Quotes of the Day
While tabloids warn of potential migration problems within the enlarged E.U., European governments are getting tougher on the illegal immigrants and asylum seekers from the rest of the world. The Netherlands, long regarded as among the world's most tolerant and liberal societies, last week passed a law allowing the mass deportation of up to 26,000 asylum seekers, most of whom are expected to have their residency applications rejected despite the fact that thousands have lived in the country for more than five years. The refugees face deportation to their countries of origin — mostly Iraq, Somalia and Afghanistan — within the next three years. Some 2,300 other failed asylum seekers received an amnesty allowing them to remain in the country. In protest, Mehdy Kavousi, an Iranian who faces potential deportation, sewed his mouth and eyes shut; others threatened hunger strikes. But with all three of the government's coalition partners in favor of the law, such demonstrations will likely have little effect.
Refugees in their hundreds of thousands seek asylum in the E.U. every year — some 400,000 in 2002 — and there are no reliable figures for how many illegal economic migrants arrive without being detected. People-smuggling gangs from as far away as Asia slip workers in on planes, trains or trucks; from North Africa, hundreds are estimated to cross the Mediterranean every week in small, rickety boats. European governments are now sharing more intelligence to stem the tide, and NATO ships patrolling the Mediterranean for terrorists also regularly intercept migrants.
Individual countries are trying new tactics, too. Denmark already has some of Europe's strictest immigration and asylum policies, but last week the government proposed a bill making it harder for radical Muslim clergy to enter the country. The bill only refers to "foreign missionaries," but a spokesman for the right-wing Danish People's Party said it was aimed at imams, some of whom have caused controversy with anti-Semitic and anti-Western teachings. Now all foreign clergy will have to demonstrate their educational qualifications and financial independence before being allowed to stay. The government also vowed to toughen penalties for people who harbor illegals.
The French are also cracking down. In December, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy promised he would double last year's record number of people who were deported or turned back at the border — 28,600 through October. France has also made it riskier for illegal aliens to accept work. Last year, after the existence of large sweatshops using illegal immigrants was revealed in French cities, unlawful workers were warned they would face legal action and fines for holding down their miserably-paid jobs; in the past, only employers were fined.
Will the new crackdowns have the intended effect? The tragic drowning earlier this month of as many as 24 illegal Chinese workers caught by tides while cockle-picking in northern Britain's Morecambe Bay highlighted the risks illegal immigrants are willing to take. Governments may beef up border patrols, but it's hard to deter people prepared to endure horrendous journeys, exploitative employers and grinding, sometimes dangerous, work to get into the E.U.
- HELEN GIBSON | London
- European governments are toughening up immigration and asylum policies