Illegal Immigration in the European Union - Essay Example

Illegal Immigration in the European Union Introduction: Immigration and its laws in the European Union are highly people oriented i.e. they are designed to give citizens more freedom. The treaty of Rome declared the EU an area without borders for people who wanted to look for work in countries in the EU. The single European Act of 1986 bettered the treaty of Rome in that it gave every citizen of the EU to move around EU countries with out visas and check points were soon removed after this treaty, this was done in order to facilitate the people who wanted to relocate within the boundaries of the EU and this is the treaty that made EU a bloc of countries with out borders. The Maastricht treaty of 1992 created what is known as the ideology of the European citizens, the aim of this treaty was to incorporate the national identities of the citizens of the EU into a European identity without reducing the importance of the national identity of the citizens. The Amsterdam treaty of 1999 gave the citizens of the European Union the right to vote and also to participate in the elections for the European parliament. The Amsterdam treaty granted human rights to the citizens of the EU and this led to the creation of European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights. It was in the Tampere summit in 1999 that it was decided that there would be certain rights and laws for dealing with the issue of immigration, both legal and illegal. It was at the Tampere summit that it was decided that illegal immigration would be fought against using certain measures that would ensure that the illegal immigrants would be investigated quickly and hence the major goal of this paper was to send back the illegal immigrants to their country of origin as soon as possible. These measures were soon rendered useless as the influx of the illegal immigrants continued to grow at almost an exponential rate and further steps needed to be taken and hence that led to the issue of illegal immigration to be raised again and again in the agenda of the EU and the canary islands episode was indeed the last nail in the coffin. Canary Island Incident: Before launching into the incident that actually took place a brief history of the canary island would help to understand things better. The Canary Islands is an archipelago that is a part of Spain and it lies west to the African continent and is located at a close distance from morocco though the journey might look very easy but it is a very difficult one especially when the means of transport is not a very stable one. In 2005 around 4500 people entered the Canary Islands through the sea route but in 2006 the number almost grew 6 times when the number of illegal immigrants reached the figure of almost 31000. About 6000 migrants went missing or died and only 5000 people were intercepted by the coast guards. This led the then Canary Islands president to ask the centre for help with the issue of illegal immigrants by setting up a committee to address the problem which he describes as 'critical'. Aden martin, the then president of the canary islands, asked not only thy kingdom of Spain for help but also asked the EU to play its part in controlling this situation because he saw this not as a threat only to the canary islands or Spain but as a threat to a whole of Europe because once the illegal immigrants got through to the canary islands they could pretty much move through the whole of Europe freely as they were no check points because of the relaxation in visa policies for the whole of the European bloc. The problem as illustrated above is indeed quite critical because of the staggering number of people that have been trying to make it to Europe through the canary islands not only risk their lives and more than 10,000 people have already lost their lives but they also pose a threat to every party involved economically and due to the large numbers there are no facilities intact currently to deal with them that leads to the problem of crossing the line with respect to human rights issues and accommodation and legal processes for all of the illegal immigrants. This also leads to a problem that is in its own a violation of human rights i.e. the separation of illegal immigrants from the political asylum refugees who try to make it through this route and would probably have to do away with their lives if they are sent back to their country of origin. Why the mass immigration European Union currently has a bloc of 27 countries, these 27 countries are some of the worlds richest, they own almost half the world's wealth, some of the most famous and rich person live in this bloc of countries. They have some of the most innovative technology with respect to consumer goods as well has capital goods, they have some of the largest industries in the world which have an employment potential which is mammoth to say the least. The infrastructure of the European countries is better than most of the countries in the world and the facilities for entertainment are almost unmatched in the European countries, the economic conditions have only grown from good to better in the past and the political stability has led to democracy being rooted deep into the culture and the society take on the other hand the whole continent of Africa, it has been starved for over a decade now, there are famines, there is state sponsored terrorism, there is Darfur. These are some of the poorest nations in the world, and even after the abolition of slavery they live their lives in state of slavery, slavery to the richer nations, and