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In its efforts to stem the influx of Kurdish refugees, the EU is seeking cooperation with the Turkish government, one of the main oppressors of the Kurdish people. This article deals with the human rights situation in Northern Iraq and Turkey, Turkey's particular responsibility for the Kurdish exodus and Turkish authorities' involvement in Mafia activities including the trafficking in migrants.

Economic migrants?

In trying to tackle the recent arrivals of boat people, Western European governments are suddenly suggesting that a large majority of the Kurdish refugees are actually 'economic migrants', who are not in need of protection. This strongly contrasts with the EU-countries' own prevailing asylum practice, at least with regard to Iraqi Kurds. According to Judith Kumin from the statistical unit of the UNHCR in Geneva, the total number of Iraqi asylum applications made in the EU (leaving aside Denmark and France, where no figures are available yet) was 33,910 in 1997. The same year, 23,900 Iraqi nationals were granted protection (refugee status under the 1951 Geneva Convention: 11,810, residence permit on humanitarian grounds: 4,340), against 7,750 rejections. This amounts to an unusually high recognition rate of 67 per cent in the EU.

These figures leave no doubt that even according to the EU's notoriously restrictive refugee policy, the prevailing assessment among the authorities of the Member States is that the large majority of Iraqi Kurds cannot be regarded as 'bogus refugees' but are in genuine need of protection.

Corresponding figures regarding Kurds from Turkey are not available, but the average recognition rate is likely to be considerably lower, not because of a better human rights situation in Turkey, but due to the close political and economic relations between the EU and Ankara.

Northern Iraq: Turkish air force bombardments and fighting among Kurdish clans affects civilians

A brief look at the situation of the Kurdish people both in Iraq and Turkey suffices to understand the reasons for the ongoing Kurdish exodus. After the 1991 Gulf War, a UN 'security zone' for the Kurds in Northern Iraq was established. But the 'safe haven' was soon plagued by constant fighting between the main Kurdish parties, the Barzani clan's KDP, and the PUK, led by Jalal Talabani. More recently, repeated intrusions into Iraq by the Turkish army, including heavy bombardments by the Turkish air force have affected civilians, with thousands fleeing their homes in search of safety. The ships Ararat and Cometa arrived in Italy shortly after the Turkish army's most recent operations in the Northern Iraqi 'security zone', in late December. According to the Swiss newspaper, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, a similar Turkish operation including heavy bombardments in October resulted in some 10,000 displaced persons.

According to the UN, no less than a third of the entire Kurdish population in Northern Iraq has been driven away during the last 5 years, as a result of fighting between rivalling Kurdish clans and incursions of the Turkish army. The incursions amount to a blatant violation of the UN resolution establishing a security zone and of international law, but have not drawn any significant EU action against Turkey.

The situation in Turkey

The situation of the Kurdish population is no better in Turkey. The destruction by Turkish security forces of 3,500 Kurdish villages during 1994 and 1995 led to the displacement of an estimated 2 million people. Most of them now live in shanty towns surrounding all the larger cities in western Turkey. In the course of a few years, Istanbul has become the world's largest Kurdish city.

A January 1998 news release of Amnesty International (AI) notes that Turkish security forces are responsible for thousands of political killings over the past few years. The outlawed Kurdish Workers Party, PKK, too is in addition blamed for the killings of hundreds of civilians, particularly in the early 1990s. Gross human rights violations by Turkish security forces against Kurds, mainly in southeastern Turkey, continue unabated. The AI press release mentions the case of the Kurdish village of Cinaronu, in Mardin province: 'Around 500 soldiers surrounded the village and around 30 villagers were rounded up and held in unacknowledged detention for ten days; some who were later released alleged that those detained were tortured. The village was cordoned off by the security forces, and a number of houses, as well as motor and agricultural vehicles were set on fire. A few days later the village was largely evacuated by the security forces.' The incident took place in mid-November 1997.

AI also reports continuing 'disappearances' and extra-judicial executions in southeastern Turkey. The most recent case reported by AI is that of Mehmet Özdemir, a father of seven, who had been detained on several previous occasions over the past six years, and who was arrested in a coffee house in Diyarbakir and dragged away by four plain clothes police officers on 26 December 1997. Despite inquiries by his family he has not been seen since and the authorities now deny that he is being held. His family fears for his life.

AI notes a 'persistent pattern of human rights violations' in southeastern Turkey, but says it has become difficult to obtain accurate information, since the Turkish authorities closed the branches of the Turkish Human Rights Association in Diyarbakir, Mardin and Urfa during 1997.

Turkey no 'safe country' for refugees

AI stresses that Turkey is not a 'safe third country' either and expresses concern about EU-governments considering negotiating readmission agreements with Turkey. Indeed, Iraqi and other refugees cannot expect effective protection in Turkey, since Ankara applies the 1951 Refugee Convention with a geographical restriction excluding refugees from non-European countries. Accordingly, numerous non-European refugees - some of them recognised by UNHCR - have been forcibly returned to their countries of origin.

