Ukraine expels 13,000 illegal migrants in 2011

KIEV - Ukraine expelled 13,000 illegal migrants from the country last year, the Prosecutor General's office reported Wednesday.

More than 310,000 foreigners are currently on the books of Ukraine's Migration Service, the annual report said. Most of them come from the Commonwealth of Independent States, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

The statement also said that 55,000 foreign nationals, as well as 21,000 Ukrainian citizens, were prosecuted for violating the rules of staying in Ukraine in 2011.

As to legal migration, nearly 65,000 foreigners were living in Ukraine at the end of 2011.

Ukraine has raised the quota for legal migration by 12 percent per year to 8,217 migrants.