Greece: Europe's illegal immigration hub

SAMOS, Greece (AP) — By day, this lush island set in the Aegean Sea offers a sanctuary to tourists seeking clear blue seas and immaculate beaches. After nightfall, a grimmer reality takes hold. Bodies sometimes wash ashore at daybreak. Human traffickers ply the waters off the coast. Patrol boats set off in pursuit of dinghies crammed with desperate migrants.

Greece's islands welcome millions of visitors every year, but they are also increasingly playing host to newcomers of a more unwelcome variety: undocumented laborers from Africa, Asia and the Middle East. In fact Greece's waters and mountains have become Europe's primary gateway for illegal immigration: Nearly half of European Union's illegal immigrants were detected at the nation's land or sea borders.

Greece says it detained more than 146,000 illegal immigrants in 2008, a 30 percent increase from the previous year and a 54 percent jump from 2006. Greece now has the highest number of illegal entries in the EU, followed by Italy and Spain, EU authorities say. On Samos alone, immigrants arrive at an average rate of 25 a day — a six-fold increase over the past two years — crossing by dinghy, jet-ski, or even swimming against fast sea currents.

• “Idyllic Greek islands become Europe's black hole for illegal immigration”, LA Times, 9/3/09.
• “Facilitated Illegal Immigration Into The European Union”, Europol, March 2008.
• “Fight against trafficking in human beings”, European Union official website.