The Independent
From the Balkans to brothels in Soho
by Ian Burrell
> http://news.independent.co.uk/world/europe/story.jsp?story=115557
Sex, drugs and illegal migrants: Sarajevo's
export trade to Britain
A three-part investigation into the traffic
in people and drugs from Eastern
Europe to the UK
By Ian Burrell in Sarajevo
21 January 2002
Internal links
Immigration hit squads to target 500,000
illegal workers
From the Balkans to brothels in Soho
There are wolves, bears and unexploded mines
in the snow-covered elm and
pine forests that divide Bosnia-Herzegovina
from the outside world. Yet the
borders of the young state that has become a
springboard for illegal
immigration to Britain are so porous that
thousands of people are smuggled
through its 432 mostly unmanned crossing
points every month.
The situation is so serious that Tony Blair
has persuaded the Bosnian
government to allow a team of British
immigration officials to try to plug
the gaps being exploited by international
organised crime.
Last week, in a mountain gorge that
separates Bosnia from Montenegro, Steve
Parke, a British immigration officer, and
Ian Johnston, a Merseyside police
officer, were checking lorries, cars and
buses for signs of people headed
illegally for the European Union and
Britain. Mr Johnston, who works for the
United Nations as deputy chief of the
Bosnian border service, said: "The
border is crossable anywhere. All 1,600 kms
[1,000 miles] is passable,
depending on how desperate you are to cross
into the next country."
Mafia gangs in Istanbul and Kosovo are
exploiting the post-war
destabilisation in the former Yugoslavia,
with its weak laws, liberal visa
regimes and widespread corruption, to ferry
Turkish, Iranian, Iraqi,
Albanian and Afghan migrants into Europe for
£5,000 a head.
A report from the International Organisation
for Migration says 120,000
women and child sex workers are trafficked
into the European Union each
year. In Bosnia, 34,000 foreign visitors
have disappeared after flying into
Sarajevo airport during the past two years.
Most have remained for just a
few hours before being taken to the border
by people smugglers.
In his third-floor office in the blue and
white United Nations building
overlooking Sarajevo airport, Graham Leese,
the project head of the
British-led immigration team, is under no
illusions about the scale of the
problem. "For the EU as a whole - and
the UK in particular - the Balkan
route has long been identified as the most
productive route in terms of
illegal migration flows. It's quite easy to
bribe border guards to turn a
blind eye when you are smuggling across a
lorry load of illegal immigrants."
Bosnian organised crime is turning over an
estimated £170m a year and,
according to one member of the British team,
government corruption is a
major problem. "There are big fish here.
They have massive influence and a
lot of them are holding senior positions,"
he said. The view is shared by
Ian Cliff, the British ambassador in
Sarajevo, who said there was "massive"
corruption among government officials
administering the districts and
cantons established in Bosnia after the
Dayton Accord in 1995.
"It is basically a country that has not
built a proper economy since the end
of the war," he said. "People look to office
as a way of supporting
themselves, their families and their
extended families."
He said officials were subjected to bribery
and threats. "Money is used very
directly to influence the political system.
All sorts of pressures are
brought to bear on people through their
families and through threats on
their jobs."
The immigration team, made up of seven
Britons and a Dane, is trying to
establish the newly-formed Bosnian State
Border Service (SBS) along 1,616km
of land border. The SBS now controls 36 of
52 international crossings - the
rest are staffed by poorly paid police -
but hundreds of minor crossings are
unmanned.
The difficulties for the SBS are apparent at
Hum where, 100ft above the
river Drina, a steel bridge spans the
snow-covered gorge dividing
Montenegro, in the Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia, from Srpska, the Serbian
sector of Bosnia.
In a hut on the Bosnian side, Jagos Matovic,
a border guard, said people
arriving with Turkish passports had only to
show they had the equivalent of
£33 for each day of their stay. Most were
waved through by guards who lacked
the technology or training to check the
documents.
Mr Johnston said: "A lot of officers think
that if people are transiting
into Western Europe that's not a problem for
Bosnia. We have to educate them
that it's creating lots of problems and that
Bosnia wants to be part of
Europe." Turkey, Bosnia-Herzegovina and the
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
want to be part of the EU.
