Illegality of International Population Movements in Poland
Illegality of International Population Movements in Poland
Marek Okólski*
ABSTRACT
Until the beginning of the 1990s Poland did not receive foreign migrants. Thereafter, the situation changed dramatically.
A large part of the inflow proved to be illegal migrants, many of whom were in transit to Western Europe. Although these movements gradually declined in the second half of the decade, some became increasingly identified with relatively sophisticated smuggling of people. Foreigners smuggled from the South to the West, together with the international criminal networks assisting them, became typical of the migratory movements of people in Central and Eastern Europe during the 1990s.
This article seeks to describe illegal migration from the perspective of Poland, a country often perceived as a major transit area in the smuggling of persons to Western Europe. The conclusions draw on the findings of several surveys recently carried out in Poland.
Basic concepts related to illegal migration are defined and juxtaposed, and various myths and stereotypes concerning it that most often stem from the paucity of empirical evidence are examined. Finally, the trends observed in Poland are interpreted within the larger context of contemporary European migration.
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
A considerable proportion of current international population movements in Poland involves a degree of illegality. The present article seeks to define, systematize and interpret the major processes involved, with particular emphasis
* Professor of Economics, University of Warsaw, Poland.
Published by Blackwell Publishers Ltd., © 2000 IOM 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK, and International Migration, Special Issue 2000/1 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA. ISSN 0020-7985 58 Okólski on the smuggling of transit migrants. The analysis is limited to the period 1990-1999.
Illegality occurs in migration flows in practically all directions and along many axes:
- to Poland, from other countries of Central and Eastern Europe, from countries to the South and, occasionally, also from the West; - from Poland to the West; and - through Poland to the West, from either other countries of Central and Eastern Europe or from the South.
Usually, the flows breach the laws concerning entry to or exit from Poland as well as those of other states. Moreover, illegal flows are sometimes assisted by non-migrating persons who are also thereby committing a crime. This constitutes migrant smuggling, where the term “migrant” is loosely used to denote any person moving internationally. A more vicious form characterizes migrant trafficking. Illegal acts involved in migratory movement are not restricted to the crossing of state boundaries but often include the mobilization phase of migration, the migrant’s stay or work at the time of transit and his/her insertion at destination. Thus illegal population flows involving Poland are very complex.
There is some confusion in the terminology of illegal migration. In the first place, the professional literature rarely refers to it as “illegal”. Different terms are in use, such as “undocumented”, “clandestine”, “semi-legal” or “irregular” (Ghosh, 1998). Euphemisms frequently replace descriptive terms. Strong emotions are aroused when confronted with illegal migrants who are trauma- tized, victimized, or fleeing various disasters, or with the shortcomings of more general and complex international relations, all of which contributes to the confusion. In addition, many illegal migrants cannot or will not recognize the illicit nature of their actions or status.
This article is based on indirect evidence from various official and unofficial sources, as well as direct data, including information extracted from topic- specific surveys, especially those carried out by the author.
DEFINITION OF BASIC CONCEPTS
Each act involved in international migration is part of an integrally coherent process involving at least two countries and, as far as illegality is concerned, it does not matter where the point of origin is nor whose laws are being breached. It is generally understood that illegality relates to acts of non-compliance with the law in order to reach a foreign destination or take up residence outside the country of origin. This includes means of self support, such as illegal employ- Illegality of international population movements in Poland 59 ment or any other unauthorized money-making activities in a foreign country. In this article, and with reference to Poland, the terms “illegal migration” or “illegal migrant” will apply to any flow to, from or through Poland, or any person involved in such flows, irrespective of his/her citizenship or the country where a breach of the law actually took place.
An important distinction should be made between unassisted and assisted illegal border crossings. Unassisted illegal migrants are those who plan and execute a foreign journey by themselves, whereas assisted illegal migrants turn to other people for help (and sometimes to organizations) who are not involved in the migration and this is the essence of migrant smuggling.
The smuggling of migrants referred to here involves those activities intended deliberately to procure entry and/or residence or employment in the territory of a State, of which the person is neither a national nor an authorized resident without complying with the necessary legal requirements of the State concerned. A smuggled person is a foreigner who has been assisted in unauthorized entry and/or residence or employment in the territory of an alien State.. This definition does not apply to cases where migrants act by themselves, i.e., without any help from non-migrants (smugglers).
Other definitions note that facilitating illegal employment does not come within the scope of smuggling1 but, on the other hand, most definitions strongly emphasize a profit (financial gain) motive on the part of smuggler (Siron and Van Baeveghem, 1999). It should be noted that in certain cases, namely when no profit motive is involved, assisting illegal migration does not qualify as an illegal act. On the contrary, the most widely recognized definitions imply that assisting a person in an illegal migration for non-profit reasons (e.g. on humanitarian grounds) lies outside the concept of migrant smuggling.
There is no official definition of migrant smuggling in Poland. However, all elements of the definition above, i.e., border crossing (due to its transit position, the emphasis in Poland is on the two-directional crossing rather than just entry), residence and employment, are catered for in various legal acts regulating the status of a migrant. This is unambiguous and, in the case of an illegitimate migrant, recognizes whether he/she has been subject to smuggling. With regard to persons who facilitate smuggling of migrants, however, the notion of illegal assistance is confined to crossing of the State boundary,2 and a smuggler does not have to have profited in order to be prosecuted.
The concept of migrant smuggling is often confused with that of trafficking in migrants. In a series of IOM reports published since 1993 and devoted to transit migration in Central and Eastern Europe, the term “trafficking” was tacitly identified with “smuggling” and, occasionally, with illegal migration in general. Others have also used the terms interchangeably (Salt and Stein, 1998; 60 Okólski
Okólski, 1999b). In fact, the definition of trafficking in migrants proposed by IOM in 1999 hardly differs from the definition of smuggling of migrants proposed in the 1999 protocol to the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. In reality, however, the two concepts differ fundamentally and overlap only partially.
