ORGANISED ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

INTO THE EUROPEAN UNION

Introduction
Migration is a very old and complex subject both as a • positive economic situation;
societal issue and a criminal problem. It is not possible to • democratic systems of government, political and social
quantify the criminal problem, due to its nature, and it is stability;
difficult to define exactly who the perpetrators and victims
are. Whilst human rights organisations advocate freedom of • historical links;
movement to ensure safe and legal migration opportunities • common languages;
for refugees, political and law enforcement bodies advocate
• existing communities;
increased border controls and legal constraints to stop the
influx of illegal immigrants without justifiable asylum claims. • continued reporting of a declining population;
The reasons that migrants leave their home countries • expectations, often spin-offs from media reporting.
continue to exist and in some cases are worsening. Such
criteria, typically termed ‘push factors’ include: Migration itself is not illegal. However, it becomes illegal
when individuals themselves or with the assistance of
• dissolution and disintegration of multicultural states, organised criminal groups attempt to enter countries
accompanied by religious and ethnic conflicts; clandestinely due to the fact that they may not enter or stay
• natural disasters, the progressive destruction of major in a country legitimately. The Europol definition of organised
ecosystems and the associated global warming as a illegal migration according to its Convention is:
result of the industrial economic system; “...activities intended deliberately to facilitate, for financial
• discrimination on various grounds; gain, the entry into, residence or employment in the territory
of the Member States of the European Union, contrary to
• political instability, civil wars and continuing armed
the rules and conditions applicable in the Member States.”
conflicts throughout the world;
Asylum Applications
• poor economic situation;
It is impossible to accurately determine the number of
• uncontrollable population growth; vast differences
immigrants either attempting or succeeding to enter the
in population and economic growth (both excessive
Member States illegally due to the clandestine nature of the
population growth and excessively rapid economic
crime. However, asylum applications in the Member States
growth, which often brings real advantages and
can be used as an indication concerning the nature of the
prosperity only to the few);
flow of immigrants into the European Union from other
• impoverishment, as a result of failing or lack in the areas of the world.
social welfare systems.
While such data should not be used to quantify illegal
The accompanying ‘pull factors’, those criteria that make immigrants, it is a valuable reflection of the amount of
a destination country attractive, ensure that the Member clandestine entries in many of the Member States due to
States of the European Union remain desirable countries the fact that many of these applications are made inland.
for immigrants to attempt to reach and to stay in. These This suggests that the applicants have already entered
factors include: the country, successfully avoiding detection. Being ‘un-
• needs for extra labour force; documented’ on entry can be an ‘advantage’ when applying
for asylum and can also serve to protect the identity and
• comprehensive social security;
1
modus operandi of the facilitator and therefore, reduce the
chance of either repatriation or return to another country
assessed to be a ‘first safe country’ that has been transited.
Furthermore, a high proportion of illegal immigrants misuse
the asylum system which often serves as a temporary
’resting place’ while the asylum process takes place. It also
enables the illegal immigrants to continue their journey to
their desired destination or even to apply for asylum in other
European countries (asylum shopping), thus contravening
the rule of first safe country.
Nevertheless, since the implementation of EURODAC
(operational since January 2003) ‘asylum shopping’ has
decreased. To have fingerprints of asylum applicants - and
to check them - in a common database has been shown to
be an effective tool in curbing asylum shopping. However,
as a tragic spin-off effect, this is highly likely to have led to
an increase in the risks and dangers needed to be taken by
the illegal immigrants during their journey towards the EU.
The goal for these illegal immigrants is to apply for asylum
only in their desired destination country which implies that
the illegal immigrant needs to travel clandestinely or at
least without revealing their true identity before the goal is
reached. The criminal organisations behind the facilitation
need to undertake an extra effort which again raises the
payments for the smuggling.
1
The asylum figures in the EU are generally decreasing ,
except in Cyprus, Malta and Greece. The implementation
of EURODAC is most probably one of the reasons for the
general decrease, but other global reasons must also form
part of the explanation.
In the first three months of 2005, the number of applications
lodged in the European Union decreased 17% compared
to the previous year and 30% compared to 2003. North
America and Australia have reported similar trends with
decreases in the number of applications.
The situation in the Balkans over the years has been
reflected in the statistics, with both a significant increase in
the number of applicants from Balkan countries, followed
by a significant decrease in numbers in the last years.
The highest number of applications in the EU during the
first six months of 2005 was lodged by citizens of Serbia &
Montenegro, followed by the Russian Federation, Turkey,
Iraq and China.
