N4 - 1 Illegal Immigrant Flow Summer 2002

N4 - 2 Illegal Immigrant Flow Illegal immigration, which began as a trickle in the late 1990s, has now reached alarming proportions. While some settle in Danube Basin countries, others continue to Western Europe. The illegal immigrants are from Bangladesh, Iraq, Iran, Kurdish areas of Turkey, North Africa, and a smaller number from Sub-Saharan Africa. Two basic routes have developed: river trafficking and overland transport from Istanbul to Germany. Lately, a sea route from North Africa to Albania (and to a lesser extent Croatia and Slovenia) has grown dramatically, further opening the Italian land route to Western Europe.

N4 - 3 Illegal Immigrant Flow (Cont) EU members continue sending mixed messages to aspiring members on illegal immigration. They must balance the interests of their anti-immigrant constituencies with a firm respect for human rights, including the maintenance of liberal laws of asylum. In late June, 37 illegal immigrants from Bangladesh are found suffocated in a cargo container near Vienna. They appear to have been transported by a well-organized smuggling ring with ties in Bulgaria and Romania. The dead appear to have been economically motivated, headed for Germany via Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary.

N4 - 4 Illegal Immigrant Flow (Cont) A day later, Croatian border guards kill two Nigerians attempting to skirt a border outpost on the Montenegrin- Croatian border. The Nigerians, based on papers found on their bodies, had landed in Albania and made their way over land. Press coverage of these incidents has been inflammatory. Demonstrations are set to take place in several European capitals on both sides of the issue, though the groups on the anti-immigration side are better organized.