Employees of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine exposed 25 international human trafficking channels in 2017, the head of the service, Petro Tsyhykal, has said.

"Trafficking in human beings is a crime by which the State Border Guard Service carries out a number of search and preventive measures. In 2017, we detected 25 human trafficking channels and detained about 600 people. To identify these channels, we conducted joint operations with Polish and Lithuanian law enforcement agencies," the media liaisons office of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry quoted Tsyhykal as saying.

He noted that most often crimes related to trafficking in human beings are related to labor slavery and sexual exploitation.

Tsyhykal noted that Ukrainians had currently been returned to their homeland and that the perpetrators were held criminally liable.