Officials investigate travel by underage Chinese as possible illegal entry

Would-be immigrants found with false papers apply for asylum

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The Finnish Guard is investigating two cases from December in which they suspect an attempt to organise illegal immigration by young Chinese to Europe via Helsinki-Vantaa Airport. In each case, two Chinese citizens were stopped when the papers that they had were found to be forged. All four applied for asylum in Finland.
      "Seeking asylum in Finland was not their original goal. They were all en route to somewhere else", says Captain Petteri Partanen of the Helsinki Border Inspection Unit.
     
In one of the cases the travellers were underage, and in the other, they were adults. Partanen says that the cases were exceptional in that young people were involved, and that there were such clear links with organised crime.
      "If we think of acquiring documents, and travel by people without language skills, then there is certainly an organisation behind it that is organising these trips", Partanen says.
      There were also suspicions of trafficking in humans, but no evidence was found by Partanen, or the Oulu police, who are handling the asylum process.
      "If we talk about human trafficking as a social phenomenon, then that could be involved, but legally, these will not be brought before court as human trafficking cases", Partanen says.
     
Partanen adds that it may even be difficult to get the evidence necessary to convict for organising illegal entry, even though there is clear evidence of organisation in the modus operandi.
      In the cases that came to light in December, the travellers were Mainland Chinese, who had acquired forged Hong Kong travel documents as a way of skirting around visa requirements.
      The four have been placed in refugee reception centres in Oulu. The criminal investigation has been suspended for the duration of the processing of the asylum requests.
     
There seems to be an increase in attempts at illegal entry into Europe via Finland. People are caught on a weekly basis, but in most of the cases the would-be immigrants are sent out of the country after about two days.
      Petteri Partanen recalls three cases over the past six months in which charges or organising illegal entry through Helsinki-Vantaa Airport led to a court case. In one of the cases, a prison sentence was handed down.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Border Guard concerned about increased direct flights between Finland and China (15.2.2006)
  China issues complaint over actions of Finnish Border Guard (6.3.2006)

Helsingin Sanomat