CHEWING slices of pork fat at his house less than two miles from the border with Slovakia, a Ukrainian people smuggler broke into a grin studded with gold teeth as he predicted a sharp increase in trade this year.

On December 21 border controls in much of eastern Europe were abolished as nine new European Union members implemented the Schengen agreement, which allows people to move between most EU countries without a passport check.

From Poland in the north through Slovakia and Hungary to Bulgaria in the south, the porous 1,800-mile Ukrainian border is now the EU’s final barrier against illegal immigrants.

For the smuggler, who claims to have helped hundreds of illegal immigrants into Slovakia, the end of passport controls on EU borders heralds a bonanza.

Migrants typically pay £5,000 to £10,000 to be guided across to the EU. In future, they will do so knowing they can reach France without an official check. Britain, which has not signed the Schengen agreement, represents a challenge but many of those arriving in northern France find a way to cross the Channel.

“More will try to cross from here in Ukraine,” the smuggler said. “First we’ve got a good track record as about 70% don’t get caught, and second because they will be able to travel across the EU without having to show their passports. I expect business to boom.”

Many of those entering the eastern EU countries are thought to be heading for Britain. Although the UK and Ireland have kept border controls, well-guarded frontier posts in Germany and Austria, where many illegals used to be stopped, have closed down. German police say the number of illegal immigrants found in random checks has more than doubled in three weeks.

The people smuggler, who spoke on condition that his identity was withheld, claimed to be part of an international criminal network that routinely pays off guards on Ukraine’s borders.

“Senior border guard officers are bribed,” he said. “I’m given a so-called ‘window’ - a time and a place when a particular stretch of the border won’t be patrolled, say 400 yards for a few hours. With that kind of deal, crossing with a group of illegals is easy.

“Not all border guards are corrupt, of course, but we have no problem finding enough who are willing to turn a blind eye.”

His claims raise fears that no matter how much security is reinforced with extra equipment and personnel, a surge of illegal immigrants will always be able to breach EU borders unless endemic corruption is curbed.

Last year Ukrainian border guards detained some 3,000 illegal immigrants from as far afield as China, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan and Somalia. Ukrainian anti-trafficking police estimate that only 20% of those trying to cross are caught. Detainees are held in a refugee camp in Mukhachevo, a small town 500 miles southwest of Kiev, the capital. Last week the camp held 400 migrants.

“I know some people in Birmingham and I’ve been told it’s easier to get to Britain now the Schengen rules have changed,” said Ahmed, a young Pakistani, who was caught trying to cross into Hungary and is now held at the camp. “They can send me back but I'll try again.”

Most immigrants caught by border guards make another attempt, despite having to pay a relative fortune to the smugglers.

The smuggler interviewed last week said that each migrant pays the total sum for the trip, up to £10,000, to a middleman. The money is then split several ways in the course of the journey between smugglers, border guards, drivers and minders.

“There are many wheels to grease,” the smuggler said. “Getting an illegal from his home village somewhere in southeast Asia all the way to Europe is complex. There’s a huge organisation behind it all, which on the Ukrainian leg alone involves dozens of people.”

More than half the illegal immigrants who cross into the EU via Ukraine go first to Moscow, often on official visas. They are crammed into safe houses, in some cases for months, before being driven into Ukraine, hidden in lorries in groups of up to 150 people. From Kiev, or the port city of Odessa, they are taken to border villages.

Impoverished and only a short walk from the border, the remote hamlets are said by police to be teeming with smugglers who conceal migrants in cellars and abandoned farmhouses before leading them across the border through thick woods and over steep hills. The smugglers use boys as guides because they cannot be prosecuted if caught. They take groups of up to 15 migrants.

“People in villages along the border have been into smuggling illegal immigrants across the border for years. It’s their main income,” said a senior Ukrainian police officer.

According to the smuggler, he is paid £500 per illegal immigrant, of which he keeps £100. The rest goes to his accomplices on both sides of the border. He claimed that in spring and summer, when most migrants are smuggled, he could easily earn £1,500 a month - more than 15 times the local monthly salary.

It can be a deadly crossing. Last September a Chechen woman tried to enter Europe with her four young children from hills on the Ukrainian side of the border, just a few miles from the smuggler’s village.

Walking alone she lost her bearings in heavy rain and falling temperatures. Panicked, she left behind her three daughters, aged between 6 and 13, to search for help. Polish border guards found her and her two-year-old son wandering aimlessly. But by the time they reached the girls, all had died from hypothermia.

Migrants are also at the mercy of criminal gangs who pose as smugglers. Recently 12 Chinese workers were held hostage by their minders. They were handcuffed in a cellar on Ukraine’s border with Slovakia and beaten and starved for several days.

Their captors forced them to phone home to ask relatives to wire more money. They escaped and police are investigating.

“No matter how much they tighten controls, we’ll always find a way across,” said the smuggler. “As far as I’m concerned, the expansion of Schengen is a blessing.”

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