At the same time, a blending of political factors, the lacking of economic means and of modern instruments of policing, as well as wide-spread corruption have, so far, prevented Turkey from effectively removing unwanted aliens from its territory. According to Turkish authorities, more than 18,000 persons were arrested during the first 9 months of 1997 for entering or leaving Turkey illegally. However, in practice, undocumented 'illegal' aliens are mostly released shortly after their arrest. As a consequence, Turkey has become a major de facto country of asylum.

Forced migrants Turkey's new trump card in bargaining with the EU

In an attempt to demonstrate their willingness to cooperate with Western European countries in combatting 'illegal' migration, Turkish authorities recently ordered a series of spectacular police raids, resulting in the arrest of hundreds of suspected illegal migrants. Around 300 persons were arrested in one operation in Istanbul's port zone in early January. One man died when he jumped from the third floor of a building in an escape attempt. In a similar raid in Edirne, at the Turkish-Greek border, 57 persons were arrested. Usually, the Turkish police avoid publicity. But this time, Turkish TV teams were invited to film the operations and pictures of the raids were widely distributed throughout Europe.

Turkey has expressed irritation over Italy's declared intention to offer political asylum to Turkish Kurds. A spokesman of the Turkish Foreign Ministry stressed that 'if European countries grant asylum to those emigrating for economic reasons, they will encourage others to follow the same route'. Ankara also regrets 'the tolerance of certain EU- countries vis-à-vis PKK terrorists'. Obviously, the Turkish government is now using increased European concern about Kurdish migration as a trump card in seeking more understanding from the EU.

Evidence of involvement of Turkish authorities in trafficking

Recent Turkish action against illegal aliens should, however, be considered in the light of evidence suggesting involvement of Turkish government in what is now labelled 'trafficking in forced migrants'. It is well known, that Iraqi Kurds often travel with Turkish passports, bought at a price of about US$200. Ömer Erzeren, the Turkey correspondent of the Swiss weekly, WochenZeitung, reports that during the last two years around 50,000 Iraqi Kurds are believed to have been granted Turkish visas at a price of US$600 each. In many cases, the money went directly to the KDP.

Observers agree that nobody in Northern Iraq can obtain a Turkish visa without the approval of the two forces in control of the region - the Turkish army and Mahmoud Barzani's KDP, Turkey's main ally in its fight against the Turkish-Kurdish PKK guerilla. Corruption is notorious among the Turkish police. As late as December, no lesser a person than the Deputy Chief of the Istanbul police resigned, following accusations that he had set free 20 arrested migrants from northern Iraq after they paid him a US$1,600 bribe each.

The role of the 'Turkish Mafia'

Turkish authorities routinely blame the PKK for dealing with trafficking in drugs and migrants, but have hitherto failed to provide any evidence of this. On the other hand, it is widely agreed outside Turkey that the 'Turkish Mafia' is strongly involved in the business of migrant trafficking in migrants business. It is, however, less well known that this Turkish Mafia is actually a 'State Mafia', comprising in its ranks members of the fascist 'Grey Wolves', leading right-wing politicians, and senior police and army officers. According to the Deputy Head of the Anti-Mafia Committee of the Italian parliament, the Turkish government cooperates with the Mafia and shields its drug trafficking activities. There is indeed evidence of such involvement:

­ In September 1997, the Turkish police acting at the request of the Italian authorities, prevented a ship packed with boat-people from leaving the port of Istanbul. The owner of the ship is said to be Abdurrahmen Durmus, a retired Major of the Turkish army and member of the fascist MHP party. Durmus allegedly also owns the ship Asiye Asa that brought 250 Kurdish refugees to Italy in October 1997.

­ On 4 November, just two days after the stranding of the Hüseyin Beirut, with 769 boat-people off the Italian coast, police in Calabria arrested four Turks and one Pakistani, suspected of involvement in the trafficking operation. The Turks all showed to be members of the Turkish Mafia.

­ Commenting on the drowning of 289 boat-people on 25 November 1996, the Italian public prosecutor in charge of the investigation said: 'They were literally dumped into the sea by the Turkish Mafia'.

­ Italian police claim that most of the 300 migrants traffickers in their register reside in Turkey.

