RIGHTS: Italy Seeks UN Role for Stemming Illegal Immigrants

By Thalif Deen Reprint | | Print |

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 14 2000 (IPS) - Warning against the uncontrolled movement of human traffic, Italy says the rise in illegal immigrants worldwide has to be resolved internationally – perhaps with the help of the United Nations.

“We would be fooling ourselves to think that a phenomenon of such proportions could be brought under control through bilateral agreements,” Italian Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini told reporters Wednesday.

The 15-member European Union (EU), he pointed out, has a great capacity to take in people, and already has large immigrant communities. “But only now is it developing a common approach to immigration,” he added.

Since the early 1980s, the number of countries that receive immigrants has risen from 39 to 67, while the number of countries of emigration has risen from 29 to 55.

Italy is one of several European countries at the receiving end of illegal immigrants from Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe and the former Yugoslavia.

At the height of the Cold War, migrants and refugees were mostly seeking a haven in Europe for political reasons. But in the post- Cold War era, most of the legal and illegal migrants are economic refugees from developing nations, the former Soviet republics and Eastern Europe.

Addressing the General Assembly Wednesday, Dini said that to an unprecedented degree, globalisation has linked countries at opposite ends of the earth resulting in a rise in illegal immigration.

“For many years, Europe did not have to worry about the long-term consequences of immigration. But today, with a declining birth rate and an ageing population, Europe needs a strategy that embraces the complex process of integrating people from different regions of the world,” he told delegates.

Addressing the General Assembly Tuesday, US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said the international community must put a stop to trafficking in human beings just as much it has to halt desertification, limit greenhouse gas emissions and fight HIV/AIDS.

“These and similar challenges are sure to be important components of 21st century diplomacy, and because they are global in scope and require a global response,” she added.

Addressing a meeting on crime prevention last April, Under- Secretary-General Pino Arlacchi, head of the UN office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention, underlined the fact that the increase in human trafficking was one of the “negative aspects of globalisation”.

“The traffic in human beings is a criminal activity profiting from globalisation,” he noted. Describing it as a form of modern slavery, Arlacchi said that many people lured into using the services of traffickers become virtual slaves, some in their own countries, others in faraway lands.

Historians, he said, estimate that the slave trade from Africa to the Americas and the Middle East involved a total of some 18 to 19 million peoples from the 16th to the 19th century. “This figure disturbs us even today. Yet modern slavery has gone much further.”

The anti-slavery movement estimates that some 200 million people around the world currently live under various forms of slavery.

Explaining the implications of the new phenomenon, Dini told the General Assembly that illegal immigration – caused mostly by poverty, ethnic and religious strife, the repression of totalitarian regimes and the demands of more affluent economies – has reached “unprecedented proportions.”

The greatest challenge in the age of globalisation is to design new forms of co-operation between governments that will enable each to see that their interests are reflected in international policy decisions, he added.

“The United Nations continues to be the most natural forum for adopting such decisions and ensuring their implementation,” he said.

Dini urged the United Nations to raise the awareness of the community of states and introduce appropriate instruments.

First, the United Nations should provide assistance in preventing and quelling tensions that, at least in part, give rise to migration flows, as well as assistance in easing the integration of their economies with those of more advanced countries.

“As we all know, this is a priority that the UN is pursuing through various committees and an enhanced role of UN Development Programme (UNDP). We must strive to improve the instruments already available to us, responding to the visionary proposals of Secretary-General Kofi Annan,” he said.

Secondly, as a deterrent to illegal entry, there should be stricter and more consistent law enforcement. But success, he said, depends on effective co-operation between the countries of origin, the countries of transit, and the countries of arrival.

Thirdly, there is a need to manage migration so that it is a source of stability and wealth, to the benefit of all. For this to happen, he said, migration must take place legally.

“If everyone complies with the law, immigrants will be welcomed in their host countries and become fully integrated into society,” he added.

These three guidelines, he argued, must be set within a global framework. And the United Nations will be the most natural forum for implementing them.