EU acts on illegal immigrants

Robin Oakley: Tighter controls could mean refugees are taking greater risks

By Robin Oakley, CNN.com European Political Editor

LONDON, England (CNN) -- European justice and home affairs ministers have agreed the first steps in curbing illegal immigration and hammering out a common policy on political asylum-seekers.

They plan to send more immigration police and intelligence units to areas like the western Balkans. Senior immigration officials from 10 EU countries will meet in London next week to discuss measures in more detail.

British Home Secretary Jack Straw said at the meeting in Stockholm: "By working together we stand a better chance ... There are over 120 separate police services in Europe. It makes sense to find better ways of co-operating."

Europe's governments want to curb the thriving rackets of those who help smuggle up to 500,000 illegal migrants a year into western Europe -- especially those who traffic in women and children, tricking them into a life of prostitution and pornography.

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Anna Lindh, Swedens Foreign Minister, says: This traffic is a gross infringement of human dignity and human rights. It is a disgrace to our societies. It can only be combatted, she says, by international co-operation.

UN experts say that worldwide more than 700,000 women and children are trafficked every year and that only the drug trade brings bigger profits to the international crime mafias.

Europe has a particular problem with illegal immigration. Both economic migrants seeking to escape poverty and unemployment and victims of persecution seeking political asylum are flooding into EU capitals.

Many of them make their way there with the aid of human traffickers whom they look upon not as criminals but as providers of an essential service. Ever greater numbers are coming via the porous borders of the comparatively lawless Balkans.

Italys Prime Minister Giuliano Amato and his British counterpart Tony Blair recently declared in a joint article that 50,000 immigrants had passed through Bosnia alone in just 10 months.

But there is sharp debate among European leaders and refugee organisations about the best ways of tackling illegal immigration.

They are divided on whether or not to maintain a Fortress Europe policy of zero immigration or to begin managing immigration by letting in more workers from outside the EU to meet rising labour shortages, both of skilled workers in information technology and of unskilled agricultural workers.

The Stockholm moves follow the call by Blair and Amato for the creation of an EU liaison network in the Western Balkans and the deployment of more EU experts to help train border controllers and immigration officials in countries like Bosnia. But there is little economic incentive for transit countries to interfere with the human smuggling trade.

Blair and Amato also urge the return of more illegal immigrants to their countries of origin. But that always proves difficult to achieve with people who have no papers and no wish to return.

Different approaches to problem

The United Kingdom is calling for universal penalties across the EU for human trafficking. It wants strong universal penalties too, for airlines and shipping companies found carrying illegal immigrants, an incentive for them to step up security.

But Sweden, currently holding the EU Presidency, does not favour fines and wants to put the focus on preventative measures in countries of origin and transit.

The UK is a top destination for political asylum seekers. According to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, of the 390,000 asylum applications in the EU in 2000 the largest national total was 97,900 in the UK, followed by Germany with 78,000 and the Netherlands with 43,000.

But suggestions by Straw that the U.N. Convention on the treatment of refugees should be revised have brought controversy.

Ruud Lubbers, the new U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, has warned against watering down the convention and the creation of a Fortress Europe. So has Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson, the former Irish president.

Some refugee experts say that tighter border controls, more penalties and zero immigration policies are making desperate refugees take ever greater risks, and increasing business for the people traffickers.

They want to see better education campaigns in countries of origin and quota systems to allow in more migrants, given that Europe is facing labour shortages over the next decade.

Germany is allowing special entry to IT experts and the UK has relaxed restrictions on foreign students staying on in Britain. Although some fret about burdens on the welfare state, recent studies have shown that immigrants bring a net benefit to European economies.

Immigration and asylum issues are high on the agenda for talks in Cahors on Friday between Blair and President Jacques Chirac of France. They will explore ways of tightening controls to curb cross-Channel people smuggling and Blair, with an election coming, is expected to press Chirac to let Britain send more asylum-seekers straight back across the Channel.

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February 8, 2001
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February 7, 2001
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February 4, 2001
UK, Italy act on people traffickers
February 4, 2001
Spain reviews 34,000 immigration cases
February 3, 2001
Schroeder wants green card programme extended
February 2, 2001
Another Dutch man arrested in deaths of 58 Chinese illegal immigrants
June 21, 2000

British Home Office
British Refugee Council
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

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