Nevertheless, the phrase “trafficking in migrants” seems to have evolved from “trafficking in persons” (humans), which in general terms means “[using] a person against his/her will, with a view to attaining financial or other personal benefit” (Siron and Van Baeveghem, 1999: 18). Where all attendant circum- stances are present and provided a person is a migrant, we can speak of migrant trafficking. However, in cases where a person who happens to be a foreigner is trafficked, the trafficking may have nothing to do with migration, for example, where a national is subjected to the same practices as those imposed by a trafficker on a foreigner. However, even if a person happens to be a migrant, no smuggling needs to occur in order for trafficking to take place.
Distinct features of trafficking are recruiting, guiding or manipulating a person at any stage of the migratory process as well as exploiting him/her by means of deceit or coercion.3 Trafficking may accompany migrant smuggling but if it does, it constitutes the most bleak and perverse side of illegal migration.
Much of the migrant smuggling and trafficking in Poland is associated with transit migration by persons who might be defined as “foreigners who are on their way to some other country and come to Poland not because of transportation necessity but for some other reasons which, on aggregate, might be perceived as the difficulty with getting access to a desired country of destination” (Okólski, 1999a: 33). On the other hand, transit migration through Poland also involves other forms of illegal movements, such as unassisted illegal migration.
The great importance of transit migration for current patterns of illegal migration stems from the fact that Poland attracts migrants less for its own virtues (job opportunities, wages, social protection) than its location as an immediate neighbour of Germany, by far the most desired destination in Europe (Iglicka and Sword, 1999).
In Poland in the 1990s, certain kinds of illegal activity on the part of foreigners crossing Polish borders or staying in Poland, even though those acts might be pertinent to transnational mobility, could hardly be put on an equal footing with migrant smuggling, trafficking in migrants, or unassisted illegal border crossing. Until recently this was typical of citizens of the former socialist countries who, while being able to enter Poland within the visa-free regime upon the presenta- tion of a hotel voucher or an invitation from a Polish resident, widely used forged vouchers or invitations.4 This is still the case with foreign residents who Illegality of international population movements in Poland 61 come to Poland as “tourists” on a short visit (a few hours or at most a few days) and who either import or export (or both) unauthorized quantities of merchand- ise, or fail to pay custom duties, or due taxes, or fees related to those persons’ activities in various market places in Poland. Both petty trade and petty smuggling of goods are not usually associated with illegal migration, but are regarded rather as a peculiar side-effect of international passenger movements.
A less obvious point which is often excluded from the debate about illegal population movements, particularly migrant smuggling, is illegitimate employ- ment in Poland during a short visit by a foreign citizen, when entry and exit are perfectly legal. The problem here poses both practical and conceptual issues. For practical reasons it is very difficult to account for the illegality of this type of employment if, as seems to be a current rule in Poland, it is largely restricted to the household sector (i.e., housekeeping, apartment refurbishing, small-scale construction work, etc.). Conceptually, it is not clear how long a work contract has to be to become meaningful, although from a practical point of view it should not really matter whether a person is illegally employed in Poland for a few months or just a few days.
MAJOR TRENDS IN THE 1990S
To enable an analysis of basic trends in illegal migration over the past decade, there follows a list of ten major flows types, arranged by main origins and destinations and based on Table 1 (page 85).
1. Direct flow from the South to Poland with ultimate destination in the West. This involves transit migration, with Poland as the transit country. Travel to Poland is by sea (mostly illegal and assisted), or air (legal or with the use of a forged passport or a purchased entry visa). Migrants’ origins are Sub-Saharan Africa (e.g. Cameroon, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria), Northern Africa (e.g. Algeria, Sudan), the Horn of Africa (e.g. Somalia) or the Middle East. Residence in Poland is partly legal (for migrants applying for refugee status, while the application is pending) and partly illegal (practically all other situations). There is relatively small incidence of unauthorized employment. The trip to Germany is almost without exception illegal, usually by-passing border check points, and assisted. Smuggling, albeit to varying degrees, is involved in practically all cases. There is an extremely small incidence of trafficking.
2. Indirect flow from the South to Poland with ultimate destination in the West. Probably the most diversified with respect to migrant’s origin, mode of transportation, route, journey duration, etc. Before entering Poland, transit usually involves several countries and often at least one 62 Okólski
preceding reallocation stage (as a rule in one of the post-Soviet countries). Travel to Poland is by multiple means (air, rail, truck, coach, and passenger car). Immediate entry is almost without exception illegal, usually on foot and by-passing check points (mostly on the border with Lithuania and Ukraine, but in many cases with Belarus and Slovakia, less frequently with the Czech Republic and Russia). Migrants’ origins include the Asian subcontinent (Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan), Afghanistan, the Far East (China and Viet Nam), the Middle East, Northern Africa, Turkey, and there are a few cases of nationals from Sub-Saharan African countries. Residence and employment in Poland are the same as in category 1 above. The trip to Germany is almost without exception made illegally, usually by-passing border check points and assisted. Smuggling of persons occurs in practically all cases. Trafficking in migrants is rather rare but possible (reports on migrants forced to smuggle drugs or arms; in the case of some Chinese and Vietnamese, indications of semi-slave work at final destination to repay the “debt”).
