George-the-Global-Beachtrotter,
Re: Of course, the Albanians have locked up the immigrant, arms, drugs and even cigarette smuggling and the only thing the mafian fathers got left to work with is butter...LOL
Well, you may have half a point here.... But note that Albanians don't run the "Chinese ratline" yet --guess who's actually Europe's biggest tour operator in Beijing?? BANG ON, George! You get it: it's your old buddy, stirrer Milosevic who's been appointed Beijing Circus's ringmaster!
Actually, I've always been intrigued by the sudden wave of Chinese immigrants in Belgium (most of them being on their way to Great Britain). I mean, it's already a long shot for African immigrants from Central Africa --or even from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia,...-- to make it across the Mediterranean, so how come Chinese immigrants living 15,000 miles farther can so easily land up in the heart of Western Europe?
It seems that the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade during the Kosovo air-campaign has had some kind of reverse side-effect on China-Serbia "tourism"....
Paris, Wednesday, August 23, 2000
For Illegal Immigrants, A Gateway via Balkans
From Asia and Middle East, They Pass Through Region to Reach West Europe
By Carlotta Gall New York Times Service
ZAGREB, Croatia - The chaotic lands of the Balkans have become the latest gateway to Western Europe for tens of thousands of illegal immigrants from China, South Asia and Middle Eastern countries like Iran and Iraq, according to Western diplomats, local officials and the increasing number of refugees caught making the journey.
President Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia, in particular, has opened the gates to thousands of Chinese intent on reaching Western Europe. Under Mr. Milosevic, Yugoslavia has cultivated strong ties with China, which was Belgrade's ally during the war over Kosovo last year.
Yugoslav consulates in China freely grant tourist visas to Chinese, and the legal passage to Yugoslavia eases the way for illegal entry to the rest of Europe. Typically, the Chinese arrive by plane in Belgrade, then travel to Bosnia and here to Croatia. Then they head for the Adriatic coast and hope to reach Italy.
Bosnia has its own flow of illegal immigrants from Iran, Iraq and other countries with which the Muslim-led government in Sarajevo maintains strong ties out of gratitude for the support of Iran and Arab nations during the 1992-95 Bosnian war.
Croatia is experiencing a staggering increase in human traffic. Barely a week goes by without a new report of dozens of Chinese or other migrants being caught on the coast or inland.
The authorities here Zagreb have caught 10,000 illegal immigrants trying to cross into Croatia in the first half of this year, compared with 8,000 in all of 1999. On Aug. 12, for instance, 52 illegal immigrants were sent back to Bosnia, with which Croatia shares a 1,200-mile, largely mountainous and unpatrolled border. A few days later, 36 more were caught in the town of Varazdin, close to the border with Hungary and Slovenia, said Miroslav Cindori, the head of a detention center outside Zagreb.
In Mr. Cindori's center, a converted motel, young men in track suits and plastic sandals wander around, using sign language to beg for cigarettes through the wire fence. Mostly Chinese, these men are illegal immigrants caught by the Croatian authorities, and they now await deportation. They represent a minuscule part of Europe's latest headache caused by Belgrade.
The 85 men and two women detained here have mostly come through in groups, organized by a shadowy but extensive criminal network of human traffickers, who are suddenly using the Balkans for access to Europe, said Duc Tran of the International Organization for Migration, in Zagreb.
None of the Chinese detainees wanted to talk or be photographed. But other detainees, from Bangladesh, Tunisia and Iraq, were eager to talk and urgently asked for help.
''We took the wrong road,'' said Shahabuddin, from Dhaka, Bangladesh. ''We wanted to go to Italy, and they stopped us and said, 'No, this is Croatia.'''
Their stories appear to confirm the growing alarm among Western diplomats and migration officials that a sophisticated and far-reaching network of human traffickers from Asia has switched its attention from the United States and is now looking to Europe. The traffickers have found that the troubled and unruly countries of the former Yugoslavia, with porous borders and a lack of immigration laws and agreements, are an ideal gateway to the West.
Officials in Croatia recently signed an agreement with Bosnia in an effort to halt the human flow, but they lack the diplomatic contacts needed to reach a similar agreement with Mr. Milosevic's government in Belgrade.
Chinese gangs have switched the focus of their activities toward Europe, Mr. Tran said.
''There has been a change in the final destination since the clampdown by the U.S. government, which has cut down illegal immigration to the United States,'' he said. ''Europe is now the specific destination of the Chinese.''
In past years, Mr. Tran has dealt with waves of illegal immigrants from China who passed through Central America in trying to reach North America. It is estimated that as many as 500,000 Chinese tried to emigrate last year, he said.
A large number of these people are now coming to Europe, taking advantage of the new Yugoslav route.
''What triggered it was the granting of visas by Belgrade,'' Mr. Tran said. ''Two DC-10's come in a week to Belgrade. You pay $500 to $900 for a ticket, and you are in Belgrade.''
The Serbian capital has a sizable Chinese community and an entire Chinese section in the vast open-air market that grew up in Belgrade over the last decade to circumvent sanctions and enable people in Belgrade to buy smuggled consumer goods. The groups of Chinese arriving by plane ''are not going to Serbia for business,'' Mr. Tran said, adding, ''They may do some trade, but their final destination is Europe.''
The lucky immigrants who make it through Bosnia and Croatia head for Italy by boat. Once there, they can travel freely within the block of European Union countries that are bound by the Schengen agreement and have abolished passport checks.
Belgrade is almost certainly making money out of the scheme, said Thomas O'Rourke, acting chief of mission in Zagreb for the International Office of Migration. Besides the visa and ticket sales, there is talk that the Chinese can buy residency permits in Serbia for a few thousand dollars, Mr. Tran said.
The traffic in Chinese migrants in Western Europe came to light in June when the bodies of 58 Chinese were found in an airtight container on a truck in Dover, England.
The Chinese travel in groups, and are often shipped to prearranged employers, who then recoup the cost from the immigrants' wages in sweatshops or restaurants or in the sex trade. Passage to the West can cost up to $60,000, Mr. O'Rourke said.
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iht.com |
