Human Trafficking

Italy in the Midst of Bosnia

Bosnia and Herzegovina has finally found its place in the global economy: whereas as part of the international division of labor some countries deal in computers and others in cars, the Bosnians and Herzegovinians deal in humans

AIM Sarajevo, February 7, 2001

Under the cover of darkness, a van with its headlights turned off comes to a halt in a side road. After a journey that lasted several hours, about a dozen people tightly holding onto their bundles of possessions get out of the vehicle, their legs numb, and look around in confusion. "See that forest over there? That's Italy. But you have to run towards it very fast or the Italian border guards will get you," says their guide, returning to the empty van, which now departs in the opposite direction. While the vehicle disappears into the darkness, the group of men, women, and children crouch and make a dash for the promised land. They reach the forest and try to find out where they are, heading for the lights of a distant settlement. After several hundred meters they are stopped by a police patrol. Trying to speak with the police they realize they have been tricked. They are only some 50 kilometers from Sarajevo, and several hundred kilometers away from the Italian border! The intermediaries, whom they had paid 25,000 German marks to transport them to Italy, are gone and so is their money. With no money, no documents and no hope they can but wait in one of the refugee centers in Bosnia and Herzegovina to be returned to their homeland.

This is but one of tens of thousands of similar stories involving illegal immigrants trying to reach the European Union through Bosnia and Herzegovina. Those of them who hire local swindlers usually end up stranded and penniless, whereas the luckier ones are apprehended while crossing into Croatia. Serious criminals do not indulge in such trickery -- business is business, and if the client pays he will reach his destination, most frequently Italy. Such criminals from Bosnia-Herzergovina export their "goods" by boat or by truck, or transfer them across the border during the night by routes known only to their guides. This country with "soft" international and "hard" internal borders has become an ideal transit zone for tens of thousands of illegal immigrants attempting to make it to the objective of their dreams -- the EU. That the smuggling of people via the Balkans has indeed become a serious European problem was confirmed by the Prime Ministers of Great Britain and Italy, Tony Blair and Guliano Amato, who said that special teams of police and immigration officials would be dispatched to Bosnia to stop the flood of immigrants from the East.

The western Balkans, that is, the territory of the former Yugoslavia, is the center of this lucrative illegal business. It is estimated that almost half a million illegals annually enter EU countries, of whom every tenth arrives via Bosnia. In a gentlemanly division of spheres of influence, handling Chinese has become an exclusive competence of Serbian criminals. Their Bosnian counterparts take care of the Iranians and the Turks, and the Kurds are jointly “accommodated" by the Bosnians and Montenegrins. The Albanians are left to what they can do themselves. Present visa arrangements requiring no visas from certain countries in the East -- Serbia has such a deal with China, and Bosnia with Turkey and Iran -- have enabled the organizers of illegal transfers of people into Western Europe to make a pretty penny. Given that the average fee amounts to DM5,000 per person, it is unofficially estimated that this business yields annually over DM200 million. "All roads lead to Rome," especially for immigrants from the Near and Middle East arriving in Europe via Bosnia, where they come legally and which they depart illegally.

There is hardly a person unaware of what is going on in this country. One does not have to be a Sherlock Holmes to conclude that there is something fishy about "tourists" from Iran and Turkey. Thus, for example, since last July through Sarajevo Airport alone 30,535 such people from Iran, Turkey, India, Bangladesh and China entered Bosnia-Herzegovina. Week after week, until the beginning of this year, planes crowded with passengers from Iran used to land in Sarajevo and return empty. Of over 30,000 such "tourists" only 5,826 were registered as having left Bosnia. Where did 24,000 of them disappear? Bosnia-Herzegovina can hardly be considered a popular tourist destination; therefore, pleasure trips were hardly their reason for visiting this Balkan country. The country's economy is on its knees; they could not have been prospective foreign investors either. They did not settle in Bosnia, and they did not return home. No earthquake, volcanic eruption or some other natural disaster claiming tens of thousands of victims affected Bosnia in the past several years. This leaves us with the only possible conclusion: that most have left the country illegally. This is not a big problem in a country with 42 legal and some 400 illegal border crossings.

What is confusing is that the Bosnian authorities have not taken any serious steps to curb this illegal trade. Although everyone is aware of what is going on, officially no one knows anything. Western diplomats openly suspect that in this extremely profitable business criminals are acting in cahoots with high-ranking government officials. Only following strong pressure from the EU did Bosnia finally introduce visas for Iranian citizens. The move, made at the beginning of the year, resulted in a drastic reduction in the number of "tourists" from this country. Although visas should have been introduced with Turkey as well, the idea was abandoned after the Ankara government reacted strongly. Cynics could say that by trafficking in people, Bosnia-Herzegovina is evening its scores with the West. "You sent us depleted uranium, and we are sending you deprived illegals." Of course, the organizers of the business are getting richer by the day, and they are just using Bosnia's well-organized smuggling industry. Routes which are used to channel untaxed cigarettes, alcoholic beverages and coffee into Bosnia also serve to send illegals, drugs and arms in the opposite direction.

These skilled "entrepreneurs" make a profit while Bosnian citizens foot the bill. Instead of reaching the budget millions of dollars end up in the pockets of traffickers. Because Bosnia is known as a transit zone for illegal immigrants, there are few European countries that Bosnian citizens can enter without visas. If this practice continues, Bosnia-Herzegovina could easily become encircled by a "sanitary cordon." The announced arrival of Italian and British specialists to fight illegal immigration could help, but will certainly not suffice to resolve the problem. Adequate control of a 1,666-kilometer border can only be organized by the country's authorities. If, of course, they are truly willing to do so.

Only when all the holes through which smuggled goods and illegal immigrants freely move in and out of Bosnia are boarded up can Bosnian citizens expect the EU to open its borders to them, and to get a taste of what a "Europe without frontiers" is actually all about.

Drazen Simic

(AIM)