Official report reveals cooperation between MIT and Mafia

The above should be considered in the context of recent revelations in Turkey, hinting at deep involvement of Turkish government officials in Mafia activities. The revelations were made in an official report, ordered by Turkey's acting Prime Minister Yilmaz. The report is based on an investigation, led by a special public prosecutor, Kutlu Savas. For the first time, the report explicitly addresses the links between extreme-right parties and organisations, senior Turkish government and army officials, the Turkish secret service, MIT, and the Mafia. The report claims Mafia members who were officially being searched for serious crimes, both by Turkish police and Interpol, were actually recruited by the police and the MIT for 'special tasks', and protected from prosecution in turn. Among other things, the MIT dispatched at least 15 members of extreme-right Mafia gangs to foreign countries with the task of carrying out 'dirty jobs' for the government. Thus, according to the report, notorious Mafia members participated in MIT-sponsored death squads, murdering Kurdish businessmen and other suspected supporters of Kurdish autonomy at home and abroad. Others were instrumental in organising a failed coup attempt against President Alijew of Azerbaijan.

The report notes that the Mafia gangs in question pursued their regular criminal activities after fulfilling their 'special tasks' and wonders where the US$45 million, missing from a secret fund of the Prime Minister's Office, may have gone...

The report claims many of the Mafia gangs formed after 1993, during the government of Ms Tansu Ciller, and were often made up of police and gendarmerie officers, 'PKK-defectors' (i.e. persons detained by the Turkish authorities on suspicion of PKK membership and set free in return for their 'cooperation'), and members of Kurdish clans, loyal to the government. Many of the latter are also part of the government-sponsored 'village-protectors', a militia force armed and well payed by the government, to fight against the PKK guerilla.

The report says even special units of the Gendarmerie were fighting for their share in the lucrative heroin business. Following the publication of the report on 14 January, Prime Minister Yilmaz announced a number of measures officially intended at fighting against Mafia crime. They include a 'massive reduction' of the 'village-protectors' forces, special courts for trials of known gang leaders, and a new body for the coordination of the country's various civil and military intelligence services, whose rivalry is notorious. However, Prime Minister Yilmaz appears to be keen to put all the blame on Ms Ciller and her party, while at the same time protecting parties participating in his government and the army. Thus, commenting on the report, Mr Yilmaz stressed that 'the army has nothing to do with the problem', although the activities addressed in the report are concentrated in southeastern Turkey, a region entirely controlled by the army.

Considering the situation described above, the new efforts made by EU Justice and Home Affairs Ministers to fight against trafficking in migrants and other forms of organised crime by seeking closer police cooperation with Turkey are even more remarkable.

Sources: 'Boat-People aus Kurdistan', publ. by the Office of Ulla Jelpke MP PDS group, German Bundestag, January 1998; Amnesty International, International Secretariat, news release 17.01.98; Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 15.1.98, 24/25.1.98; Der Standard, 8.1.98; WochenZeitung, No.3, 15.1.98; Migration News Sheet, No. 178/98-01; statistical figures provided by Judith Kumin, UNHCR - Statistical Unit, Geneva; our sources.

Fuente: FECL 53 (January/February 1998)
http://www.fecl.org/circular/5312.htm

ITALY AND THE KURDISH REFUGEES: NO PANIC

In Italy, both authorities and the public have so far shown remarkable calm and dignity in coping with the alleged 'mass influx' of forced migrants. The question is, however, how long the Italian government will resist pressure from its Schengen and EU partners.

On 28 December, the Turkish ship Ararat ran the aground off the Calabrian coast, with 850 undocumented forced migrants on board. 750 of the migrants were Kurds, while the remaining group of about hundred people were Egyptians, Palestinians and Sri Lankans. Just four days later, on New Year's Day, the Italian coast guard saved another 386 forced migrants (Kurds, Sri Lankans, Bangladeshis, and Pakistanis), on the freighter Cometa. The ship was drifting outside the Southern Italian port of Otranto, after having been abandoned by its crew.

The Ararat and the Cometa are not the first large ships transporting forced migrants over the Mediterranean sea.

• On 25 November 1996, 289 people drowned, when their ship, the Youham, went down;
• In July 1997, 40 Kurdish refugees died, when their ship sank off the Greek coast;
• In October 1997, 250 Kurds were saved, after preventing the crew of the Turkish owned Asiye Asa from sinking the ship beforeoff the Italian coast;
• On 2 November 1997, the Hassan Beirut was stranded outside the southern Italian town of St Maria di Leuca, with 769 Kurdish refugees on board.

The Italian authorities ordered the expulsion of the non-Kurdish migrants on board of the Ararat and the Cometa, claiming that they were not eligible for asylum. But statements by leading members of the Italian government, shortly after the two arrivals, indicated that Kurdish people from Iraq and Turkey could expect more understanding. Already on 30 December, Interior Minister Napolitano announced that the Government was willing to 'examine favourably' the asylum applications of those Kurdish boat people who wished to submit an application, while those who preferred to refrain from an application in Italy, because they wished to join family members already staying in other European countries, would benefit from temporary protection in Italy. At his traditional New Year speech to the Italian people, President Scalfaro said: 'When people come to our country, because they are being persecuted, our doors must be wide open'. The following day, Prime Minister Prodi said: 'We will grant asylum to all Kurds requesting it'.