slavery to better economic and social conditions. This has been a region that has been inflicted with political instability that leads it to being to some of the most unstable regions in the world; it has rich natural resources but no means of exploiting these resources and hence they get exploited because of huge multi nationals that exploit these resources and keep the remunerations to a bare minimal for the African people. The population has grown to being about 500 million and is continuously growing at a steadier rate because of better health condition but that hasn't helped because the economic opportunities haven't grown at that rate and they probably won't. Given this stark comparison it is not difficult to see why the rate of illegal attempts to gain access to Europe have increased so dramatically and risking lives for getting into Europe is seen as an option because the people who attempt to do so know that they would die even if they do not attempt this journey due to economic and political hardship. When two neighboring continents have such a difference it is only a matter of time that the one with better facilities would start acting like a magnet to the one that is not the well to do. The EU immigration policies have also played an important role in increasing the number of illegal immigrants, the problem lies with the approach of the EU the more the people want to move to the EU the harder the EUs policies of immigration, people who cannot afford these processes economically and also other wise take the easier option out then. It is time now that the EU realizes that this is not the answer to the problem in fact it is soon becoming a part of the problem itself. The stricter these policies get, the harder it would be for people to get into Europe by legal means and the more lucrative way would then be the illegal one and hence many a more incidents like the canary island are waiting to happen. The EU should concentrate on making legal immigration to the EU countries much more easier because if some action is not taken soon the routes that are currently been taken by people to get to the canary islands and other points used to access Europe would then be exploited by organized syndicates of human traffickers and this has also started to happen with a group of Chinese landing into canary islands last year through an organized human trafficker syndicate and more could be on their way if proper action is not taken to stem out this flow. Actions Taken by the EU: In the august of 2006 EU nations launched a marine border security squad that plans to deal with illegal immigration by taking rapid action against illegal immigrants and to secure the routes that are currently being used by immigrants to travel and are also taken by human traffickers. These teams aim to provide countries with 'expertise and manpower'. Missions would be sent to the troubled areas within 10 days, along with this the EU also announced that it would make a pool of 250-300 experts that would include experts on first aid, translations and legal matters pertaining to immigration so that political asylum seekers can be separated from illegal immigrants. All the costs of these operations except the salaries of the personnel would be borne by the EU and the planning of operations for these missions falls under the command of frontex. Spy Planes: The European commission in 2005 announced that it has decided to buy spy planes to protect the borders of the EU; these planes would be Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV's) that would be laced with the most sophisticated spy technology to monitor the activities on the borders of the EU to counter terrorism and also the issue of illegal immigrants that according to recent reports if not kept in check would be a catastrophe because of being such a sensitive issue. This announcement was made in line with EU plans to secure its borders against illegal immigrants by investing 1 billion pounds to equip the European police with hi tech surveillance equipment and also to the custom agents and other border control teams that already exist and some that would be announced later. This investment would also be used to study the routes that are used by the illegal immigrants and also try to make the EU policy more proactive than reactive i.e. it would first study all the routes taken and also the routes that would be taken if the current ones and blocked and then would take action against the routes that are currently open after having secured the routes that could have been taken. In addition to this the EU encouraged its countries to develop their own rules regarding the issues of illegal immigration and the way to deal with them so that the process of returning them back to their countries of origin is fast tracked. Talks with Africa: 60 countries took part in the conference that was held in Marat on the issue of illegal immigration between the EU and the African continent. The EU believed that it could reach on some decisions to take action against the uncontrolled immigration, the EU planned to reach this objective through the granting of more aid to the African continent through the next 6 years as the EU believes that the only permanent solution lies in making the economic conditions in the African continent better so that the immigrants would not want to leave Africa at least not illegally by putting their lives on the line. It is projected that by 2050 almost 2 billion Africans will attempt illegal immigration to all parts of the world and the EU by then would still be a viable option and hence action needs