3. Direct flow from the countries of the former Soviet Union and the former Soviet satellites to Poland, with ultimate destination in the West. It involves transit migration, with Poland being the only transit country, and concerns mostly ex-Soviet citizens from the Caucasus region (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Chechnya) who arrived in Poland either by air or by road, usually legally before 1998 and, since 1998, mostly illegally, although less intensely. In many cases the stay is prolonged illegally and employment in Poland is also illegal. The trip to Germany is almost without exception illegal, usually by-passing border check points, and assisted. This flow allegedly includes also females from the former Soviet Union (mainly of Slavonic origin) legally entering Poland for training/practising prostitution, with an ultimate goal of being illegally inserted in the West in the entertainment/prostitution industry. In the latter case trafficking may be common.
4. Indirect flow from the East to Poland with ultimate destination in the West. Before entering Poland, transit is usually rather simple and often involves only one country. Travel to Poland is by multiple means (air, rail, truck, coach, passenger car). Immediate entry is often illegal, usually on foot, by-passing check points (mostly on the border with the Czech Republic, Ukraine and Slovakia), or using false or forged docu- ments. Migrants’ origins are mainly Romania and Bulgaria but also Albania, former Yugoslavia and certain post-Soviet countries. In many cases there is both prolonged illegal stay and illegal employment in Poland. The trip to Germany is almost exclusively illegal, mostly by- passing border check points, usually unassisted. Smuggling of persons is relatively rare. Illegality of international population movements in Poland 63
5. Direct flow from Poland to the West. With rare exceptions, entry into the West is legal but there are probably as many as several hundred thousand cases each year of migrants overstaying the time allowed for non-visa tourist movements or taking up illegal employment. These appear to include a small proportion of cases of trafficking in women for prostitution.
6. Indirect flow from the South with Poland as the ultimate destination. Mode of transport, routes, journey duration, etc. are diverse. Before entering Poland, transit usually involves several countries and often at least one preceding reallocation stage (as a rule in one of the post-Soviet countries). Travel to Poland involves multiple modes of transport (air, rail, truck, coach, passenger car). Immediate entry is almost without exception illegal, usually on foot and by-passing check points (mostly on the border with Lithuania and Ukraine, but in numerous cases also with Belarus and Slovakia) and usually assisted. Migrants originate mostly from Viet Nam, but in a few cases also from Afghanistan, China, Mongolia, the Middle East, Turkey and African countries. Residence and employment in Poland are usually illegal but in some cases (e.g. during the processing of refugee applications) temporarily authorized. Smuggling of persons is involved extensively in practically all cases. Trafficking in migrants is rare but has been confirmed.
7. Direct flow from the South with Poland as the ultimate destination, although this is rare. Travel is by air and entry is either legal or by the use of false or forged documents. Migrants originate mainly from Viet Nam and a diversified set of African and Asian countries. Illegal activities, for example, residence, employment and business, carried out in Poland are common and assisted.
8. Indirect flow from the East with Poland as the ultimate destination. Before entering Poland, transit is usually simple, often involving only one country. Travel is by rail or road. Entry is often illegal, usually on foot, by-passing check points (mostly on the border with the Czech Republic, Ukraine and Slovakia) but rarely assisted, or using false or forged documents. Migrants originate mainly from Romania and Bulgaria. Residence and employment are illegal but as a rule unassisted. Migrant flows include a relatively large number of prostitutes but, despite assistance from and exploitation by local pimps, there seems to be no coercion involved (which would imply trafficking).
9. Direct flow from the East with Poland as the ultimate destination. This is by far the largest flow of all in terms of numbers. Travel is mainly by coach or passenger car. Entry is legal or by using false or forged documents (although incidences of this have decreased since 1998). 64 Okólski
Migrants originate primarily from neighbouring countries (including the Czech Republic and Slovakia), Ukraine and non-neighbouring countries of the former Soviet Union (one of the most diversified flows). There are at least several hundred thousand migrants in illegal employment each year; with several million involved in other activities which breach the law (smuggling of goods, unlicensed petty trade, etc.).
10.Direct flow from the West with Poland as the ultimate destination. This is composed of three numerically small but distinctly different types as regards the purpose of the trip: (1) German citizens involved in illegal businesses or seasonal employment (estimated at between several hundreds and several thousands respectively per year); (2) nationals of western countries illegally employed in professional or semi-professional occupations (estimated at several hundreds annually); (3) Vietnamese citizens arriving from Germany, who are former contract workers in the ex-GDR and who are threatened with deportation to Viet Nam (there is no basis for estimating the size of this category but numbers are probably very small). Entry is legal in the case of citizens of western countries and illegal in the case of the Vietnamese. Residence is sometimes illegal and employment is predominantly illegal.
Before 1990, hardly any of these flows were significant in either importance or size. The only observable form of illegality in international population move- ment in Poland was the illegal emigration of Polish citizens (Iglicka and Sword, 1999). This rarely involved unauthorized crossing of national borders but constituted non-compliance by a migrant with the rules, all of which had been imposed on citizens by a totalitarian state, concerning the duration, destination and exit route from Poland. Illegal emigrants, whose annual number in the 1980s were in tens of thousands, peaking to over 200,000 in 1989, often became illegal immigrants by breaching the regulations of receiving countries concerning residence or employment of foreigners. However, since 1990 the notion of illegal emigration has become all but obsolete in Poland.
All ten categories of flows listed above became visible almost immediately after the disintegration of the totalitarian state in the middle of 1989. Moreover, the incidence of many of them increased rapidly until at least late 1993. After 1997, none of these flow types showed an increase and the volume of some radically contracted. However, illegality in international population movement in the Polish context persisted on a massive scale throughout the entire decade 1990-1999.
