Special report.
Europe needs workers: immigrants want a better life. Inside
the shadowy -
and dangerous - world of human smuggling.
Inside the customs office in Dover, England, a fax machine
chirruped.
Out came a message from the European Pathway, a P&O
Stena Line ferry
that was churning across the channel from Zeebrugge, Belgium. The crew
was
dutifully alerting British authorities to a suspicious truck, a big
white
Mercedes-Benz tractor hauling a refrigerator unit supposedly filled
with
tomatoes. One of the last to board the ferry, the truck bore the name
Van Der
Spek TRANSPORT. The name of the firm (it would later emerge that the
company
was only four days old) triggered misgivings - perhaps because it was
close,
but not identical, to that of an established Dutch trucking company.
The track,
said a British customs spokesman, "fit the profile of one that could be
used to smuggle cigarettes, drugs or contraband... It was a hunch. " It was
just before midnight, Sunday, June
18, the hottest day of the year, when the European Pathway pulled into
Doverunder the city's landmark chalk cliffs. Customs officials were
waiting for
the Mercedes truck as it trundled off the ferry. They told the driver
to back
into Bay 9 of the inspection shed. Opening the big doors to the
airtight
refrigeration container. they first came across pallets of crated
tomatoes.
Muscling the tomatoes aside, the officers found one body. Then they
found
another body, and then another and another. In all, they found 54 dead
men,
four dead women and two traumatised men clinging to life - all of them
young
Chinese, probably from Fujian province, who had been headed to Britain
in
search of jobs. "I will never forget the sight that greeted us when we
opened the back doors, " one of the customs inspectors said, "There
were just piles and piles of bodies. "
The
calamity in Dover shook not only Britain,
where nothing on such a scale, had ever happened before, but all of
Europe.
From the boot of Italy to the boards of Norway, immigrants are entering
Europe
in record numbers. Pushed out of their own countries by economic
hardship or
political turmoil, they are drawn to Europe's robust prosperity,
especially
within the 15 countries of the European Union. "There is a strategic
equation
that produces a massive push to immigrate, " says Jean-Claude Chesnais
at
the national institute for Demographic Studies in Paris. Europe is
relatively
small and very rich, with a population that barely reproduces itself.
"And
all around - in the former Soviet bloc, in Asia, in South Asia and
Africa - you
have massive poverty, an absence of human rights and enormous
population
pressure, "says Chesnais.
European business
desperately needs foreign labour - at the high and low ends of the
skills
scale. But the people of Europe are often uncomfortable with foreign
workers.
In the eyes of the electorate, the line between undocumented immigrants
looking
for jobs and asylum-seekers looking for political protection can become
blurred. This is especially true if the man who slips into Britain to
work
illegally in a Soho kitchen is likely to apply for asylum if he's
caught; most
Europe countries that feel prosperous. So last week in Dover grief over
the
fate of the Chinese immigrants mixed with anger about the number of
people on
the outside who seem to want in. "The hospitals are always full of them
and their children, " says Jonn Keith, a taxi driver. "They are
cloggin up the system. They just want everything for free. "
Politicians are caught between the
demands of the bottom line and the ballot box. "We are not in a
position
to be a lifeboat for the whole world, " says Gwyn Prosser, Labour
member
of Parliament for Dover. In Britain, the pressures on the Labour
government to
do something gare mounting. Last year, the number of asylum seekers was
up 55
percent over 1998, reflecting a steep rise in the number of people
trying to
enter the country illegally. The government is responding by making the
lifeboat a little less comfortable - climinating, for instance, such
perks as
cash benefits to anybody applying for asylum. In the particular case of
Chinese
migrants, their numbers are also rising right now for reasons that have
nothing
to do with Europe: the United States has cracked down on illegal
Chinese
immigration, and Europe is taking up the slack. The French experience
is a case
in point: the number of Chinese seeking asylum in France in 1999 was
double
that of the year before.
