-Caveat Lector- <<Needless to say, the Kosovarian Liberation Adventure '99 is not quite over, except for the mediacrats. A<>E<>R >> >From BHHRG http://www.bhhrg.org/refugees/introduction.htm {{<Begin>}} THE POST-KOSOVO EUROPEAN REFUGEE CRISIS Real Refugees, the Abuse of Asylum and Organised Crime With the end of the 78 day war between NATO and Yugoslavia, hundreds of thousands of Kosovar Albanians may have returned home, but a new refugee has crisis followed. The flow of would-be asylum seekers claiming to be from Kosovo and trying to enter EU states has not stopped. During the summer several European countries reported an upsurge in the number of refugees arriving and seeking asylum, notably Great Britain, Germany, France and Italy. During the summer, the British Helsinki Human Rights Group conducted several on-the-spot observation missions in Dover, Calais and south-eastern Italy to analyse the complex and controversial issues of political asylum, migration, and the role of the mafia in people smuggling. The summer of 1999 has seen a spate of incidents reported in the media without adequate analysis. In Dover, on the south coast of England, tensions flared between local youths and asylum seekers that resulted in several people being wounded in knife attacks. In Calais, on the other side of the English Channel, refugees claiming to be from Kosovo, put up an ersatz camp in the city's main park to draw attention to their plight. It was cleared by the French riot police, the CRS. Along the coast of Puglia in southern Italy hundreds of asylum seekers arrive every day, including gypsies from Kosovo. One boatload of would-refugees was apparently drowned at sea off Montenegro after been thrown overboard by the people smugglers. Added to which, hundreds of containers filled with humanitarian aid for Kosovo which should have been delivered by the state- sponsored charity Arcobaleno months ago have been discovered sitting at the port of Bari and in Durres in Albania. Reports in both national and local newspapers in these countries have highlighted concerns that many refugees are not fleeing political persecution per se but seeking work and more favourable economic circumstances in the more affluent West. More alarmingly, police in Western Europe suspect that the influx of refugees is part of a worldwide network involving not just the smuggling of people but also the control of drug, prostitution and paedophile networks. The subject has become a difficult one to discuss calmly as anyone who sets out to analyse the nature of the refugee problem tends to be labeled as 'racist'. Refusal to question anyone's motives however tends to tarnish the genuine asylum seekers and other honest would-be arrivals in Western Europe with the criminal brush since ordinary people are made cynical about the whole asylum issue by the refusal of self-appointed spokesmen for refugees to tackle the hard questions about people smuggling, crime and dishonest claims for asylum. This blanket denial of the grey side of the asylum issue ignores the reality that many refugees are themselves pawns in the hands of international criminals. The fact that most of them pay thousands of Deutsche Marks or dollars to reach Western Europe is testimony to the fact that asylum is big business for many unscrupulous people who have no concern for the fate of those whose passage to freedom they faciltate. Having already visited the key port of embarkation for Italy in Albania, Vlore, in 1998, members of the BHHRG visited Dover, Calais and southern Italy in August-September, 1999, to examine the nature and extent of the problems there. Their report concludes that: (1) The definition of asylum contained in Article 14 (1) of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights - to offer protection to those suffering political persecution - is now largely irrelevant. Apart from a handful of people (see below) no one interviewed by the BHHRG claimed to have been persecuted politically; they wanted to work and gain a decent standard of living, better than they could hope for in the countries of origin. These are not dishonourable motives, but to achieve asylum status applicants must dissemble their true economic motives and invent political or religious reasons. (2) Attempts to strengthen and refine domestic methods of applying asylum laws will do little to curtail the flow. Despite much-vaunted cooperation between EU member states and legislation like the Dublin Convention the understanding is that 'the problem' can be shifted from one EU country to another. (3) The rationale behind the existence of bodies like the Council of Europe is blown open. For example, people from Romania and Poland are considered suitable candidates for asylum despite those countries having met the human rights criteria for membership in the Council of Europe. (4) Many of the problems that now exist have resulted from ill-conceived foreign policy decisions made by the Europeans and their more powerful American allies in the Balkans and Eastern Europe, in particular. This has involved promoting and supporting patently mafia regimes which, when once established, are impossible to control. KFOR's hopeless attempts to stem Kosovar Albanian violence in the past 3 months demonstrates this all too well. BHHRG has long experience of studying mafia activities in the FRY republic of Montenegro and in Albania. According to all the experts in Italy, Albania is the outlet for most of the people smuggling that is now taking place. However, when former president Berisha attempted to control smugglers in October, 1996, his government