Italian attitude angers EU partners

These and other similar statements of leading Italian politicians and government representatives immediately drew angry reactions, mainly from Germany and Austria. The German Federal Interior Minister, Manfred Kanther, openly accused Italian authorities of lax border controls and demanded that Italy introduce random police controls on its national road network, in order to stop 'illegal immigrants' from reaching Germany and other target countries. Among others, the Social Democratic Interior Minister of the Land of Lower Saxony, backed by a number of Members of the German Parliament, dramatically called for the immediate reintroduction of internal border controls at Germany's borders with France and Austria. Germany even threatened to block Italy's full accession to Schengen (currently planned to take place on 1 April). An allegation by the Chief of the Bavarian Border Police (Bundesgrenzschutz), widely publicised by the media, that a further 10,000 Kurds were on their way to Germany and other 'attractive' EU countries, fuelled public fear in Germany and elsewhere of an imminent mass influx of 'illegal' migrants. Several hundred additional Border Police were dispatched to Germany's borders with its Schengen neighbours France and Austria, and in the whole of Southern Germany, police and border police increased the number of random identity checks on roads and motorways.

France and Austria decided to reintroduce passport checks at the Italian border on a temporary basis. Austrian Interior Minister Karl Schlögl vehemently accused Italy of 'dumping the problem [of illegal immigration] on others'. Consequently, Schlögl ordered systematic and thorough checks on all persons entering the Austrian provinces of Tyrol and Carinthia from Italy. On 31 December he announced the start of what he termed a 'border search operation', destined to prevent 'all too many economic migrants' from entering Austria via Italy. The search operation in a vast zone behind the Austrian border was expected to go on for several weeks.

A number of EU countries, in particular Germany and Austria have, been criticising Italian authorities for not detaining aliens who have been denied stay in Italy. According to prevailing Italian law, no person not suspected of a crime may be held in custody. Aliens subject to a deportation order have 15 days to appeal against the order, during which they may not be detained. From the viewpoint of other EU countries, this amounts to an invitation to the aliens concerned to go underground and make their way to the rest of the EU.

In the light of the recent arrivals of Kurdish boat-people, German Interior Minister Kanther demanded immediate action by Italy and Greece so as to prevent illegal immigrants from going underground. Commenting on Mr Kanther's request, Christopher Hein of the Italian Refugee Council, CIR (Consiglio Italiano Rifugiati) told your editor: 'Any internment of innocent persons is prohibited under prevailing Italian law. Consequently, any change of practice by the responsible Italian authorities involving liberty privative measures depriving people of their liberty would breach the law. One should expect some German understanding for the fact that we are living in states based on the rule of law'.

Arrival of Kurds a touchstone for Italian asylum practice

Kurdish refugees from Northern Iraq and Turkey are comparatively well received in Italy, both by the authorities and the people. Asylum seekers must leave an address where they can be reached by the authorities, but are allowed to move freely pending the examination of their application. The stay of rejected Kurdish asylum seekers is tolerated, but the persons concerned often have no other choice than to live in camps, since they are not allowed to work.

Asylum seekers are allowed to stay in Italy pending a final decision on their application. They are also informed that, due to the first-country-of-entry principle established by the Schengen Agreement and the Dublin Convention, they have no possibility of applying for asylum in any EU Member State other than Italy. Asylum seekers returned by Germany and other EU Member States are granted full access to Italian asylum examination procedures.

However, bowing to massive pressure from other EU and Schengen countries, Italian authorities departed from prevailing practice in dealing with the Kurds who arrived with the Ararat and the Cometa. The majority of them were placed in closed camps, guarded by police. Christopher Hein from CIR is confident that these restrictions will be lifted shortly, since they are in obvious breach of Italian law pertaining to detention and the constitutional requirement of equal treatment.

In the longer run, however, Italy is likely to give in to mounting pressure from its Schengen and EU fellow brother-states. The Italian government has already announced its intention to abolish the controversial 15 days-limit between the issuing of expulsion orders and their implementation by an amendment of the law. The Italian Navy and Coast Guard have stepped up surveillance of the most sensitive parts of the country's 8,000 kilometres coast-line. A new, powerful radar system is being set up along the coast of Calabria, a 300 ton navy cruiser with advanced radar equipment has taken a strategic position off the Southern coast, and the Coast Guard has deployed 15 helicopters and 4 air planes for surveillance tasks. However, it is doubtful whether these measures will result in fewer arrivals of boat-people. As a matter of fact, detecting suspect ships with boat-people is one thing, coping with them another. Reacting to demands that Italy should do more to turn away ships with forced migrants from Italian waters, the Chief of the Italian Port Administration, Admiral Renato Ferraro, made it quite clear that it would 'run counter to human decency and therefore is out of question to prohibit ships from disembarking at the risk of the lives of hundreds of innocent passengers, including women and children'.