People-smuggling networks
are the travel agents of illegal immigration. Their business is big and
growing. The networks trafficking in Chinese migrants alone are said to
take in
three billion dollars a year. As the stakes and numbers rise, so do the
risks.
Last year 300000 undocumented immigrants made it do Italy. Many died
trying. So
far this year 180 people are known to have died in Italian waters -
often
pushed into the sea and left to drown by smugglers trying to lighten
their
boats to get away from Italian coast-guard patrols. Four days before
the deaths
at Dover, a Dutch organisation, United for Intercultural Action,
announced that
more than 2000 refugees and migrants have died trying to get to Europe.
Perhaps
an incident like the death truck in Dover was inevitable. "It is True
you
would treat your tomatoes better then [ the smuggles ] treated these
people,
" says Wim De-Bruin, a spokesman for the National Public Prosecutor's
Office in Rotterdam. "But the difference is that with tomatoes and
other
goods, you get paid when you deliver them in good condition. " At
the end of last week, the bodies found
in Dover remained unidentified. But British authorities believe the
Chinese
began their journey in Fujian 30000 Dollars a head clients of an
extensive
smuggling network that move them from home to the English Channel lush
coastal
province in south-east China, Fujian is the main starting point on
China's
emigrant traik (box) . Fujian is by no means China's poorest province,
but it
sends an estimated 100000 emigrants abroad each year. People call one
town
"widows' village" because so many men have left their women behind.
The Pressure to leave Fujian is social as well as economic. "It's like
if
you are not a lazy person, then you shouldn't be in mainland China, "
says
Ko-Lin Chin, a professor at Rutgers University in the United States.
"People will say, "You're not in your early 20s: why are you still
here? "
As news of what
happened in Dover reached the province, grieving spread quickly. Fujian
has
sent so many of its sons and daughters abroad that nobody was sure who
had
perished or not in the death truck. He Xiaohong was terrified that her
24 -
year old husband, and odd job painter named Cao Xianxin, was among the
dead in
Dover. On May 10 he left home for Britain, comforted by a promise that
on his
long journey he would be "as safe as a tourist. " He Xiaohong was in
tears last week as she vowed: "If my husband returns safely, he'll have
to
beat me to death before I ever let him travel abroad like this again. "
The journey to the West is called
"sneaking across the water. " It's made possible by Fujainese guides
known as "snakeheads. " They are important figures in their homeland.
"Everybody knows who the snakeheads are, " says Chen Mei Xing, a
Fijianese who slipped into England a few weeks ago. "He's a businessman
with a very hihg status. " According to USA authorities, snakeheads are
also part of Chinese gangs known as Triads or Tongs. They Charge as
much as
60000 dollars for a trip to the United States; half as much for
Britain.
Typically, a down payment of 5 to 19 percent is made up front. A
migrant who
uses the snakehead's services can spend years repaying the debt. The
Fijianese
who emigrate see the fee as a smart investment. In the end Fujian
benefits too.
Fujianese migrants pump large sums of money into the economy they left
behind.
City officials in Changle (population: 600000) estimate that locals who
have
gone abroad put 100 million dollars back into the city's economy each
year in
remittances to their families and property investments back home.
Not that long ago the
destination more often than not was America ("The beautiful country")
. But in 1993 a freighter called the Golden Venture ran aground off
Long
Island, and 10 Chinese immigrants drowned trying to swim to shore. The
incident
prompted a series of crackdowns by the U. S. government. Thousands of
Chinese
still migrate to America - earlier this year, three Fujiance were found
dead in
a shipping container in Seattle - but some of the traffic had shifted
to other
countries.
Increasingly, Britain seems
to be the alternative country of choice. The largest Chinese community
in
Europe is there. Language is an important draw. Even though the
government is
cutting back benefits, they are still relatively generous: food
vouchers
(instead of cash) and housing (though asylum seekers can no longer
choose where
to live) . Another reason for the rise in asylum seekers to Britain is
that
Germany has tightened up it is border controls. Anyone can claim asylum
in
Germany and stay for years while the case goes through the courts. But
under a
1994 law German authorities can turn away refugees along it is border
before
they set foot on German soil and have a chance to apply for asylum.
