Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-03-13-Speech-2-028"
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"en.20010313.5.2-028"2
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"Mr President, the world is full of conflict and dictatorship, hardship and poverty and it is the innocent victims who pay the price. Organised crime gangs with vast resources at their disposal are operating with impunity. We need more international cooperation between law enforcement agencies.
It is no secret that in some countries politicians and the police are profiting from people-trafficking and tipping traffickers off when operations are about to be mounted against them.
Many of the issues being debated this morning, such as immigration, temporary protection for displaced persons and the level of harmonised penalties to be imposed on carriers transporting people without the necessary documents, are bound up with this dark world of conflict and criminal opportunism.
In the last ten years there has been an unprecedented rise in forced and voluntary migration worldwide. The conflicts in the former Yugoslavia and Kosovo and elsewhere led to sudden large population movements and the need for temporary protection. At the same time, asylum issues are growing in importance. Last year 390 000 people applied for asylum in the European Union. The United Nations estimates that the modern slave trade is now worth GBP 5 billion and 10% of illegal entrants to Europe come via the Balkan route.
According to the UNHCR my own country, Ireland, came third in Europe after Slovenia and Belgium in the number of asylum seekers it received last year, compared to the size of the total population. Asylum seekers in Europe were mainly from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Iraq and Afghanistan. The number of applications from Iranians more than doubled. These people do not get the welcome in Ireland that one would expect, especially considering our own history of migration.
It must reluctantly be said that the Irish have been less than generous in their acceptance of the population movements affecting them. It is a new phenomenon to us, but it saddens me to see people that I believed to be decent and compassionate acting in a racist and xenophobic way – and that includes many of the people in my own constituency. I say that with deep regret."@en1
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