to be taken and it needs to be taken fast. The first hurdle is to develop consensus with in the EU on what the strategy to counter the illegal immigrants should be. Some believe turning Europe into a fortress is not an answer and a long term poverty crushing approach should be adopted through aid and investment .The aid attempts to make the economic conditions of the African continent better so that investment would be a viable option and more investment is the answer to breaking the cycle of poverty in which the whole region is engulfed. Strategic Partnership: China has been a growing influence in the region in the last several years and has been playing an important role in developing infrastructure facilities through out the continent and hence continues to gain a share in the trade of the African continent and the EU is now wary of this. The EU has realized that aid is not the only solution to the problem that is faced by the African continent. China claims to understand the requirements of the African people in a better manner and has been successful till date in walking the talk, the EU has decided to follow suit, it has now laid the foundations to be a strategic partner to the African continent and has asked the African countries to pin point the major issues in the infrastructure and the areas that need further financial assistance and investment. The Return Action Program: In 2002 the EU agreed upon a return action program that would guide all the member countries on how to deal with the illegal immigrants with out violating the right of the immigrants and also providing them all the legal rights. The return action program provided comprehensive coverage to the issues of common measures and standards, removal, the use of coercive methods, temporary custody and re-entry while bearing in mind that the political asylum seekers had to be separated from the illegal immigrants. This program was the first time the EU nations were given a way to deal with the issue illegal migration because before that no country had been able to hammer out their own rules and regulations regarding the issue at hand. This was a huge step in this regard because this was a step that needed to be taken a long time back because due to the lack of direction regarding this matter the EU countries were under constant pressure from the human right commission because it deemed the EU countries conduct in this regard as not appropriate and constantly blamed them for violating migrant rights. Problems faced: When the EU announced that it would set up centers in the African continent for hiring people for the EU countries, some factions of the African continent feared that this would result in a brain drain of the African continent which was already weak in the department of human resource that is trained and skilled and has been educated, it said that since the EU is a developed nation its labor needs are much more on the tertiary sector and hence this would result in the flow of people who were educated and trained to the EU countries because of the better job opportunities that the EU countries were now presenting to them. This would certainly halt the African progress a great deal and hence the strategic partnership that promised much at the beginning now has to be altered to take this into account. This alteration would definitely help the immigration issue being discussed because it is the lower level of population that attempts these get aways to dream lands such as the canary islands those who are educated would rather prefer the legal process because they will be able to afford it monetarily as well as with respect to time because they are in no hurry to reach these destinations as some of the poorer people are because they are fighting against time each day of their lives. Economic hardships: Illegal immigrants are willing to work at prices that are the minimal because they are not secured by the minimum wage law as the legal citizens of the EU are and hence they are willing to work for almost anything that is offered to them. This poses another serious threat to the EU countries because it means that the legal citizens of the EU will not get the jobs and those who find illegal ways to enter the EU would be granted jobs because of the lower wage rate that they are willing to work on. If this continues to grow there would be a large scale unemployment in the EU because of this and this poses a threat to the industrial peace of the EU countries because the trade unions might retaliate by going on strike, although there are laws that state that illegal immigrants should not be employed but implementation of these laws is another story altogether because the illegal immigrants have the patronage of the people that they are working for and it's a mutual agreement that the immigrants would work on lower wages and would continue to be supported by the people they work for. The more the number of illegal immigrants the more money they government would have to spend on services that it deems necessary for the people to have, the crime rate has been increasing steadily in the EU countries and the culprits have been increasingly identified as illegal immigrants and hence this poses a threat to the EU countries in regard of security as well as the costs that they have to bear by giving them legal rights when they are produced in a court of law. The same goes for health charges and other social service charges because they cannot be denied these services they use it and hence prove to be a burden on the respective governments of the EU countries. By 2050 1 billion Africans will