Extraordinary popular support for refugees

A vast network of voluntary refugee and immigrant assistance activities has developed throughout Italy. Many towns and villages are housing refugees, thanks to parish members or local Red Cross members working on a purely voluntary basis. Among others, the Association of Christian Labour Unions (ACLI) is running reception camps. One of them lies in Erba, near the Swiss border, and mostly houses forced migrants turned away by the Swiss border police. Swiss and German authorities regard the whole region around the northern Italian town of Como as a 'waiting room' for forced migrants on their way to countries north of Italy. However, it seems that many of the refugees concerned have given up their initial plans and are prepared to stay in Italy.

Most of the Kurds who arrived with the Ararat and the Cometa actually never left Southern Italy. Only one small group of Kurdish families from the Cometa made its way to Northern Italy. They were offered sanctuary by the inhabitants of Sagnino, a small village near Como. The leader of the Red Cross volunteers in Sagnino told the Swiss weekly WochenZeitung that the refugees believed they were in France, when they were picked up by Italian police at a gas station near Como. 'None of the refugees any longer wishes to leave Italy for Switzerland or any other country in the North', she added proudly. 'Here, they are welcome'.

Indeed, with regard to the Kurdish refugees there seems to be political consensus in Northern Italy. On the regional level, not even the notoriously anti-immigration Lega Nord has dared to question the general sympathy for the Kurds shown by local authorities and the population. The tactless German interference with Italian Home Affairs has undoubtedly contributed to the attitude of the Italian public. A satirical magazine in Rome probably hit the nail on the head with a cartoon showing an Italian demanding solidarity with the Kurds. 'Do you like the Kurds?', another man asks him. Answer: 'No, but I hate the Germans!'.

Badolato's welcome to the Kurds: a model for another European refugee Policy

An isolated lost Calabrian mountain village near the coast became known throughout Europe, when its municipal council decided to permanently receive 211 Kurdish boat people. Badolato had 7,000 inhabitants in the early 50s, but has lost about half of its population since, due to mass emigration to Switzerland, Germany and Italy's industrial North. Many houses in Badolato stand empty. So, when the people of Badolato heard about the Kurdish boat people they decided to act. UpoOn the initiative of Mayor Gerardo Mannello, 12 houses were offered free to the Kurds by their owners, and additional apartments are currently being renovated. Gerardo Mannello was elected mayor less than a year ago, topping a 'civic' list. As opposed to many local politicians in wealthy and densely populated areas, he sees refugees as an unhoped for last chance for Badolato and many other towns struggling for their survival, to halt depopulation and relaunch economic activities.

The mayor's immediate concern is to organise decent housing for the Kurdish refugees and have their children start school. As regards work, the mayor says there are plenty of seasonal jobs in the orange and olive plantations. In the longer term, however, he has other plans. Many of the Kurds from Northern Iraq are skilled workers, some of them with higher education, enabling them to start own businesses, much needed in Badolato. For the time being, the municipal council has no problems with the regional or national governments, but Mr Mannello is concerned that things might change, once Badolato will have disappeared from the news headlines. But the Mayor says he is determined to fight for his project, 'even in Brussels'.

Among the refugees in Badolato is a young couple from northern Iraq. Their baby, Angela, was born in mid-January in Italy. Angela bears the name of the police officer who saw to it that her parents, who had been separated upon their arrival in Italy, were reunited. Additional police have been sent to Badolato after the arrival of the Kurds. But, so far, they have drawn attention to themselves only by their decision to donate their overtime supplements to the refugees, through the intermediary of the local Red Cross...

Sources: 'Boat-People aus Kurdistan', January 98, p ubl. by the Office of Ulla Jelpke, MP PDS at the German Bundestag; Migration News Sheet No.178/98-01; WochenZeitung, 8.1.98, 22.1.98; Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 3/4.1.98; Der Standard, 8.1.98; CEDRI-release on the reception of Kurdish refugees in Badolato, 30.1.98; our interviews with Massimo Pastore, Torino (26.1.98) and Christopher Hein, CIR, Rome (4.2.98).

Contact: Gerardo Mannello, Sindaco, Municipio, I-88061
Badolato (CZ), Italia; Fax: +39/967 85060

Fuente: FECL 53 (January/February 1998)
http://www.fecl.org/circular/5305.htm

KURDISH EXODUS TRIGGERS EU WAR ON 'ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS'

The arrival in Italy, on 28 December 1997 and New Year's Day of two boat-loads of forced migrants, many of them Kurds from Turkey and northern Iraq, has triggered almost hysterical reactions in the EU and in the Schengen countries. While the authorities in Italy, the country most directly affected by the alleged 'mass influx' have, so far, kept remarkably cool, at the EU and Schengen levels the arrival of less than 2,000 undocumented forced migrants is being used as a welcome pretext for clamping down on refugees, further tightening border controls and promoting extended police cooperation and police powers. Spear-headed by Germany's Interior Minister Manfred Kanther, a plethora of EU and Schengen bodies are discussing measures to combat what Mr Kanther has called the 'mass influx of illegal immigrants, organised by criminals'.

