Finland becoming major transit point for human trafficking

Finnair Asian services help thousands enter EU via Finland to seek unauthorised employment - few remain here

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Increasing numbers of people are seeking to enter Europe and North America using Finland as a transit point.
      Police and Border Guard officials have reported a rise in the number of cases of suspected human trafficking.
      Last year 68 cases of suspected organising of illegal entry were investigated in Finland. In 2005 the figure was 37.
      Part of the surge is attributable to the increased investigative powers granted to the Border Guard, but Major Ilkka Herranen of the Border Guard's staff HQ believes that the growth is real.
     
Finland is a transit point especially for arrivals from Southeast Asia. A majority of people stopped have been Chinese nationals looking for unauthorised employment in Europe.
      The main reason is believed to be an improvement in transport connections. Finnair is one of the largest air carriers in transport between Europe and China. In November, Finnair also opened a new route to India, and flights to Malaysia begin in the spring.
      Human smuggling is more often than not disguised as ordinary tourist travel. The travellers generally acquire forged travel documents, or those of another person, and after entering the Schengen zone in Helsinki they will generally move on to Southern Europe or Germany, or alternatively they try to get into Britain, though this last destination is made more difficult by the British decision to remain outside the Schengen area.
      The travellers usually pay large amounts of money to organisations that make the arrangements - the trip from Asia to Europe can cost anything from EUR 10,000 to nearly EUR 25,000.
     
Only a small proportion of the illegal arrivals are caught in Finland. Herranen calculates that several hundred make it through each year, but the total number could be in the thousands.
      Although illegal transit through Finland is on the increase, illegal immigration into Finland appears to be on the decline. Last year fewer than 1,400 foreigners were found in Finland without proper documentation - about half of the number found in 2005.
      Jouko Ikonen of the National Bureau of Investigation attributes the trend to the reduction of the number of asylum-seekers.
      Asylum-seekers are often classified in official statistics as illegal immigrants because they lack visas and other travel documents.
      The increase in human smuggling is linked with the yawning gap in the standard of living between Europe and the developing countries. Some people are willing to pay sums of money that can amount to a lengthy debtor's imprisonnment of sorts.
     
"It is easy to understand why people go to the other side of the world to pursue just any promise", Herranen says.
      The Finnish figures are very small by European standards. According to Europol, nearly half a million illegal immigrants enter Europe each year. The main pressure is on the Canary Islands and the Mediterranean region.
      "People suffering poverty and environmental destruction truly have very few legal means to offer their labour in Europe", says Tytti Närhi, development policy secretary at the Service Centre for Development Cooperation (KEPA).


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Border Guard investigates extensive human smuggling of Indian citizens (28.9.2006)
  Connection established between human trafficking cases (5.9.2006)
  Border Guard concerned about increased direct flights between Finland and China (15.2.2006)

Helsingin Sanomat