| 28 June 2007 According to the Ministry of Interior of Belarus, the number of illegal migrants moving across Belarus has dropped. As Ekaterina Samusenkova-Shelegova reports, Head of the MoI information and public relations department, a steady trend can be seen now towards general reduction in the attempts of violation of Belarusian border by illegal transit migrants. According to the MoI, the number of illegal migrant groups transiting via the republic and detained for illegal stay in the country has decreased considerably. Over 5 months of the current year, police authorities have apprehended only 3 illegal migrant groups consisting of 9 persons in total as opposed to 26 and 127 in 2006, and 53 and 302 in 2005, respectively. Officers of the State Committee of Border Troops apprehended 177 illegal migrants in 2006 while the figure was 368 in 2005 and 748 in 2004. At the same time, the total number of foreigners moving across Belarus has grown: in five months of the current year alone, bodies of internal affairs have registered more than 50,000 such persons; total registrations in 2006 were more than 124,500, and in 2005 – over 111,300.
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