The source of the trouble is the Balkans. A report prepared for the ministerial meeting states that poorly guarded borders and general chaos in the region allow illegal immigrants to use it as a gateway to the West. According to the authors of the report, there are about 200,000 Chinese alone waiting for an opportunity to be smuggled illegally into Western Europe in Yugoslavia. Criminals are actively exploiting the situation in the Balkans for human trafficking.
British Home Secretary Jack Straw proposes sending European immigration bureau officials to the Balkans to help and train their colleagues in Yugoslavia and neighboring countries. At the end of March, EU representatives will travel to Yugoslavia, Albania, Macedonia, Croatia and Bosnia for consultations with the border and immigration authorities of these states. EU officials will try to persuade Balkan governments to tighten visa and border controls on their western borders.
However, not only preventive but also punitive measures are being discussed in Brussels. A number of ministers insist on tougher penalties for those who have made illegal immigration a source of enrichment. There were even calls to sentence them to 10 years in prison.
However, all these proposals have again faced harsh criticism from human rights organizations. Human rights activists suggest looking at the problem from the other side – after all, illegal immigrants seek to enter wealthy Europe to escape hunger, deprivation, political and racial persecution in their home countries. Amnesty International and the UN Human Rights Commission fear that tough EU measures against illegal immigrants will make the lives of refugees in Europe even more unbearable, and those who try to help them will be unable to do so.
Both officials and human rights activists say the gap dividing their views is gradually narrowing, but as the lack of a clear solution to the painful issue of illegal immigration shows, neither side has a clear plan of action.
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