Bosnia is also a transit point for thousands
of Chinese migrants heading
west from the Federal Republic. Mr Leese
said there were 50 new Chinese
arrivals on each flight into Belgrade from
Moscow.
"I asked [the Yugoslav authorities] how many
leave, but they have no
record," he said. "They are probably being
shipped across the northern
border and through the Serbian part of
Bosnia."
Many of the 58 Chinese migrants found dead
at Dover in June 2000 had
travelled via Sarajevo, as had eight mainly
Turkish migrants found dead in a
shipping container in Ireland last month.
The British immigration team is likely to be
called in by the Belgrade
government to tighten border security. A
similar request has been made by
Romania. The group is proving effective at
Sarajevo airport, where
British-bought forgery detection equipment
and new questioning techniques
have disrupted the smugglers.
The new vigilance, together with the
introduction of a visa requirement for
Iranian visitors, reduced "disappearing"
airline passengers to 8,400 last
year, compared with 25,000 in the previous
six months.
But Mile Juric, the SBS chief, said the
trafficking gangs had switched
tactics. He said: "Because of the measures
we have undertaken at the airport
we can sense bigger pressure from Turkish
citizens on the land border crossings."
Once in Bosnia, most migrants head for
Sarajevo, from where couriers will
ferry them onwards. They gather in the
Bascarsija district, where the
architecture recalls Sarajevo's Ottoman
past. In Humska Ulica street a group
of Turks congregated at an international
telephone booth to arrange the next
stage of their journey.
Others head straight to the taxi ranks at
the city's bus station. Vaha Srce,
a taxi driver, said that "all last year" he
had been driving the six-hour
journey to the northern town of Bihac. His
passengers were always Kurdish,
always had the US$200 fare (£140) and often
asked for the same hotel. Bihac
is on the Croatian border, and from there it
is just a short hop to Italy and the EU.
The clampdown on people smuggling is also
made difficult by more than one
million unexploded mines in the border
areas. Mr Leese said: "There is no
way you are going to get immigration
officers walking around here. But the
people who planted the mines are the same
ones who are now taking money to
show illegal immigrants across the border."
From the Balkans to brothels in Soho
by Ian Burrell
> http://news.independent.co.uk/world/europe/story.jsp?story=115557
Sex, drugs and illegal migrants: Sarajevo's
export trade to Britain
A three-part investigation into the traffic
in people and drugs from Eastern
Europe to the UK
By Ian Burrell in Sarajevo
21 January 2002
Internal links
Immigration hit squads to target 500,000
illegal workers
From the Balkans to brothels in Soho
There are wolves, bears and unexploded mines
in the snow-covered elm and
pine forests that divide Bosnia-Herzegovina
from the outside world. Yet the
borders of the young state that has become a
springboard for illegal
immigration to Britain are so porous that
thousands of people are smuggled
through its 432 mostly unmanned crossing
points every month.
The situation is so serious that Tony Blair
has persuaded the Bosnian
government to allow a team of British
immigration officials to try to plug
the gaps being exploited by international
organised crime.
Last week, in a mountain gorge that
separates Bosnia from Montenegro, Steve
Parke, a British immigration officer, and
Ian Johnston, a Merseyside police
officer, were checking lorries, cars and
buses for signs of people headed
illegally for the European Union and
Britain. Mr Johnston, who works for the
United Nations as deputy chief of the
Bosnian border service, said: "The
border is crossable anywhere. All 1,600 kms
[1,000 miles] is passable,
depending on how desperate you are to cross
into the next country."
Mafia gangs in Istanbul and Kosovo are
exploiting the post-war
destabilisation in the former Yugoslavia,
with its weak laws, liberal visa
regimes and widespread corruption, to ferry
Turkish, Iranian, Iraqi,
Albanian and Afghan migrants into Europe for
£5,000 a head.
A report from the International Organisation
for Migration says 120,000
women and child sex workers are trafficked
into the European Union each
year. In Bosnia, 34,000 foreign visitors
have disappeared after flying into
Sarajevo airport during the past two years.
Most have remained for just a
few hours before being taken to the border
by people smugglers.