To summarize the size of particular flows, the following rough typology distinguishes four main groups. Four of the ten categories listed (1, 3, 7 and 10) were on a small scale of less than 1,000 per annum; three categories (2, 6, 8 and, since the mid-1990s, also 4) were on a moderate scale of less than 10,000 Illegality of international population movements in Poland 65 per annum; only one category (4, but only then until the mid-1990s) was on a large scale of less than 100,000 per annum; two categories (5 and 9) were on a very large scale of more than 100,000 per annum.
The flows on a “very large scale” entailed no transit and no smuggling in any substantial proportions. From the point of view of international mobility conceived as transborder movements of people, therefore, these flows posed no particular threat to legal order. However, despite their “soft” criminality, which usually related to overstaying or irregular employment (or other illegitimate money generating activities), these movements posed a serious problem to the countries affected if only because of their enormous size. In 1995, for example, the number of Ukrainian citizens alone taking up unauthorized employment in Poland was estimated at over 800,000, which virtually led to the “Ukrainization” of certain local informal labour markets, the marginalization of local workers and, ultimately, contributed to a burgeoning shadow economy thanks to the lowering of labour costs.
The only “large” flow observed (category 4) comprised mostly Romanians or Roma people. It involved some relatively straightforward transit but displayed repeated, completely spontaneous attempts at (unassisted) self-smuggling across Poland’s border with Germany, most of which ended in apprehension by border guard services. This type of movement ultimately subsided, shortly after peaking in 1993, and stabilized at a much lower, moderate level. Usually only petty felonies, such as begging, petty theft, breaching residential sanitary regulations, etc. were involved at this level and no significant or complex assistance on the part of non-migrants (e.g. smugglers).
All three flows of moderate size involved transit in order to reach the migrants’ goals, and in two of these (2 and 6) there were often several transit countries. For the other two (6 and 8) Poland turned out to be the destination country. Migrants entering Poland in cases of 2 and 6 originated mainly in Asia and were associated with relatively complex and fragmented (i.e., between various countries) smuggling operations. The majority of migrants had a common aim when starting their journey, to reach the West, but a change of plan occurred in many cases en route, and migrants eventually ended up in Poland. Major smuggling routes displayed a noticeable flexibility over time. Flows were on the increase up to 1995 but since 1998 have decreased significantly. These two flows were not only used by criminal networks in organizing and implementing their smuggling activities, but they gain impetus from trafficking in migrants. The remaining flow of similar size, which included persons from the former socialist states of Europe, involved all types of breaches of the law pertaining to international movement of people (i.e., border crossing, residence and money earning in Poland) but the migrants rarely resorted to smugglers and needed no contact with traffickers. 66 Okólski
Finally, all four of the smaller flows, except flow 10 to some extent, involved assisted criminality, despite the fact that they generally used relatively unsophis- ticated routes. Two of them (1 and 3) involved transit which was effected by networks of smugglers and in the case of no. 3, trafficking was present.
To sum up, illegal migration as observed in Poland, involved smuggling people past frontier check points and trafficking in migrants only on a moderate or small scale, and by the end of the 1990s seemed to be largely manageable although not controlled by the state.
CHARACTERISTICS OF MORE RECENT PHENOMENA
Some of these types of illegal migratory flow (5, 7, 9 and 10) are not shared by other states since they owe their characteristics to the demise of the Soviet system and may be viewed as both local and short-lived. The focus now will be on conjunctions and structures which may effect a wider range of countries and which may, therefore, be considered more persistent (1-4, 6 and 8).
The findings in this section are based on a recent study of the Polish context (IOM, 2000). They summarize the characteristics of the migrants and flows whose movements are influenced by fundamental economic and political disparities or imbalances, whose aim is usually a long-term sojourn or permanent settlement in a destination country, rather than as shuttle migrants from neighbouring countries making short trips and rarely with the intention of staying longer.5
The recent study consisted of a thorough analysis of the following data:
- records compiled by various government bodies and including official statistics; - in-depth interviews with key informants representing various state organizations, foreign diplomatic missions and NGOs; - in-depth interviews with officers, particularly those involved in the control and monitoring of entries and exits and thus dealing directly with the movements and stay of foreigners; - in-depth interviews with illegal migrants smuggled to or from Poland; - monographs of selected networks facilitating the illegal status of migrants; and - other information, including media reports.
Respondents for all three categories of interviews were selected according to a set of characteristics, predetermined on the basis of a general analysis of official records. As far as the migrant subsample was concerned, the persons interviewed were chosen from three main “sources”: various types of detention Illegality of international population movements in Poland 67 centre, smuggled asylum applicants and fully undercover foreigners; as well as on the basis of national quotas.
General picture based on official statistics
Although the basic data for estimating numbers of migrants smuggled into or out of Poland are weak and indeed make the task almost impossible, it is clear that a great majority of the following are illegal migrants who were assisted at some stage(s) of their migration by profit-oriented organized people (smugglers, traffickers or persons collaborating with them):
- foreigners apprehended at illegal border crossings (10,520 in 1997); - foreigners transferred/deported to Poland from other countries (or from Poland to another country) in accordance with readmission agreements or some other type of regulation – around 4,800 to Poland and around 1,700 from Poland in 1997 (in both cases based on the readmission rule), plus 5,166 administrative decisions on expulsion from Poland in the same year; - foreigners applying for refugee status in Poland (3,544 in 1997);6 and - foreigners admitted to various detention and reception centres (the average in 1997 was around 1,000).
All these records reveal a decline in the incidence of illegal migration in Poland in 1998 and 1999. With the exception of refugee applicants, whose number in 1997 was the highest for the entire decade, other records showed a declining trend as early as 1995, particularly noticeable in the case of foreigners appre- hended at illegal border crossings, especially on the German/Polish border. In the early 1990s, 20,000-30,000 foreigners were arrested each year due to (attempted or accomplished) illegal crossing of the state boundaries of Poland.
