OREANDA-NEWS. On July 07, 2008 the collegium of the State Border Service held a meeting at the service's administration, during which it summed up the results of the service's activities in the first half of 2008 and outlined priorities for the second half of this year.

State Border Service Chief Mykola Lytvyn said that according to objective assessments by national and foreign experts, the real state and a reached level of development of the border service helped effectively ensure stability at the Ukrainian border.

The service managed to decrease the level of illegal immigration at the Ukrainian-Slovakian, Ukrainian-Polish, and Ukrainian-Russian sections of the national border by 1,4 times.

Over 4,620 people, including nearly 1,480 illegal immigrants, were detained for illegal crossing of the state border. A total of 25,137 people were refused to cross the border following interviews with them.

The State Border Service seized smuggled goods worth over UAH 155 million in the first half of 2008 (almost two times up than in the second half of 2007), the service said.