EU Foreign Affairs Ministers adopt 'Action Plan'

On 26 January, the EU General Affairs Council adopted an 'Action Plan' on the 'Influx of migrants from Iraq and the neighbouring region' (The term 'neighbouring region' is apparently being used in order to avoid naming Turkey). The Action Plan comes as the EU's response to ever more pressing demands from Germany for strong action against the influx of Kurdish refugees.

The absence in the Action Plan of guidelines for a joint foreign policy approach focussing on the root causes behind forced migration from northern Iraq and Turkey is striking. Thus, for example, calls by Italy for organising an international conference on the Kurdish problem were not retained by the Council. Instead, the 46 point plan amounts to a compilation of policy- guidelines aimed at preventing refugees from leaving their region of origin in the first place, tightening border surveillance, intensifying policing of 'illegal' migrants, and enabling their forcible return, both to transit countries and their region of origin.

Among other things, the Action Plan calls for the 'effective application of asylum procedures'. The Council is to 'consider the scope for developing a regional approach to protection in appropriate cases involving cooperation with non-Member States and the possibility of identifying safe areas within the region of origin'. Member States shall 'exchange information within the Council on the extent to which practical difficulties in returning persons to the region are a factor in decisions granting temporary or subsidiary status to those who do not qualify for asylum'.

A number of measures are intended at 'preventing abuse of asylum procedures'. Thus, pending the entry into force of the Convention establishing Eurodac, the EU's electronic fingerprint- system for asylum seekers, Member States shall 'examine the extent to which, on a bilateral basis, (...) fingerprints of asylum seekers could be compared in order to confirm identity and identify the Member State of arrival in the European Union'. Insofar as their national law provides for this, Member States shall immediately begin to fingerprint every third -country national illegally entering the territory whose identity cannot be established with certainty, and retain such fingerprints for the purpose of informing the authorities in other Member States, and to consider the exchange of such fingerprints. Accordingly, they shall 'examine without delay' whether Eurodac should subsequently be extended to comprise the fingerprints of all third country nationals having entered the EU-territory illegally, no matter whether they apply for asylum or not. Member States are further to consider the possibility of concluding parallel agreements to the Dublin Convention (determining the country of entry alone responsible for examining an asylum application) with third countries which are known to be transit countries.

EDU/Europol is to 'encourage and facilitate' the bilateral exchange of tactical intelligence on the involvement of 'organised crime' in migrant trafficking. The EDU shall further prepare an 'urgent, high level strategic analysis' of the involvement of criminal organisations in the influx of forced migrants and the use of false travel documents'. Member States are further to consider joint law enforcement projects in the area of migrants trafficking. Coordination and logistical support of such projects could be ensured by EDU/Europol.

Member States are to cooperate with a view to combatting 'illegal immigration', by, among other things, by:

• further mutually adapting their visa issuing procedures and arranging training of staff at their consulates and embassies in the region concerned;
• promoting 'joint missions to specific departure points' to railway carriers, for the detection of false documents;
• providing mutual assistance in the training of border control staff, and airline personnel;
• operating 'consistent and effective border controls, for Schengen States in accordance with Schengen requirements';
• exchanging liaison officers, both between themselves and third countries;
• sending 'experts' to the third countries concerned, 'by mutual agreement', to advise on the operation of controls at land and sea frontiers;
• ensuring 'routine and effective implementation' of 'security measures and carrier's liability legislation', and, for Member States lacking such legislation, the introduction of carrier sanctions;
• examining whether the UN draft Convention against smuggling of illegal migrants and, within the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), the draft Convention on illegal immigration by sea, could be 'useful instruments in the fight against illegal immigration';
• examining the scope for readmission agreements with the third countries most concerned, including countries of transit;
• Sharing experience regarding the return of illegal immigrants to the region [i.e. northern Iraq and Turkey] and considering 'under what circumstances return might be possible and how it might be effected'.

Germany's State Secretary at the Interior Ministry, Kurt Schelter, rose the problem of Kurdish migration for the first time at an informal meeting of the EU Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) Ministers in mid-October at Mondorf-les-Bains. Schelter expressed alarm at the growing number of Iraqi Kurds leaving their country 'for one reason or another' and complained that it was difficult to obtain their readmission by third countries, since it was not easy to determine where they come from. The JHA ministers decided to refer the matter to the General Council and at the same time instructed the K.4 Committee to search for a solution.