A large proportion of migrants crossing the state borders illegally tend to elude inspection by avoiding (by-passing) the check points. The migrants who are apprehended usually cross the border in groups. In 1997 and 1998, for example, more than one-third of these migrants constituted groups of more than 10 persons. Compared with the early 1990s, however, when it was not unusual to arrest a group in excess of 100 or even 200, the average size of groups in recent years has diminished. A small number of individual smuggling organiza- tions is now concentrating the bulk of illegal passages through the Polish border. Recently the police reported the arrest of several gangs, each of which allegedly smuggled many hundreds of foreigners from Poland into the European Union over a period of almost one year. In August 1997, for example, there was the case of an owner of a small company operating close to the Polish-German border, who was held responsible for smuggling approximately 1,500 migrants (Nowak, 1998). In March 1999, a gang was broken up that had probably smuggled around 3,800 migrants for a total of some 10 million Euro (Golik, 1999), while in 68 Okólski
September of the same year another gang was arrested that had smuggled approximately 2,800 migrants (Jachowicz, 2000).7
Official statistics do not support the claim that smuggling or trafficking in persons applies to Polish migrants at present in any significant way. These sources clearly refute various reports circulating in the West which imply that Poles form a significant group, particularly among women trafficked to North America or Western Europe for prostitution.
Major countries of origin and destination
Before 1993, illegal crossing of Poland’s state boundaries, no matter whether assisted or not, was dominated by citizens from the former socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Romanians led with a 70 per cent share of all arrests. In 1993-1995 the situation changed and CEE nationals were joined by those of countries further away (e.g. Algeria, Iraq, Turkey and Viet Nam).
In order to assess the geographic distribution of foreigners illegally crossing the Polish border around the middle of the 1990s and later, a number of official records have been used. Table 2 (page 85), which presents a ranking of the top six countries of origin according to six different registers, shows that citizens of twelve particular countries are involved. In turn, those countries might be arranged in six groups: CEE (including ex-Yugoslavia), Afghanistan, Armenia, Iraq, Somalia and countries of the Asian subcontinent (including Sri Lanka). Countries not included in the ranking, but which nevertheless made a marked contribution to the total, include various countries of North-East and Central Africa. More recently the flow of illegal migrants to or through Poland has been signifi- cantly supplemented by nationals of South Asia and Central and Northern Africa.
The records that provided the basis for Table 2 omit the citizens of two countries of East Asia, namely, China and, more importantly, Viet Nam, which are known to be involved in smuggling to or through Poland. This may be explained by the fact that the entry of nationals of these countries into Poland, which may be the end process of an illegal, assisted transit journey, is often either legal or supported by forged documents. In addition, once in Poland, migrants are immediately integrated into local communities of their fellow countrymen, who provide extensive support.
In the sample surveyed in 1998 (IOM, 2000), the major geographic areas accorded approximately with the above8 . Nationals from the Asian sub- continent (Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) accounted for 28 per cent of the sample, from East Asia (China and Viet Nam) 22 per cent, from Afghanistan 15 per cent, and the citizens of various African states (Cameroon, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Somalia and Sudan) another 15 per cent. Illegality of international population movements in Poland 69
The remaining 20 per cent were almost evenly distributed between Armenia, Iraq and the CEE countries (especially Romania and former Yugoslavia).
The migrants in the sample serve as a primary source of information on the countries of final destination since no official register contains any relevant data.. This information may shed some light on the widely held belief that a preponderant majority of illegal transit migrants in Poland are ultimately heading for the European Union, mostly for Germany.9 The survey and other Polish sources suggest that in the late 1990s Poland served as a transit country in systematic large-scale people smuggling into the West from a very limited number of geographic areas, principally South Asia (the Asian subcontinent and Afghanistan). Poland, itself bordering on the West, is relatively easy to access due to the permeability of other transit countries, almost exclusively those of the former Soviet Union. Occasionally, large groups of people could be found in transit from the Middle East or China. Other countries represented comprised rare cases, which seemed to be complex and specifically determined.
According to the survey (Table 3, page 86), Germany was the major individual target country at the beginning of migration (31 per cent of the total); Poland ranked second (24 per cent). All western European countries (including Germany), however, seemed to be an initial destination for as many as 51 per cent of all migrants. A considerable proportion of migrants (21 per cent) started their trip intending to reach any safe country. By this they usually meant a western country, although most of them – honestly or not – finally indicated Poland as the desired destination (Table 4, page 87).
A predominant majority of migrants from Afghanistan appeared to be fleeing a precarious situation at home with no clear idea about the destination country. People from Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia and Iraq had an obvious preference in Western Europe, the largest proportion of migrants from Africa headed for Poland whereas those from the Asian subcontinent were split in their selection of target country between Germany and Poland.10
Harsh conditions of transit, running out of money, endless intermissions and apprehensions by police during the journey and (when relevant) a sense of security or protection under the umbrella of the Polish refugee administration, inclined many migrants to change their plan with respect to destination country. At the date of the survey, only 36 per cent of those interviewed seemed not to have changed their initial choice; more than half of these planned to get to Poland from the outset (Table 4). The share of those who continued to identify Germany as their target country dwindled to just 11 per cent, while those who wanted to stay in Poland made up half of the total.11 As many as 17 per cent expressed their willingness to return home and 4 per cent were undecided where to go. 70 Okólski
The high incidence of migrants whose intention was to get to Poland rather than to the West might be explained in a number of ways. First, since 1990 Poland has become one of major recipient countries for migrants from Armenia, Romania and Viet Nam. With the exception of the Romanians, nationals of these countries have succeeded in setting up relatively large communities there. The inflow of these people seems to have continued throughout the 1990s. Many Viet Nam citizens have been able to legalize their stay in Poland12 and the government is vigorously trying to curb their further inflow. This is driving those newly arriving to illegal means. The growing restrictiveness of the migration policy of Poland and other major transit countries (e.g. the Czech Republic and Slovakia) may have compelled some Romanian citizens, who were otherwise travelling legally to Poland, to use the services of smugglers. This, combined with the lack of existing well developed community networks in Poland, may have led to the decline that has occurred in the number of migrants from Romania. The recent case with regard to Armenia might be similar.