In his third-floor office in the blue and
white United Nations building
overlooking Sarajevo airport, Graham Leese,
the project head of the
British-led immigration team, is under no
illusions about the scale of the
problem. "For the EU as a whole - and
the UK in particular - the Balkan
route has long been identified as the most
productive route in terms of
illegal migration flows. It's quite easy to
bribe border guards to turn a
blind eye when you are smuggling across a
lorry load of illegal immigrants."
Bosnian organised crime is turning over an
estimated £170m a year and,
according to one member of the British team,
government corruption is a
major problem. "There are big fish here.
They have massive influence and a
lot of them are holding senior positions,"
he said. The view is shared by
Ian Cliff, the British ambassador in
Sarajevo, who said there was "massive"
corruption among government officials
administering the districts and
cantons established in Bosnia after the
Dayton Accord in 1995.
"It is basically a country that has not
built a proper economy since the end
of the war," he said. "People look to office
as a way of supporting
themselves, their families and their
extended families."
He said officials were subjected to bribery
and threats. "Money is used very
directly to influence the political system.
All sorts of pressures are
brought to bear on people through their
families and through threats on
their jobs."
The immigration team, made up of seven
Britons and a Dane, is trying to
establish the newly-formed Bosnian State
Border Service (SBS) along 1,616km
of land border. The SBS now controls 36 of
52 international crossings - the
rest are staffed by poorly paid police -
but hundreds of minor crossings are
unmanned.
The difficulties for the SBS are apparent at
Hum where, 100ft above the
river Drina, a steel bridge spans the
snow-covered gorge dividing
Montenegro, in the Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia, from Srpska, the Serbian
sector of Bosnia.
In a hut on the Bosnian side, Jagos Matovic,
a border guard, said people
arriving with Turkish passports had only to
show they had the equivalent of
£33 for each day of their stay. Most were
waved through by guards who lacked
the technology or training to check the
documents.
Mr Johnston said: "A lot of officers think
that if people are transiting
into Western Europe that's not a problem for
Bosnia. We have to educate them
that it's creating lots of problems and that
Bosnia wants to be part of
Europe." Turkey, Bosnia-Herzegovina and the
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
want to be part of the EU.
Bosnia is also a transit point for thousands
of Chinese migrants heading
west from the Federal Republic. Mr Leese
said there were 50 new Chinese
arrivals on each flight into Belgrade from
Moscow.
"I asked [the Yugoslav authorities] how many
leave, but they have no
record," he said. "They are probably being
shipped across the northern
border and through the Serbian part of
Bosnia."
Many of the 58 Chinese migrants found dead
at Dover in June 2000 had
travelled via Sarajevo, as had eight mainly
Turkish migrants found dead in a
shipping container in Ireland last month.
The British immigration team is likely to be
called in by the Belgrade
government to tighten border security. A
similar request has been made by
Romania. The group is proving effective at
Sarajevo airport, where
British-bought forgery detection equipment
and new questioning techniques
have disrupted the smugglers.
The new vigilance, together with the
introduction of a visa requirement for
Iranian visitors, reduced "disappearing"
airline passengers to 8,400 last
year, compared with 25,000 in the previous
six months.
But Mile Juric, the SBS chief, said the
trafficking gangs had switched
tactics. He said: "Because of the measures
we have undertaken at the airport
we can sense bigger pressure from Turkish
citizens on the land border crossings."
Once in Bosnia, most migrants head for
Sarajevo, from where couriers will
ferry them onwards. They gather in the
Bascarsija district, where the
architecture recalls Sarajevo's Ottoman
past. In Humska Ulica street a group
of Turks congregated at an international
telephone booth to arrange the next
stage of their journey.
Others head straight to the taxi ranks at
the city's bus station. Vaha Srce,
a taxi driver, said that "all last year" he
had been driving the six-hour
journey to the northern town of Bihac. His
passengers were always Kurdish,
always had the US$200 fare (£140) and often
asked for the same hotel. Bihac
is on the Croatian border, and from there it
is just a short hop to Italy and the EU.
The clampdown on people smuggling is also
made difficult by more than one
million unexploded mines in the border
areas. Mr Leese said: "There is no
way you are going to get immigration
officers walking around here. But the
people who planted the mines are the same
ones who are now taking money to
show illegal immigrants across the border."