VOLUNTEERING OR ORGANIZING ILLEGAL BORDER CROSSING

How to become a volunteer? But who exactly is a volunteer?

According to Art. 7 ZU About volunteering:

A volunteer is a natural person who voluntarily carries out socially oriented non-profit activities by providing volunteer assistance.

Simply put, a volunteer is any person who does socially useful work without the goal of receiving payment for it. For example, you unload food for free, make tea for people on the street and distribute it for free, go abroad to deliver goods to Ukraine, or simply donate (transfer) funds or other valuables to other persons in this way to charitable foundations, which pass them on to those in need. .

How to become a volunteer?

Everything is simple here, just take and do generally useful unpaid work, sometimes even at your own expense. For example, in order to simply prepare tea for refugees, someone must buy this time, pay for delivery, pay for transport, etc. That is why, conditionally, a volunteer is either someone who contributes with work or services for free, or someone who transfers property free of charge for the benefit of others, or simply donates.

But how to become a volunteer, if, for example, your caring colleagues or relatives organized a collection of things for Ukrainians in Poland. You cannot go to another country without the appropriate documents.

Option 1. You search Google or anywhere else for information about charitable funds. Contact them verbally or in writing with an offer to hand over the things collected in Poland to them. The Foundation prepares documents for you as a volunteer and submits them to the Military Administration for the purpose of entering you into the "Path" system. After making the deposit, you get in the car or otherwise drive to Poland and take the collected things and hand them over to the Charitable Fund with the act of acceptance of the transfer.

But what if, for example, you applied to one fund to another, and you were refused for various reasons and you were not included in the "Path" system?

Option 2. Search on Google or in some other way for lawyers who will do all the work for you. They will select the fund, prepare documents, explain responsibility, as well as your rights and obligations. In most lawyers, services are paid and the price of such services is different, in some cases it can reach 4-5 thousand US dollars.

Whether or not to agree to the services of a lawyer is everyone's right and choice. It is also not possible to condemn lawyers who also have families and children and earn a living with those services that are relevant during the war. After all, for example, the price of transport services and the transportation of goods during the war increased threefold, the price of generators during the war generally skyrocketed, etc. We live in market relations and those services or goods for which there is a demand are expensive.

These two options are legal methods that fully comply with current legislation. Of course, there are many violations, for example, when a person tries to simply leave the country under the guise of volunteering, or when charitable foundations pursue not social benefit, but the own enrichment of individual officials, taking funds for an organization under the guise of volunteering, crossing the state border. Therefore, it is right that the work of law enforcement agencies, which initiate criminal proceedings, conduct searches and detain persons involved in criminal offenses, has intensified.

Criminal liability and legal protection for volunteering or illegal smuggling of persons across the state border of Ukraine

The most widespread article of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, on the basis of which criminal proceedings are brought to the EDPR, is 332 of the Criminal Code (Illegal transportation of persons across the state border of Ukraine). Illegal smuggling of persons across the state border of Ukraine is the organization of illegal smuggling of persons across the state border of Ukraine, directing such actions or facilitating their commission by providing advice, instructions, providing means or removing obstacles. According to the third part of this article, committed by an organized group or committed for selfish reasons. The sanction of the article provides for imprisonment from three to nine years with confiscation of property.

From the objective side, the specified crime is characterized

• Illegal diversion of persons across the border (a classic scheme - outside the checkpoint or in a hidden way - in the trunk or on forged documents, while the forgery can be mechanical - a fake document or entering unreliable information into official documents)
• Organization of illegal crossing (selection and use of methods and participants, development of a plan, directions to specific crossing points, including checkpoints, financing of processes, provision of equipment and other necessary means)
• Direct management of illegal crossing (giving instructions to group members, distribution of functions and responsibilities between participants) contributing to the specified crime by advice, instructions, provision of means or removal of obstacles.

The crime is considered finished regardless of whether the intention was achieved - to divert the person across the border, the crime is finished after the actions that the person could have performed and did.

The problem with the practical application of this article is that even if a lawyer provides services for volunteers, law enforcement officers consider such actions to be a crime.

The most frequent plot of the crime is the introduction of false information (that the person is not a volunteer, but is trying to cross the border for a monetary reward) to official documents (an order or order to leave Ukraine, entry into the "Path" system) for selfish reasons by an organized group (paying for the services of a lawyer or an intermediary).

Lawyer under Article 332 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

Recommendations for lawyers, advocates. intermediaries and charitable funds, how not to be brought to criminal liability under Art. 332 of the Civil Code

1. A person who approaches you with an offer to cross the border for a monetary reward must prove that he is really a volunteer, and not a provocateur sent by law enforcement officers. For this purpose, we recommend that, during conversations with such persons, you announce several times that you do not perform the actions provided for in Art. 332 of the Criminal Code, you do not organize, facilitate, or direct actions aimed at illegal border crossing by persons of draft age, secondly, you invite the person to apply in writing in your name, in which the person informs where and what humanitarian cargo he will bring and to which term, and where the person asks you to provide him with the opportunity to cross the border for humanitarian purposes.

This will make it possible to document your non-involvement in the crime, as well as the person's provocative actions, if any, even if investigative measures are being conducted against you.

2. If you are a lawyer or an intermediary, be sure to conclude a contract for the provision of services with the person who has turned to you with a request to help him become a volunteer or a driver, in which you describe in detail what specific services you charge for, in what amount, and under what conditions payment may be refunded, issue official invoice for official payment, do not accept cash payment. Analysis of recent detentions under Art. 332 of the Criminal Code, shows that law enforcement agencies detain persons suspected of committing this crime at the very moment of the transfer of funds (which are either noticed or described in advance by inspection protocols).
3. For the purpose of additional insurance of the Charitable Foundation, which sends a volunteer or driver abroad, and has doubts that the specified person will return on time, we recommend, in accordance with the Law on Volunteering, to officially conclude a contract with such a person and pay for his work, or at least take a receipt stating that the person received funds for the trip and when he must return. The presence of such a receipt will additionally confirm that the person is indeed a volunteer or a driver, and in the event that such a person does not return on time, there will be grounds for opening criminal proceedings against the person under Art. 190 of the Criminal Code - Fraud.

Of course, these recommendations do not guarantee that you will not be accused of organizing the illegal transportation of persons across the state border of Ukraine, but you will have evidence and arguments that can be used for defense in criminal proceedings.

Legal protection of charitable funds (volunteers) from law enforcement agencies - SBU (Security Service of Ukraine), SBU (State Bureau of Investigation), National Police of Ukraine, Prosecutor's Office. Law office Prykhodko and partners - assistance and reliable protection from law enforcement agencies.