An additional important reason for Poland being a destination country for illegal transit migrants might be that a considerable number of migrants from certain developing (mainly African) countries have traditionally headed for the former Soviet Union (mainly Russia). They did so for reasons of study or because they were more familiar with how to get there than to other countries regarded by them as equally safe and relatively well off. However, the instability, deteriorating living standards and xenophobia increasingly encountered by migrants in post-Soviet Russia, has prompted many of them to move further on. For some of these migrants, Poland appears an attractive host country, since it is friendly to foreigners, is like Russia in many respects and economically is doing much better than Russia.
Finally, many migrants who cannot afford to be smuggled immediately into the West, or who have already been returned to Poland after an illegal passage to one of the western countries, may decide to spend some time in Poland in the hope of getting another chance in the future. For these migrants, Poland, with its rather elaborate asylum procedures, extensive informal economy and the presence of criminal organizations involved in assisting illegal migrants, offers a convenient waiting room, even for prolonged periods.13
Personal characteristics of migrants
Illegal transit migrants may be regarded as a special category since they must be extremely flexible, physically fit and accept the principles of no insurance and “luggage allowance zero”. They are mostly young persons, travelling alone and male. In the sample, males comprised approximately 90 per cent of the total. Just about a half the migrants were below the age of 25 (usually without any children), and only 12 per cent were over 35 years. Family migration was Illegality of international population movements in Poland 71 rare with only 11 per cent of respondents travelling with a spouse and children and 79 per cent alone. People from the Asian subcontinent presented a clear pattern. All respondents were males below 35 and travelling alone. Data from the register of foreigners admitted to reception centres (most of whom were illegal transit migrants themselves) as of 15 December 1998 generally confirm these findings. In addition, children accompanying parents were from three countries only, namely, Afghanistan, Armenia (and other CIS countries) and the former Yugoslavia, whereas persons aged 30 or over (representing more than one-quarter of the total) came from Armenia, Iraq and Somalia. Around a quarter of all migrants from Afghanistan and the former Yugoslavia were also in this age bracket.
Despite alarming reports from elsewhere, evidence of women smuggled in large numbers (for prostitution) to or through Poland, and then to the West, hardly exists, or at least it is not substantial enough to be considered in this analysis. Rather it would appear that foreign prostitutes in Poland are being transported with great care, and that traffickers are concerned with providing them with proper documents and tickets in order to avoid the discomforts of transit and illegal border crossing.14
In terms of educational background, illegal migrants seem to be typical of their home countries or educated just slightly better than the average. A clear exception in the sample were (adult) persons from Afghanistan, usually former officials employed in the past pro-Soviet administration or police, whose educational attainment, in striking contrast to the general population, was very high. Otherwise, the majority of adult migrants (76 per cent) had either attended or completed secondary school (but failed to complete any post-secondary school). However, it should be noted that in 29 per cent of cases it was not possible to establish reliably the actual level of a migrant’s education.
Major routes
The home countries of migrants represent a broad range of geographical regions and the routes followed by illegal migrants before entering Poland vary accordingly. However, these routes display a singular common feature, namely, that almost all of them involve at least one of the states of the former Soviet Union. The few exceptions include a journey by freighter from Africa directly to Poland, with some transit travel prior to boarding ship, or a journey by land from the Middle East, the former Yugoslavia or Turkey through the Balkans and ultimately to the Czech Republic or Slovakia.
The majority of routes first run directly or indirectly (through other former Soviet countries, such as Kazakhstan, Tajikistan or Uzbekistan) to Moscow, then to the vicinities of the capital cities of Belarus, Lithuania and Ukraine. Sometimes the first stage avoids Moscow and reaches Minsk or Kiev directly. 72 Okólski
Many migrants who are brought to the last two cities are subject to further transit before crossing Poland’s border, namely to Lithuania or Slovakia (or, less often, the Czech Republic). This is the pattern for almost all migrants from South and East Asia and for some from the Middle East and Africa. This route has been followed by the majority of migrants who have recently entered Poland illegally.
It is of note that major routes used by migrants smuggled to (or, ultimately, through) Poland involve tremendous distances on land and thus require a relatively long time to reach the migration goal. For this reason they seem logistically complicated and vulnerable to counter measures by the authorities in the transit countries.
Business of illegal migration
Migrants from particular countries of origin gradually arrive in various “disloca- tion centres” (which are in effect assembly points), located in Asiatic frontier countries of the former Soviet Union or, in the case of an “at one go” trip, in Moscow, Minsk or Kiev. Until organizational matters are fixed and a desirable number of persons making a group is collected, they await further stages of the journey at various “waterholes” in the vicinity of these centres. Similar arrangements take place in subsequent dislocation centres. Immediately before crossing the Polish border, organizational matters include, besides routine issues like providing a group with shelter, food, transport and an escort, information on the safe crossing of the border and a guide to and a contact in Poland.
Smugglers offer a variety of modes of transport, including plane, train, coach, truck and passenger car, but each is subject to changing circumstances and availability. In the sample, 8 per cent of migrants also travelled by ship and 10 per cent had to walk a considerable part of their route. Since the group size of smuggled migrants depends on available transportation whose range might be limited, migrant groups sometimes need to be split up. The survey revealed 2.5 modes of transport during an average migration from home country to Poland. Only 15 per cent of migrants in the sample used only one (or the same) mode of transport (for half of them this was a truck). In the case of those who had to resort to a combination of modes, the most popular were car plus train (15 per cent) and plane plus car plus truck (8 per cent). Typically, migrants were regrouped two or three times before finally attempting an entry into Poland.