was brought down in 1997 by an uprising led by a strange alliance of mafia gangs and former Communists with, many believed, covert American help, certainly with vocal support from EU and US capitals. Since then Albania's role as exporter of people and organised crime to Italy and beyond has exploded despite the Tirana government's signature on cooperation agreements especially with Italy. Unlike Albania, the West's ally in Yugoslavia, President Milo Djukanovic of Montenegro has refused even to sign anti-mafia and anti-smuggling agreements with Italy. It is a sad irony that NATO's humanitarian crusade in the Balkans has promoted a refugee exodus and an explosion of organised crime. The human rights of hundreds of millions inside and outside the EU are threatened by the failure to control international organised crime and its political backers especially in the Balkans. >>>Internal links<<< http://www.bhhrg.org/refugees/italy.htm http://www.bhhrg.org/refugees/romarefugees.htm http://www.bhhrg.org/refugees/arcobaleno.htm http://www.bhhrg.org/refugees/france.htm http://www.bhhrg.org/refugees/greatbritain.htm http://www.bhhrg.org/refugees/violence.htm http://www.bhhrg.org/refugees/conclusion.htm CONCLUSION The sight of hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing their homeland was the defining spectacle of the Kosovo crisis. However, like previous post-Cold War crises such as the Kurdish exodus in 1991 following the end of the Gulf War, Allied victory has not resolved the problem of displacement, just altered the parameters. The return of so many refugees to Kosovo has not stemmed the flow of would-be migrants, some from Kosovo others claiming to be from the province. They have joined the existing tide from other places. Despite the existence of dictatorships and persecuting regimes, few of the arrivals in southern Italy, let alone those who make their way through safe countries like France to Britain, have serious claims for asylum. Only the Roma refugees from Kosovo formed a clearly persecuted group in the observers’ opinion. In practice it is those with the money to pay people-smugglers and with the daring to take the risks involved _ primarily young men _ who make up the bulk of asylum-seekers. Away from immigration officials, these young men are perfectly willing to explain their economic motivation for coming to Western Europe. Unfortunately, Western European states do not recognise self-improvement as a legitimate reason for admission. In order to gain admittance young men who might well have the energy and initiative, and often the education, to find jobs and contribute to society have to perjure themselves and pretend to be victims of persecution. Since they are often already beholden to criminal organizations for their clandestine transport to Britain, this incentive to lie can only encourage contempt for the law of their adopted country. Instead of continuing the increasingly farcical and dishonest asylum system, EU and other affluent West European states should consider blanket rejections of appeals for refugee status from a "white list" of states and by those clearly passing from one EU state to another. At the same time, EU should consider adopting a rational regulated immigration and work permit system. In the absence of a coordinated policy by the EU and countries like Switzerland, Great Britain should adopt clear new policies. The preservation of the right to asylum for genuine refugees is an important obligation for any civilized state. Public support for the duty to provide for refugees can best be maintained by making clear distinctions between the deserving and undeserving applicants. Many of the problems found across Europe with absconding or unregistered asylum- seekers and migrants could be reduced by a willingness to offer immigration and working rights to candidates who meet clear criteria. Much of the illegality and crime associated (not least in the public mind) with the exponential growth in asylum applications combined with the Home Office’s inability to process the results could be avoided if Britain and her partners adopted policies which permitted immigration or periods of work which could be readily regulated precisely because the migrants would have fewer incentives to live illegally and on the fringes of society. Such a system would of course require enforcement. At present, the authorities across Western Europe often talk tough but in practice avoid dealing with the issue of bogus asylum-seekers, treating genuine refugees on a par with illegal immigrants, and hoping that the problem will move elsewhere. The combination of Western Europe’s economic attractions with continued upheaval from the Balkans to the Middle East suggest that the issue of a growing number of asylum-seekers will continue to test Western politicians. However, the failure to adopt transparently honest and effective policies to distinguish real refugees from economic migrants, or to permit legal immigration while cracking down on the organised crime associated with illegal influxes, can only encourage the very racism which critics of any influx control decry. {{<End>}} A<>E<>R ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Integrity has no need of rules. -Albert Camus (1913-1960) + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your common sense." --Buddha + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly. -Bertrand Russell + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "Everyone has the right...to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." 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