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EU Sets Its Sights Against Illegal Immigration, Britain Did Not Back Down
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Spain's Prime Minister and President of the EU rotating presidency Jose Maria Aznar.
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SEVILLE
, June 23 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - European leaders moved
this weekend to crack down against illegal immigration, with the help
of the poor nations from which they flee.
"We
must combat illegal immigration and the mafias that traffic in human
beings," said Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, whose
country hands over the rotating EU presidency to
Denmark
on July 1.
"It
is indispensable that we do so."
Aznar,
who hosted a two-day EU summit in the Andalusian capital, said
European Union leaders had agreed to work together to plug the union's
leaky external borders, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.
He
said the 15 nations also agreed that immigration questions should be
integrated in dealings with third countries, both source countries and
transit countries, that illegal immigrants flee in search of better
lives.
"We
have to cooperate with those third countries in migratory flow
management and border control and re-admission of illegals originating
from those countries," said Aznar.
However,
"in exceptional cases, if it comes to light that effective
cooperation is not forthcoming, the EU reserves the right to take
measures... to react to that lack of cooperation."
EU
leaders agreed in 1999 to push for a common asylum and immigration
policy that would set minimum standards for procedures and reception
of migrants, AFP said.
The
policy has been slow in taking shape, but a new sense of urgency has
emerged following the success of the far right in
France
and the
Netherlands
in exploiting the immigration issue.
In
Italy
, like elsewhere in
Europe
, fear of immigrants is playing into the hands of the xenophobic
Northern League, the uncompromising right wing of Prime Minister
Silvio Berlusconi's governing coalition.
Its
leader Umberto Bossi has proposed "zero tolerance" for
illegal immigration, and his party is currently pushing tough new
anti-immigration legislation through parliament.
Prior
to the Friday-Saturday summit, Spain and Britain had been pushing for
tough economic sanctions that would threaten EU aid to poor countries
unwilling to cooperate in the crackdown, but that was scrapped under
pressure from France, Sweden and other member states.
"We
must encourage, convince and cooperate rather than sanction,"
said French President Jacques Chirac. "We cannot accept the
principle of conditionality for aid."
"To
make such a link," said Swedish Prime Minister Goeran Persson,
"would hurt the reputation of the whole European Union and would
be counter-productive. It would be an historical mistake."
And
that was the view that prevailed.
British
Prime Minister Tony Blair called the agreed measures
"sensible," even if they fell short of what Britain was
hoping for -- a clear threat of sanctions against nations that fail to
do their part to curb an annual influx of 500,000 illegal immigrants
into the 15 EU member states.
Instead,
the EU is to fold immigration clauses into its cooperation agreements
with developing countries, much as it already does on human rights and
democratic principles.
"For
us this has never been about hitting poor countries," Blair told
a press conference.
"The
last thing we want to do, since we're actually increasing aid and
development assistance to poor countries, is to hit those poor
countries," he said.
"But
it is about making sure that we have proper agreements with them --
and we of course reserve the right to adopt any appropriate measures,
should they fail to cooperate," he said.
"Indeed,
the evidence we have is that they will cooperate, provided we are
engaged with them in a proper and constructive way," he said.
Britain
is a prime destination for illegal immigrants, some of whom pay
thousands of dollars to smugglers to sneak them into the country.
Others
make false claims for refugee status, or simply overstay their visas.
Concern
over illegal immigration to
Britain
hit a peak in June 2000 when 58 Chinese nationals were found dead from
suffocation inside a Dutch truck filled with tomatoes at the
English Channel
port
of
Dover
.
It
has remained in the headlines with repeated attempts by mainly Afghan
and Iraqi nationals to sneak through the Channel Tunnel from the
Sangatte asylum-seeker holding center near the French entrance to the
tunnel.
Meanwhile,
British Minister for Europe Peter Hain insisted Sunday that
Britain
was not forced at an EU summit in
Spain
to tone down plans for economic sanctions on states which fail to
tackle the problem of illegal migrants, AFP reported.
The
measures agreed upon by the European leaders at the
Seville
meeting Saturday to turn back illegal immigrants and tighten the
bloc's porous borders, but stopped short of deciding sanctions against
the poor countries from which they come were seen by the British press
as a snub to Prime Minister Tony Blair's plans to counter illegal
immigration.
However,
Hain insisted after returning from the summit: "We got exactly
what we wanted."
He
told the BBC: "In the case of those countries with whom we have a
relationship providing aid and trade and lots of other political
support, they ought to accept their international obligations. That
was agreed in
Seville
.
Hain
added: "We got an agreement by Europe to accept genuine political
refugees ... but to deal with this problem, which we have not faced in
Europe before on this scale, of gangs trafficking illegal migrants
across Europe, often ending up at the other side of the Channel
Tunnel" in Britain.
"All
the hype about penalizing the poor, sanctions and so on, that was
never intended because it would be absurd to do it," the British
minister said.
"What
we wanted to achieve was those countries behaving in exactly the same
way as we would if we had illegal migrants deported from another
country, we would accept them back. We expect them to do the
same."
Britain
is a prime destination for illegal immigrants, particularly for
Afghans, Kurds and Chinese, some of whom pay thousands of dollars to
smugglers to sneak them into the country.
Some
500,000 foreigners settle illegally in the EU every year, according to
estimates. Many just overstay their visas; others pay traffickers to
sneak them in by air, land and sea, or make bogus claims of refugee
status.
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