UFO Info Week-End

Now they seal people into canvas-topped steel containers which are sometimes fitted with portable lavatories and battery-powered lights

Now they seal people into canvas-topped steel containers, which are sometimes fitted with portable lavatories and battery-powered lights. When the bodies of three Fujianese stowaways were found among rotting vegetables in freight that was shipped to Seattle in January, the United States authorities described the use of containers as a “new and worrying trend”. A further 85 Chinese people were found alive in six other containers on the American Pacific coast in the same week, part of the estimated 5,000 attempting illegal entry to the United States in the past year.But despite these horror stories, the Fujianese exodus is unlikely to dissipate. After a recent visit to the province on a fact-finding mission, Mr Tan, the London lawyer, said: “It [people-trafficking] has generated a lot of wealth You see a lot of three and four-storey buildings. It’s all the earnings from the children working in the States, Japan and the UK.”. For many of the migrants seeking safety or prosperity in Western Europe, the ride in a sweaty truck is often the best part of the journey.

The soft gateways to Fortress Europe are reached from the seas Uncounted thousands perish along the way. For many of the migrants seeking safety or prosperity in Western Europe, the ride in a sweaty truck is often the best part of the journey. The soft gateways to Fortress Europe are reached from the seas. Uncounted thousands perish along the way.
Route One into the land promised by the smuggling gangs begins in Turkey. It leads across Greece into Albania, and to one of those rickety boats. Italy is less than a day away, but many do not make it.The ones that manage to wash ashore alive and undetected are taken north to Milan, where they are crammed into lorries or freight trains. Wedged into the small space between the ceiling and the roof, they make their way to their destinations in Schengen Europe.Route Two, used mainly by African, begins at the Moroccan coast.

The journey across the Straits of Gibraltar to Spain is over in an hour, but the vessels the smugglers use are small, and the waters treacherous. An estimated 3,000 people have drowned here in five years.Less hazardous, but bureaucratically more daunting, is Route Three, the variant involving the fortified Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla. Those that get past the hi-tech fence and razor wire have some hope of being shifted to camps in Spain in the distant future. From there they will have to make their escape.Route Four – the easiest on paper and for years the most popular – is gradually being turned into a cul-de-sac by the efforts of the German police. It involves a short and hazard-free journey across the river Oder separating Germany and Poland. This used to be the most convenient for people from the former Soviet Union, but it is well guarded these days and the smugglers and their quarry have nowhere to hide.According to John Morrison, the British author of a soon to be published report about migration for the UNHCR, about 200,000 people try to enter Fortress Europe from the outside every year. “I would say the majority of them are being trafficked now,” he says.