All this strongly affects the duration of migration which, in the case of transit to or through Poland, seems painstakingly long. In the sample of migrants where the duration could be established (85 per cent), it was below one month for only one-third of migrants, whereas 16 per cent of migrants claimed to have Illegality of international population movements in Poland 73 been travelling for more than a year, from the moment of leaving their home country to entering Poland. The average time spent in transit was 5.1 months.
As the study shows, the complexity of the business of illegal migration does not lie in its multi-stage, fragmented character alone. For many migrants, smuggling was either wholly, or at least in a substantial part, the total process, from their recruitment by agents representing future employers or by the smugglers themselves, through all transit stages (the en route stage) and up to insertion in the country of destination.15 This also included the protection of migrants and eventually “retrieving” from captivity those apprehended by the police. In certain cases the contract between migrant and smugglers ensured repeated attempts until a successful result, i.e., the insertion. This, among other things, is why it was possible for migrants to travel in changing groups (entourage), with no acquaintances, personal documents, money or luggage.16
Illegal migration to or through Poland, due to its typically deep complexity and long duration, commands a high price, set by the smuggling organizations. In this respect, the survey results did not differ from other sources worldwide (Ghosh, 1998). Around half the migrants in the sample said they had paid (or agreed to pay)17 US$5,000 or more, and a quarter US$12,000 or more. This corresponded to several years’ earnings for an average worker in most of the countries of origin. In several cases, the price reflected a combination of costs associated with the migration, not all of which went to smugglers.
The total price paid to smugglers seemed very high in each individual case, in proportion to the probable costs borne by the smugglers and the financial situation of migrants and their home countries. The distribution of prices observed reflected the nationality of migrants, modes of transportation and, to some extent, distance (rather than time) travelled. As far as nationality is concerned, the citizens of Afghanistan were charged the most, despite the relatively short distance and the cheap modes of transportation used in their migration. A salient characteristic of those persons, however, was that their life in the home country was precarious, if not directly threatened, and also that their resources were probably relatively large, which may suggest that the personal circumstances of migrants influenced the price level.
The deep discrepancy between resources available to migrants and the price demanded by smugglers has given rise to diverse payment arrangements. In the sample, there were a few cases (23 per cent of the total) where migrants were able to pay all costs by themselves. Some were raising the money necessary to cover the costs during the migration and they followed a piecemeal mode of payment, i.e., they paid for each stage or service separately. Otherwise the sources of money were family members, friends or future employers. Employers contributed to the costs in 13 per cent of all cases. Quite frequently (43 per cent) the migrant did not share the costs at all. All this implies that the situations 74 Okólski where a migrant became a debtor to various persons (including strangers), as a result of his/her migration, were numerous.
Transnational aspects of the business of illegal migration
Thus it can be seen that the business appears to be very informal, flexible and complex. The study revealed several principal levels in the functioning of smuggling or trafficking networks:
- informal leadership, which takes care of, or at least controls, the entire process or a given route, and ensures its security; - internationally linked underworld bosses in each country through which transit routes run; - bilingual teams pursuing people-smuggling activities in specific border areas; and - local collaborators in specific relocation centres or border areas who are entrusted with particular separate tasks.
The last three levels seem common to all routes and networks whereas the first is doubtful or, in certain cases, unnecessary and its existence has not been unequivocally evidenced. On the other hand, there undoubtedly exists the “management level”, which comprises leaders of criminal organizations in major cities or whole regions of all countries involved – origin, transit and destination. They are either linked to each other or at least tacitly respect their “sovereignty” over a given territory (city, region) and operate through a network of various illegal businesses such as gambling, prostitution, trade in weapons, narcotics, stolen cars, etc.
The smuggling/trafficking of migrants does not seem to belong to the major activities of those criminal networks. Indeed, in many cases, it is a supplementary if not marginal area of the illegal business judging from criminal records and migrants’ descriptions of their contacts with smugglers. For a large proportion of the networks the business of illegal migration is likely to be a small but profitable niche and subject to comparative monitoring and eventually quick abandonment.
Regardless of the degree of formal organization of networks of smugglers and the depth of their involvement in the business, this kind of activity requires close international links and collaboration. The transnational character of migrants smuggled to or through Poland manifests itself in two distinctly different areas of activity of the criminal networks. First, in arranging illegal border crossings, which maintain a basically local character, a high degree of coordination must be secured between the teams from the two neighbouring countries. At this level, it is also quite common for local members of the network in a transit (or destination) country to collaborate with foreigners Illegality of international population movements in Poland 75 representing the major countries of origin, who are legal residents of that country, in handling illegal migrants’ affairs in a given territory. Second, the coordination of migration along an entire route is necessary. There are several reasons for this, such as the need to transmit information about the movements of migrant groups along the route, maintaining contacts with criminal groups in the countries through which the route runs, settling the payments, profit redistribution, and so on.