CIREFI report

The CIREFI (Centre for Information, Discussion and Exchange on the Crossing of Borders and Immigration) is an organisation under the Third Pillar of the Maastricht Treaty. A CIREFI report of 24 October on the influx of immigrants from Iraq notes that a number of Member States, namely Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany and France, are reporting a massive increase of illegal immigrants from Iraq. For example, Germany registered 2,600 illegal immigrants from Iraq between January and August 1997, against 1,549 in the whole of 1996.

The report notes that the current UN embargo against Iraq makes it difficult to return Iraqi nationals who are denied stay in the EU. According to CIREFI, only France and Sweden have actually implemented deportation measures concerning Iraqis.

In way of a conclusion, the report notes that the current influx of Kurds is due to 'a certain deficit regarding control' and to the fact that Iraqi nationals cannot be returned. 'Turkey, as an important transit country, is evidently not prepared to cooperate to the necessary extent with the EU'.

The report proposes, inter alia, the following solutions:

• Strengthen external border controls, whereby the countries most concerned (Greece and Italy) shall be assisted, through supplies of technical equipment and liaison officers (Greece has made a reservation regarding the competences of foreign liaison officers on its territory);
• Sensitize Turkish authorities with regard to the EU's problem with immigration from Iraq. In this context, the 'ideal solution', in the words of CIREFI, would consist in a readmission agreement with Turkey extending to nationals of other third countries;
• Offer 'appropriate assistance' to the transit countries concerned in preventing the transit of illegal migrants, in particular through on the spot training of airline personnel and training of the personnel at EU- embassies and consulates;
• Consider the possibility of returning Iraqi nationals to areas in northern Iraq declared 'no fly' zones under the UN resolution.

The JHA Ministers' war on 'organised illegal immigration'

On 4-5 December, the JHA Council approved a proposal by the Council Presidency, based on recommendations by the Working Group 'Migration' under the K.4 Committee. Beyond action proposed in earlier documents, this document also recommends that police cooperation concerning the combat of trafficking be intensified, whereby EDU/Europol could compile 'operational information' on trafficking-related crime. EDU could run an 'ad hoc' project for the fight against 'organised illegal immigration' from Iraq and set up a special contact network providing for expert meetings. Moreover, the document advocates 'contacts' with the Central and Eastern European countries applying for EU membership aimed at their tightening border surveillance. Finally, it is noted that 'the armed conflict between various Kurdish groups' is 'one of the main reasons' for the massive influx of people from northern Iraq. Typically, no mention is made neither of the situation of Kurdish Turks, nor of the Turkish army's continuing presence in northern Iraq. Instead, the presidency calls for the 'swift implementation' of a Resolution (adopted by EU-Turkey Association Council, on 30 October 1995) on cooperation with Turkey in the domains of Justice and Home Affairs, and in particular asylum policies and the fight against illegal immigration.

German draft programme for 'immediate action'

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At the same JHA Council meeting, the German Interior Minister, Manfred Kanther, strongly censured the alleged laxity of Italian and Greek immigration control and presented a draft 'programme for immediate action', including a strict time-table and efficiency control. The paper states the Kurdish exodus must be confronted 'near its initial focus, where it still can be controlled and tackled more effectively'. Starting from this 'strategy', the paper goes on to enumerate a long list of detailed 'defence measures':

• The reinforcement by Greece of its border controls 'in accordance with highest standards', including 'consistent entry controls' at the land border with Turkey, watertight exit controls of maritime traffic to Italy, and 'complete control' of air traffic with the EU countries. The EU Member States are to assist Greece by dispatching 'advisors' and supplying technological equipment, in particular carbon dioxide detectors.
• Intensification of control and surveillance measures by Italy. 'Specific action' to the effect that air and sea carriers refuse passengers who lack entry permits to Italy. Sanctions against carriers which fail to comply. Entry controls in compliance with Schengen requirements and immediate implementation of denials of entry and returns. Greater density of surveillance measures at the 'blue border' (sea), namely through the deployment of additional air and water-craft.
• Fingerprinting of all aliens having entered EU territory illegally, and central storage of these fingerprints by the State of entry concerned so that requests by other Member States for readmission can be answered quickly.
• Start 'without delay' of consultations with Turkey for the swift realisation of the following objectives:
• Improvement of exit controls, in particular at Istanbul airport and the seaport of Izmir, in 'close cooperation with advisors from the EU Member States';
• Cooperation with Turkish authorities in ensuring Turkey's compliance under the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation) Convention as regards carriers' obligation to control passengers' travel documents at the airport of departure.
• Convocation 'without delay' of a special meeting with the states along the Balkan route for their integration in an 'overall combat strategy'.
• Monthly meetings of the multi-disciplinary Working Group set up by the K.4 Committee (the Working Group 'Migration', extended by foreign policy experts and EDU/Europol experts on trafficking), for information exchange, coordination of measures, and monitoring the implementation of the action programme.