This has
caused the annual number of refugees coming into Germany to plunge from
513000
in 1993 to fewer than 100000 last year.
People - smuggling networks
adjust quickly to such changes. In Fujian, one family's 18 years old
son left
home in April. Jin Xicai (not his real name) wanted something more then
this
job repairing mobile phones in Fujian. The family couldn't afford to
send him
to the Unites States, so it settled for the less costly trip to
Britain. On
April 3, Jin hopped a train to Beijing, joining other would-be
emigrants in the
capital. Snaakeheads had promised him a plane ride to Europe, but
instead Jin
was hustled onto a train for the week - long trans - Siberian trek to
Moscow.
He crossed the China - Russia border using a genuine Chinese passport.
It had
been procured on the black market; the original photograph had been
carefully
razored off and replaced by a photo of Jin.
When Jin phoned home from
Moscow; he said he was being held under armed guard. Snakeheads had
confiscated
his documents, luggage and spare clothes to prevent him from escaping.
His next
phone call came from somewhere in the Czech Republic. To get there he
had
apparently travelled by train, truck, even a horse - drawn cart. Then
came a
few more phone calls - from Germany and, finally, Holland.
Jin's phone calls point to
a well - traveled route from Fujian to Europe (map) . Moscow is a
forever
transit point because of relaxed visa requirements for Chinese
citizens. At any
given time there are said to be more than 200000 Chinese in Moscow en
route to
other countries. Belgrade is another favourite, for the same reason.
Serbian
press reports say that 40000 Chinese have settled in Yugoslavia since
1995.
From Belgrade it's easy to slip into Western Europe via Bosnia's porous
frontiers.
Краткое содержание.
"THE PEOPLE TRADE".
Special report.
Europe needs workers: immigrants want a better
life. Inside the
shadowy - and dangerous - world of human smuggling. People-smuggling
networks
are the travel agents of illegal immigration. Their business is big and
growing. The networks trafficking in Chinese migrants alone are said to
take in
three billion dollars a year.
Fujian – the most impotant
place in the China, from people illegally emigrate on west.
Fujian – the centre of human smuggling. In the Asian
countries life very
heavy and the people search of more worthy existence. They choose the
countries
which are very rich and in which it is possible to earn. The people try
to get
over through border by any ways. They are ready even to go in inhuman
conditions to get in other country. Many died trying. The emigrants
often
choose England and Italy, as the country of the future residing, but
these
countries do not want them to see at themselves. Because many
emigrants, which
come, render harm to economy, they fill in all hospitals, all parks,
all
premises of city, are engaged in illegal earnings, and some who could
not find
job, become criminals. England and Italy actively struggle against
illegal
entrance of the emigrants on territory of the country.
It is favourable business -
human smuggling. Many try on it to earn. For the large money they
promise to
transport the people in other countries, even without the documents.
These
organisations search for ways to these countries not directly through
China,
and transit through Russia or Czechia for example. Therefore it is very
difficult to the countries to trace a flow of the emigrants. Now
countries of
Europe have a new task. To struggle not it is so much with the
emigrants, how
much with organisations, which carry out an illegal way of emigration
of the
people.
The end.
The
dictionary: Smuggling – контрабанда.
Suspicious – подозрительный.
Authorities – власти.
Hunch – догадка.
To trundle – ехать.
Piles - груды.
Calamity – бедствие.
Political turmoil - политическая суматоха.
Europe's robust prosperity - здравое процветание Европы.
Desperately – отчаянно.
Asylum-seekers - ищущие убежища.
Blurred – cтертый.
Prosperous – преуспевающий.
Pressures – давления.
Lifeboat - cпасательная шлюпка.
Benefits – выгоды.
Slack – слабый.
Experience – опыт.
Trying to lighten - попытка облегчать.
Lush – пышный.
To estimate – оценивать.
Grieving – огорчение.
Terrified – испуганный.
Increasingly - все более и более.
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