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International Migration News - Volume #8 | |
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Southern Europe: Migrants
The New York Times reported on December 25, that illegal immigration into Europe from the south and east is rising sharply: some 500,000 illegal migrants are believed to have arrived in 2000, up from 40,000 in 1993. The report profiled the Laleli section of Istanbul, described as a place to buy false passports and visas for prices that range from several hundred to several thousand dollars. Many of the migrants seeking entry to Western Europe are legally in Turkey, but they need to be smuggled from Turkey into countries that deny them visas. Turks and Albanians, often operating in gangs or groups of five to 20, dominate the smuggling of migrants. Turkish authorities apprehended 47,518 migrants in 1999, and 40,245 in the first six months of 2000. At least 27 people died when Turkish authorities took over 20 prisons that were being held by the gangs that dominated the dormitory-style prisons portrayed in the 1978 movie "Midnight Express." Turkey was attempting to move prisoners into two- to three-person cells, prompting the protests. About half of Turkey's 72,000 prisoners are expected to be released in January 2001. Sweatshops in Italy. Police and labor inspectors are stepping up their coordination to reduce sweatshop labor, but they are finding it difficult to penetrate Chinese and other gangs that bring in workers for employment in textile, apparel, shoe and leather factories. Business Week on November 27 reviewed efforts to deal with "21st century slavery" in Europe. Paul Higdon, director of the criminal intelligence directorate at Interpol, which established a Children and Human Trafficking Division in 1999, says Europe is "faced with a modern slave trade." Pino Arlacchi, of the UN Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention in Vienna and author of "Slaves: The New Traffic in Human Beings," says that people smuggling is "the fastest-growing criminal market in the world." Many analysts conclude that "third-world sweatshops" are moving to Europe along with "third-world migrants." By some estimates, 500,000 migrants will move "illegally" into Europe in 2000, up 10-fold from the early 1990s. Most are Chinese, and most arrive as indentured servants, owing $5,000 to $25,000 to smugglers. In many cases passports and other documents are taken from the migrants until they have paid their smuggling debts. The economics operate as follows: A garment that retails for $100 is usually bought for about $50 from a designer, who has the garment made according to his specifications for $10 to $30. Contractors, in turn, can use subcontractors, pay them less than $10. Most European countries do not have joint liability laws so that designers and retailers are jointly liable for the immigration and labor law violations of contractors and subcontractors. In one case in France, sewing shops were found that operated legitimately by day and with illegal workers at night. The neighborhood of Esquilino near Rome's train station has been transformed from a lower middle class area to a bustling Chinatown over the past 10 years. The streets are full of import-export warehouses and Chinese restaurants. Some 50,000 supporters of the Northern League, which calls for "zero immigration," demonstrated against illegal immigration in Milan in December 2000, prompting Interior Minister Enzo Bianco to say that Italy expelled 60,000 illegal immigrants in 1999 and more than 180,000 in the past three years. Italy's lower house of parliament approved a law by a vote of 278-211 in December 2000 that would impose prison sentences of one to four years on foreigners expelled from Italy and establish a fingerprint database to facilitate their identification- all persons without proper documentation would be fingerprinted. Sanctions on employers would increase to: (1) prison sentence of between six months and two years, plus; (2) a fine of between 20 and 50 million lire ($9,400 and $23,500). People involved in trafficking in foreign prostitutes face up to 15 years in prison under the new law. Nearly a third of Italians surveyed by the Rome-based Censis center for social studies said that their biggest concern is the increasing number of foreigners arriving from outside the EU; among all those polled, immigration was third on the list of concerns, after unemployment and organized crime. Some 88 percent of those polled wanted immigration reduced. Nearly three-quarters of those surveyed believed immigration and crime are directly linked, but three-quarters also agreed that foreigners are needed to do jobs that Italians do not want to do. For more information: http://www.censis.it/censis/indexf.html In 1999, there were 577,000 deaths and 544,000 births in Italy; the average age in Italy was 45. If Italy's birth rate remains at 1.2 children per woman, Italy's population will drop from 57 million in 2000 to 41 million by 2050, and the share of the population over 65 will rise from 17 to 35 percent. Iceland has Europe's highest birth rate: an average two children a woman. Greece. Greece, with 10 million residents, received an estimated 750,000 newcomers in the 1990s, half from Albania. Some Greek parents in Athens school districts with half or more migrants have begun to complain that their children are disadvantaged by the large number of migrant children. Immigrants are 12 percent of the Greek workforce, and unions are becoming concerned that Greek workers' jobs are threatened. In the first six months of 2000, the Greek coast guard detained 1,559 migrants attempting to enter the country and seized 23 ships. In mid-July, a ship with 192 migrants aboard was found near the southern port city of Kalamata; two Turkish sailors were arrested. In mid-August, Turkish police detained 80 immigrants who were trying to enter Greece. The immigrants were from Morocco, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Pakistan. Three asylum seekers in Greece went on a hunger strike in July 2000 to protest their treatment; they complained that they were detained four to 11 months without a warrant. Such detention is a common practice by the Greek police, which is regularly denounced by the UNHCR. Turkey. The eastern Turkish city of Van, population 226,000 is home to several hundred thousand refugees from neighboring countries, including Bahais and others fleeing Iran as well as Kurds from Iraq. Most of the refugees live in adobe huts with plastic sheeting for windows and no heating or toilets. Many men work illegally in construction; women in growing numbers are said to be turning to prostitution. There are about five million Bahais world wide, including 350,000 in Iran. The Bahai International Community in New York says that Bahais in Iran have been sentenced to death for refusing to renounce their faith; the Bahais believe that their spiritual leader, a 19th-century Persian nobleman named Bahaullah, succeeded the prophet Muhammad as God's latest messenger. Spain. Spanish authorities report that since January, police have arrested more than 14,200 illegal migrants in the southern region of Andalusia, many of whom entered the county by boat. Andalusian authorities asked the central government to use the army to patrol the borders. Spain is separated from Morocco by nine miles at the narrowest point. In December 2000, a migrant was shot by a Border Patrol agent as he waded ashore and resisted arrest. The Human Rights Association of Andalucia said: "The civil guard should not be allowed to use firearms against illegal immigrants. These people have committed no crime. They are just poor people who seek a better life."
Kerin Hope, "Parents are
becoming concerned that the rising tide of non-Greek immigrants will
hold back their children's education," Financial Times, December
13, 2000. | |
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