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Illegal Immigrant FlowSummer 2002

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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.

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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.

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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.