be willing and actively trying to migrate and today only a mere 1.8 million are causing a threat to the EU countries and if the afore mentioned figure is put into context then it is a very viable threat to the economic integrity of the EU nations. There would always be some factions of the society that would be providing support to the illegal immigrants within the EU countries as well so that they can take advantage of the people and this is what needs to be kept in mind that the problem lies not only outside the EU society but to a very limited extent also within their own social and economic boundaries as well and needs to be countered by what ever means and laws the EU and the EC (European Commission) deems appropriate. Trafficking: The EU by now has realized that the immigration cannot be totally stemmed in fact it can be brought down to a manageable amount of illegal immigration but what needs to be given special consideration is that the organized trafficking should not be able to take place and indeed measures are being taken for that but this is something that has to be eliminated for the betterment of both the parties involved and foremost for the people who are trafficked. The trafficking has to be stopped at both the ends because people will be involved in both Africa and the countries in the EU and for this there need to be taken concrete steps after discussion with the African countries because with controls at both the ends the it would be much more difficult to traffic people than it would be with one open end. Plus, this type of trafficking opens the flood gates for more types of trafficking to follow including drugs and women and children for prostitution purposes. Human Rights Issues: The human rights commission has time and again slammed the EU countries for violating the rights of the illegal immigrants that land up on the shores of the EU countries. It blames the EU countries for lack of support on the legal front for the illegal migrants because they do not provide any material to illegal immigrants in their native language but is mostly given in a language that they are unable to comprehend and they are also made to sign legal papers in the same language which is in direct violation of the human rights, it has also been noticed by the human rights commission that the legal services provided to these refugees is not enough and the means to separate the political asylum seekers from illegal immigrants are not intact And also that there was not a common policy adopted by the EU on the return of the illegal immigrants until 2002 and also because there was no clear policy of each EU country on how to deal with the illegal immigrants issue. The detention facilities in which the immigrants were kept were often too dingy and too small, 500 people were being kept in a place where only 50 could be placed at the most, these inhumane conditions and steps have forced the HRC to put pressure on the EU to deal with this issue and it has been largely successful in its efforts. Conclusion: At the end all that is left to say is that this topic is indeed a very serious one for both the parties involved in this because a huge amount of innocent civilian lives have been lost and this continues to take place, the reasons for it have already been discussed, the solution lies in the fact that this stark comparison has to be done away with, Europe must play its part or get ready to pay the price in forms of such kinds of trafficking and illegal activities which puts the integrity of the whole continent into danger. The EU laws pertaining to traveling freely through international boundaries in EU countries is also a cause of concern because this is one of the most major incentives why people travel to the EU countries as illegal immigrants because then they have endless opportunity to explore a vast area of politically and economically stable land in the form of EU countries. On the political front the EU should play its role in the instillation of democracy in the region and major political disruptions in the region should be dealt with an iron fist by the EU using its political might. The issues and concerns of the human rights regimes should not be undermined in any way because they go a long way in voicing concerns of the people who don't have a voice on the international level and hence these regimes should be treated as the voice of the oppressed people References 1. Butcher, Kristin F. and Anne Morrison Piehl (1998) "Cross-City Evidence on the Relationship between Immigration and Crime." Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 17 (1998): 3 2. Butcher, Kristin F. and Anne Morrison Piehl (1998) "Recent Immigrants: Unexpected Implications for Crime and Incarceration." Industrial and Labor Relations Review. 3. Fox Geoffery (2000) Hispanic nation: Culture, Politics and the Constructing of Identity. Secaucus, NJ: Birch Lane Press. 4. Threat of Canary Islands Immigration. [Internet] Available from: [Accessed 29 June 2007] 5. EU unveils new immigration plan [Internet] Available from: [Accessed 29 June 2007] 6. Canaries migrant death toll soars [Internet] Available from: [Accessed 29 June 2007] 7. Canary president demands urgent action [Internet] Available from: [Accessed 29 June 2007] 8. European union creates new border patrol [Internet] Available from: < www.wsws.org/articles/2006/jun2006/boat-j14.shtml> [Accessed 29 June 2007] 9. Migrants rights violated on canary islands [Internet] Available from: [Accessed 29 June 2007] 10. Police confederation slams EU for canary islands [Internet] Available from: [Accessed 29 June 2007] Read More