Schengen Ministers in Vienna decide 'immediate action'

While some of the German demands appear to have been watered down somewhat in the EU's Action Plan, Germany got its way swiftly within the Schengen framework. At its meeting of 15 December in Vienna, the Schengen Executive Committee (the Schengen Ministers) adopted an 'immediate action' plan which is more explicit than the EU Council's Action Plan of late January.

In Vienna, the Schengen Ministers agreed to effect 'without delay' a number of specific measures, including:

• Better surveillance of non-public zones at airports and ports with extra-Schengen traffic;
• strict control of ferries during loading and casting-off;
• Random 'preventive checks' of persons in areas with a high risk of illegal entries;
• Fingerprinting without delay, to the full extent authorised by valid national law, of all third country nationals 'whose identity is not established beyond doubt', and exchange between the member states of the fingerprints concerned (the electronic exchange of fingerprints is possible via the SIRENE-network);
• 'Preventing illegal immigrants whose identity is not established beyond doubt from going underground pending the execution of the foreigners police measures required' (In practice, this implies that the aliens concerned shall be detained). Removal 'without delay' of third country nationals denied stay;
• Full backing by each Member State of negotiations on readmission agreements between Schengen and Turkey, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Slovenia.
• Setting up of a 'task force' made up of at least one representative of the 6 Member States most concerned by illegal immigration (Germany, Italy, France, Holland, Austria, Greece). The task force is to monitor and further develop the above policy measures.

Secretive police meeting in Rome

On 8 January, less than a month after the Schengen Executive Committee's Vienna decision, police chiefs from the six Schengen countries most concerned by illegal immigration met in Rome with the Turkish police chief to discuss practical cooperation in the fight against 'illegal immigration' and criminal organisations involved in trafficking. The UK was represented at the meeting by an 'observer'.

Very little has leaked from this secretive meeting. According to the Swiss newspaper, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, the police chiefs discussed practical means to contain immigration fluxes in the Mediterranean area and the technical requirements for implementing the immediate action programme decided on by the Schengen Ministers. The German representative at the meeting, Rüdiger Kass, said his country was prepared to give the Italian police 'all possible assistance'.

In a show of irritation over the EU's unwillingness to consider Turkish membership in the Union, the Turkish police chief, Necati Bilican, made it clear that Ankara would not cooperate with the EU, but was prepared to seek close police cooperation with individual EU-Member States on a bi-lateral basis instead. According to the Brussels based news agency, Agence Europe, Mr Bilican refused to sign a joint document of the police chiefs at the meeting on the rounds that it failed to mention the 'direct involvement' of PKK, the largest Kurdish resistance group in Turkey, in trafficking. But Bilican said, that Ankara is prepared to readmit 'Turkish citizens' provided they are returned within 48 hours, and that his country was determined to act against third country-nationals transiting through Turkey on their way to Western Europe. According to our own sources in Italy, he particularly called on the Italian authorities to send the fingerprints of all Turkish asylum seekers to the Turkish police.

In a comment on the police meeting in Rome, the Green Italian MEP and Mayor of Palermo, Leoluca Orlando said it was a scandal to dismiss Kurds as economic refugees, since 'their economic plight is directly caused by their political persecution in Turkey'.

The Schengen Executive Committee's decision describes the implementation of the Schengen countries' own action plan as 'a complement to the EU Action Plan' - a hint that at least the leading Schengen countries remain suspicious with respect to the efficiency of EU cooperation in the field. This distrust also hinted at in a German comment on the EU Action Plan. After the JHA Council's informal meeting in Birmingham, on 30 January, Interior Minister Kanther said: 'What matters now is that all partners fulfill their obligations - in practice and not only in words, fully and not just partially, immediately and not in a far future only'.

Sources: Influx of Migrants from Iraq and the Neighbouring Region, EU Action Plan, adopted by the General Affairs Council, 26-27.1.98; German draft programme for immediate action regarding the influx of immigrants from Iraq, presented at JHA Council, 4-5.12.97; CIREFI report on the influx of immigrants from Iraq, 24.10.97, 11858/97, limite, CIREFI 53; Zustrom von Zuwanderern aus Irak, JHA Council presidency, 2.12.97, 12512/2/97 Rev 2, limite, ASIM 229; Schengen Executive Committee, Decision SCH/Com-ex(97) 44 rev 2, Vienna, 15.12.97; Agence Europe, 14.10.97, 9.1.98; Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 9.1.98; Press release of the German Federal Interior Ministry on the informal JHA meeting in Birmingham, 30.1.98; our sources.

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Fuente: FECL 53 (January/February 1998)
http://www.fecl.org/circular/5301.htm

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