VARIOUS: Campaign warns potential illegal immigrants of dangers of emigrating to Europe

Switzerland and the European Union fund a campaign in Cameroon and Nigeria to discourage potential illegal emigrants from coming to Europe. The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has launched a campaign in Nigeria and Cameroon, funded by Switzerland and the European Union, warning potential illegal emigrants of the dangers they would incur, should they illegally move to Europe. Jean-Philippe Chauzy, IOM's spokesman, on Wednesday (November 28) told reporters that would-be immigrants to Europe often became victims. "I think that European countries as well as African countries are tired of seeing these pictures of migrants on boats, of seeing pictures of migrants found suffocated in containers, of seeing that illegal migration networks today profit from their wish to emigrate. "Unfortunately, what we see is that there aren't enough legal channels for those who want to emigrate, and who go to illegal migration networks. So this awareness-raising campaign aims to show the reality of this illegal migration and the reality of the life in a European country when you're an undocumented migrant without money, without support and without any rights," said Chauzy. EU Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security, said on Wednesday (November 28) it was important to inform African countries about the realities faced by illegal immigrants when they arrive in Europe. "It's very important at the origin country to inform about the risks and to avoid people being trapped by traffickers that exploit their ignorance about the real problems," Frattini said. He said the campaign video was representative of the harsh realities faces by many migrants but admitted conditions back home were certainly worse than those represented in the video clip. "Just one point I believe is quite far from the reality. The father of this young man sitting in a chair, very quiet, with a fantastic and modern telephone. That is quite far because very often they escape from poverty. Their fathers live in very poor condition, not in a very modern apartment like they show in the video. But for the rest, it's true that young people that run the risk of crossing illegally the Mediterranean, they arrive here in Brussels or in Spain or in Italy, with the rain, where they have to escape from police, sometimes they are caught, so this is reality, this is reality," Frattini said. As well as discouraging illegal migration, the European Union plans to encourage legal migration into Europe to plug labour shortages caused by a declining, ageing population. Frattini's plans involve issuing "blue card" residence permits to skilled workers entitling them to work in a member state for an initial two years and to move into a second member state after two or three years' residence in the first EU state. Portugal will host the first EU-Africa summit in seven years in December, where the issue will be central. The campaign initiated by Switzerland was funded by the Federal Migrations Office, whose budget depends on far-right wing Christoph Blocher's Justice Ministry. Blocher's populist Swiss People's Party (SVP) largely won this October's parliamentary elections, after using a fierce and controversial campaign that focused on illegal migrants and foreign criminality rates. The IOM has also produced similar videos for use in Niger and Senegal, funded by Spain and the European Commission. np/jrc

ITN Source | November 30, 2007

Tags:. .avoid. .encourage. .budget. .wing. .trapped