| BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : NOVEMBER 27, 2000 ISSUE | ||||||||
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| INTERNATIONAL -- EUROPEAN COVER STORY
The Route to Europe RECRUITMENT Criminal gangs based in China, ex-Soviet countries, the Balkans, Africa, Asia, and Latin America recruit illegal immigrants through ads in local papers. They promise transit to ''the good life'' in the EU, counterfeit documents, and a job on arrival to pay part or all of the costs. The fee, based on distance, ranges from $5,000 (from Egypt) to $10,000 (Afghanistan) to $25,000 (China). 1ST STAGE OF THE TRIP Gangs fly illegal immigrants from Asia mainly to staging areas in Moscow and Belgrade where pools of immigrants spend several weeks or months being trained or working in factories run by criminal organizations. Those from the ex-Soviet Union transit through Eastern Europe. Immigrants from the Balkans and the Middle East gather in Albania, Greece, Turkey, or North Africa. 2ND STAGE OF THE TRIP Criminal gangs arrange the transportation of small numbers of illegal immigrants, usually 6 to 12 people, by airplane, bus, boat, or lorry into the European Union. They often use counterfeit tourist visas and round-trip tickets so that local authorities are not alerted to any irregularity. Many would-be immigrants enter Italy under the guise of tour groups destined for Venice and Trieste. INSIDE THE EU Local units of the foreign gangs shunt arrivals into the underground economy, where they toil for years in sweatshops to pay off their debt. Sweatshops are run by a local cell of the foreign mafia or local crime rings that contract with the mafia for the supply of workers. Sweatshops often act as subcontractors to larger companies, making it hard to tell if larger companies are aware of immigrant slave labor. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP |
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 RELATED ITEMS Workers in Bondage (int'l edition) COVER IMAGE: Workers in Bondage TABLE: The Route to Europe TABLE: A Year of Raids Witnesses to a Murder (int'l edition) Italy: Center of the New Slave Trade (int'l edition) ONLINE EXTRA: Workers in Bondage: A Photo Essay INTERACT E-Mail to Business Week Online | |||
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