may be attempted through the green border, and there are places where you can swim across the Tisza, but those are are guarded and the current is also dangerous.
