Border Guard investigates extensive human smuggling of Indian citizens
Officials concerned over implications of Finnair direct flights to Delhi
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The Finnish Guard suspects that a number of Indians who have arrived in Finland illegally may have been brought into the country by the same human smuggling organisation. An investigation is underway into suspected arrangements for the illegal entry of 19 people arriving from India.
The first cases were revealed in the summer, when 15 people arrived from India without proper documentation. Another four came in September, says Petteri Partanen, deputy chief of the Helsinki Border Inspection Unit.
He says that it is possible to suspect that the cases are all part of the same whole. "However, now we are only talking about suspicions", he observes.
Partanen says that about ten people are suspected of involvement in the human smuggling operation. Last week a 38-year-old man was remanded in custody on suspicion of aggravated organising of illegal entry.
According to Partanen, the man is primarily suspected of arranging the arrival of the Indians who came in the summer.
"One might suspect that he has some kind of a position in this organisation", Partanen says. What that position might be is still under investigation.
The number of Indians arriving in Finland this year is significantly higher than before. All have flown from Russia, and most were en route to another destination in the Schengen zone.
Partanen does not offer any reasons for the increase in illegal arrivals. He is also not sure if more Indians are actually arriving illegally in Finland, or if more of them are simply being caught than before.
Typical methods used include forged documents, and the misuse of the asylum process.
For instance, the 15 passengers stopped in the summer were transit passengers who did not have proper entry papers for Finland. They immediately applied for asylum and ended up in refugee reception centres, from where 11 of them disappeared.
Four of those who left the refugee reception centres are still unaccounted for. One was stopped in Tornio on the border with Sweden, and the Border Guard has information on the whereabouts of six others; Partanen says that they are abroad.
Finland is a convenient point of entry for people arriving from the Far East who want to get into the Schengen area, because there is plenty of connecting transport available. Partanen says that very few of the arrivals want to stay in Finland.
The Border Guard fears a surge in illegal arrivals via Finland when the Finnish airline Finnair starts direct flights to Delhi in November.
Petteri Partanen says that the preparations mainly involve training airline personnel on recognising attempts at human smuggling.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 28.9.2006 - TODAY |
 Border Guard investigates extensive human smuggling of Indian citizens
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