Chinese citizens do not traditionally apply for asylum, partly
because of a lack of reasons to claim asylum. However,
China with its 1,300,000,000 citizens, many of whom suffer
poor living conditions, can be assessed to become the major
source country in relation to immigration as well as illegal
immigration into the European Union in the near future.
1 UNHCR figures of lodged asylum applications, “second quarter 2005”
2
The Involvement of Organised Crime (OC)
Illegal immigration, particularly, facilitated illegal immigration,
is a continuously growing problem in the European Union
Member States. Since the list of nationalities trying to enter
the EU illegally is endless, the social, economic and political
consequences of this smuggling are likely to be the one of
the most serious concerns for the EU.
The facilitation of illegal immigrants has increased
throughout the world. The problem has been exacerbated
in size and seriousness by the growing involvement
of organised crime groups and the emerging trend
of ‘combining’ several traditional crime areas (cross
commodity smuggling).
The methods by which illegal immigrants are smuggled
into the EU vary, often according to their region of origin,
but there is a fair degree of consistency amongst illegal
immigrants from the same region tending to use facilitators
having the same ethnic background. Recently, some
intelligence suggests that this pattern is changing to a more
mixed facilitation network. This tendency raises serious
concerns since the criminal organisations are developing
their markets, strengths and qualities to an even higher
level. Additionally, there is the possibility that OC groups are
‘driving the market’ in search of further profits, encouraging
people who would otherwise have no intention of emigrating
to pay large sums.
To a large extent, OC groups facilitating illegal immigration
can also be found within the ethnic communities already
present in EU Member States. This can be seen as one
of the ‘pull factors’. It is well known that different OC
groups often co-operate with each other, particularly in
2
moving commodities across multiple borders/states . This
co-operation has already extended into the new Member
States and with the planned enlargement of the EU, this is
likely to further increase the opportunities for OC groups
seeking new criminal markets and, at the same time,
to gain new territories from which to organise criminal
activities.
The areas currently of most concern to the Member States
are:
• the significant numbers of illegal immigrants from:
–the Balkan region;
–the Russian Federation;
–China;
–Iraq and the Sub-Saharan countries;
–India, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
2 For example, illegal immigration now often takes advantage of pre-existing routes/networks established
for trafficking narcotics. Both ‘commodities’ can be moved in parallel and even sometimes together
• the use of the following regions as nexus points to enter
the EU:
–the Balkans;
–North Africa;
–Russia;
–East Europe.
Modus Operandi
Routes
Generally speaking, and in its most simplistic way,
one might say that any given smuggling route used
by traffickers and illegal immigrants targeting the EU
comprises a certain distance starting in a source country
outside the EU and ending in a destination country within
the EU, most often using one or more transit countries
along the journey. The transit countries can be situated
either outside and/or inside the EU. Some of the closest
EU neighbouring countries are used as major nexus points
before the final clandestine leg of the journey into the EU.
The geographical relationships between source, transit
and destination countries and the existing transportation
systems naturally define the main routes used by the people
smugglers. As a result of the identification and exploitation
of weaknesses in the existing immigration control regimes
by organised crime groups, certain favoured routes have
evolved. These routes can be identified as follows:
• The Eastern Mediterranean Route;
• The North African Route;
• The Balkan Route;
• The West African Atlantic Coast Route;
• The Central and Eastern European Route;
• The Baltic Route.
The North African route is seen to carry the largest volume
of illegal immigrants into the EU. The Central and Eastern
European route seems to be increasing in importance,
whereas the impact of the Baltic route has declined and is
on the limit of being looked upon as a general route.
These people smuggling corridors function as large
passageways with several nexus points; these are relatively
fixed points along a given route where particular services
or opportunities are available (e.g. safe houses, illicit
border crossing points, transport terminals etc). The actual
geographic route, and the means of transportation used,
between each nexus point can vary greatly, but to a large
extent the nexus points remain constant.
Three of the most commonly used transit countries before
reaching the external borders of the EU are Russia
(Moscow), Ukraine (Kiev) and Turkey (Istanbul), which
are used as either departure points or assembly points
for the onward journey to the EU. In addition, the Balkans
(Sarajevo and Belgrade) is still considered to be a widely
used transit region for onward travel into the EU, as well as
North Africa, i.e. from Morocco to Spain and from Tunisia
and Libya to Italy.
Other than these routes, illegal immigrants – particularly
from source countries far away from the EU – also use
direct air routes when targeting the EU. European-wide
joint operations, most of them supported by Europol, have
revealed that Europe’s international airports are some of
the major hubs for illegal entries. The twin elements of ever-
expanding international flight connections and low-cost
airfares offer a lot of different transit possibilities to reach
the desired final destinations which are widely misused by
the facilitators of illegal migration. Therefore, worldwide air
traffic routes have to be considered when routes into the
EU are discussed.
Falsified Documentation
Although the simplest method of entry into the Member
States appears to be by concealment inside a vehicle
of some sort, improved border controls have led to the
increased use of more sophisticated and high quality
falsifications of travel documents3.
Forged or falsified documentation is more likely to appear at
sea ports and airports where documentation invariably will
be checked. However, the general quality of falsifications of
travel documents has now reached a level where it is hardly
possible to spot the forgeries, even for skilled staff, which
explains how falsified documents can be expected to show
up anywhere.
The majority of illegal immigrants entering the EU are not in
possession of genuine identity documents. The facilitation
networks also assist the illegal immigrants with the provision
of fraudulent travel documents (counterfeited, stolen or
altered) to conceal the illegal immigrants’ true identity. In
some cases facilitators take back bogus documents to re-
use them later.
Criminal networks are known to target embassies/consulates
to obtain travel documents (mainly visas but also passports)
under the pretext of legal business activity or through the
tourist travel sector4. Visas are sometimes ‘honestly’ issued
on the basis of bogus supporting documents such as fake
invitations and hotel bookings.
3 The issue of false and/or counterfeit documents is also an increasing problem in other areas of
crime.
4 ‘Legitimate
travel agencies’ usually organise the illegal entries by providing the camouflage papers
needed to pose as “tourist groups” either by land or by air.
3
One cause for concern is the frequency with which blank Crime (UN Resolution A/RES/55/25, 15Nov 2000, known
passports and visas are stolen from consulates around as Palermo Convention) which will contribute to the combat
the world. These are then easily altered and “issued” to against facilitated illegal immigration at an international
illegal immigrants and/or for other persons with criminal level. The EU enforcement co-operation is led by Europol,
intentions. which channels the joint reaction from the different agencies
in the Member States.
The use of other documentation, such as seaman books
and joining letters from shipping companies and mercantile The EU, from the highest political levels, continues to place
marine organisations, are also used to allow illegal the combating of organised illegal immigration as a priority
immigrants to enter or transit without visa. crime area together with terrorism, money laundering,
counterfeiting currency, drugs trafficking and trafficking of
Sometimes forgers and manufacturers of counterfeit
human beings.
documents offer their services to the highest bidder on
websites by advertising all types of travel documents from The political possibilities to curb organised illegal
around the world. immigration are limited, but the political influence in regards
to legislation, policies and unified strategies is a necessary
The main types of documentation used to facilitate illegal
compliment in the combat against illegal immigration.
entry into the EU include:
Europol offers assistance to law enforcement activities in
• Passports - the different types of false passports
the Member States on an operational level and by producing
detected include those that are entirely faked, those
assessments of the threat from organised illegal immigration
that have been altered (perhaps by the replacement of
on a strategic, pan-European Union level. In addition, it
the photograph) and those that are used which belong
initiates and/or supports cross-border investigations with
to another person with similar features.
analytical and operational expertise.
• Visas - these are also falsified as described above with
passports and there are also cases where visas are
fraudulently obtained, for example by claiming to be a
student or a tourist.
• Permits - residence and work permits are also
susceptible to forgery. It is also evident that immigrants
are claiming asylum in one Member State whilst already
holding a residence permit for another.
• The misuse of genuine travel documents by imposters,
the so-called “look-a-likes” is also widely exploited
especially amongst some nationalities.
The response
Facilitated illegal immigration continues to be of one of the
major concerns for the authorities of the Member States. The
high level of attention given to organised illegal immigration
is largely the result of media reporting of incidents such as
those in the Mediterranean Sea where often immigrants,
mainly from the African continent, drown due to the difficult
and dangerous journey when attempting to reach the
southern coastlines of the EU.
The experience and ruthlessness of the criminal
networks and their ability to work across international
borders necessitates the most serious response from law
enforcement authorities throughout the European Union. In
this regard, the EU law enforcement community welcomes
the entry into force of the Protocol against the Smuggling of
Migrants by Land, Air and Sea, supplementary to the United
Nations Convention against Transnational Organised