The Polish authorities, the media and illegal migrants themselves share the view that the masterminds and management centres of the people smuggling business which presently affects Poland are easily identifiable, namely the “Russian mafia”. Sources in a number of other countries seem to be of the same opinion (Ghosh, 1998; Siron and Van Baeveghem, 1999). This study concluded that the role of Russian criminal organizations in running and exercising full control over the business of migrant smuggling and trafficking on a wider, pan- European scale has been greatly exaggerated.18
On the other hand, the study provided plausible evidence that at least a part of the business is being controlled by Russian criminal networks of the mafia type. Not only did Moscow and its vicinity serve as a major dislocation centre for the illegal transit migrants investigated, but the smugglers appeared to maintain close links with various official state structures. It was admitted in a number of interviews that the initial contact with a network of smugglers was arranged through a local, i.e., in home country, travel agent which was able to provide the migrant with a package which included a Russian national airline (Aeroflot) ticket to Moscow, a Russian visa and a viable contact in Moscow. Evidence has been collected pointing to Aeroflot crews being directly involved in smuggling operations. Many migrants witnessed the leniency, if not collaboration, of Russian police and other authorities towards smugglers. On the top of all this, there seems to be widespread corruption in Russia, which facilitates, if not prompts, all kinds of organized criminal activity, including the business of assisted illegal migration.
Trafficking in people
While the results of the study suggest a structured and significant volume of smuggling of foreigners to or through Poland, there is only a tenuous link with trafficking in migrants. From the Polish perspective, the importance and scale of human trafficking seem to be somewhat minor, at least the study findings have failed to associate trafficking significantly with migrant smuggling and illegal migration in general.
This may appear surprising, since a great deal of attention has been paid recently to illegal migration by various international organizations, meetings and initiatives, as well as by researchers and the media, working on the 76 Okólski presumption that trafficking in persons constitutes a major component of such migration and is a driving force of the related business. This perception embraces various parts of the globe, including Central and Eastern Europe (and, therefore, Poland).
Following this line of thought, however, human trafficking in Central and Eastern Europe is almost exclusively associated with the movements of women from eastern to western Europe for prostitution or other entertainment purposes. In 1999, the United Nations estimated that since 1994 around 500,000 women a year have been trafficked from CEE to Western Europe and that Poland was one of the major sending countries (UNDP, 1999). Other sources claim that Poland also functions as a transit country and a “training ground” for female prostitutes trafficked from Russia, Ukraine and the Baltic states to the European Union, Switzerland and Israel (Siron and Van Baeveghem, 1999). In addition, the IOM representative in Kiev suggests that since 1991 500,000 Ukrainian women have left their home country, of whom a significant majority were trafficked for some variation of the sex trade (IOM, 2000). Considering the massive scale of movement implied by these figures, they should not have gone unnoticed in Poland, which allegedly is a major source and transit country for those flows.19
In reality, however, prostitution of foreigners does not necessarily involve illegal border crossing nor smuggling in general, nor does it always imply illegal employment. On the contrary, exploitation, abuse and humiliation are often suffered in similar degree by both foreign and national prostitutes and are inherent in the profession itself rather than in migration. Where foreigners have been forced into prostitution by deceit, blackmail or coercion (which does not seem to be the rule either in Poland or anywhere in Western Europe), a large proportion of them could have been legal from the stand point of international population movement. Moreover, there is a body of evidence which suggests that Poland does not serve as a country of origin, transit or destination for any significant number of smuggled prostitutes.
On the other hand, a clear case of trafficking in migrants has been revealed in the Polish study and is referred to in the present article. It was, however, unrelated to any sex services or the entertainment business and concerned men more than women. Moreover, it involved people smuggling where Poland played host to the migrants and was probably on rather a small scale. The interviews carried out involved a few citizens of Viet Nam who had been smuggled into Poland upon an order from Vietnamese entrepreneurs legally operating in Poland. The costs related to this illegal migration were borne by the prospective employers and as a reward the migrants committed themselves to semi-slave work to repay the debt. The relatively long period during which migrants worked, literally for nothing, an excessively long working day and week, poor job conditions, deplorable living standards and de facto deprivation Illegality of international population movements in Poland 77 by employers of migrants’ personal freedom, all pointed to the exploitation and abuse typical of human trafficking.
INTERPRETATION
Many features of the movements described in the present article result from a “natural” cause, namely the geographic and political location of Poland. Its midway position between the East, which is a major reservoir of potential migrants (or a transit ground for migrants originating from a considerable part of the South) and the West, which is a major destination area for those migrants, its lengthy and easy to cross state boundaries, a common border with Germany (by far the main migrant recipient country in Europe), all seem to be conditions sine qua non for such movements, particularly from a specific set of countries, through Poland.
This does not entirely explain why the flows of people take a given form (illegal transit); why they took place at a given time (only since 1990), nor why Poland eventually became one of the destination countries. It would appear that these three questions can be addressed by reference to a historical coincidence that occurred in the late 1980s and early 1990s, namely the overlap of three distinct, independent phenomena:
- a reinforced political and economic integration within the western part of Europe, particularly the European Union; - the political and economic disintegration of Central and Eastern Europe as a cohesive, unipolar block, and its split into individual, alienated countries with different degrees of commitment to reforms; and - various political, religious, ethnic, natural, and environmental disasters on the southern and eastern rim of Europe: in the Balkans, the Caucasus, East Asia, Maghreb, the Horn of Africa, and others.
The developments in Western Europe towards building up a unified political and economic entity realized inter alia the efforts initiated by the European Union in the mid-80s to harmonize and strengthen immigration controls. These efforts were to be an efficient replacement for various poorly coordinated and barely successful attempts at shutting the Pandora’s box on the large inflow of migrants, self inflicted by the West and self sustaining (Okólski, 1999c). They reflected the awareness, if not fears, of policy makers of the growing migration pressure resultant from two opposing trends, namely, the blurring of the international political divide with its attendant risks and the sharpening of the international economic divide (Hollifield, 1992).
This was partly due to a short-sighted policy of recruitment of foreign workers that began in the 1950s or early 1960s in Britain, France, Germany and a 78 Okólski number of other countries and a failure to integrate migrants into these host countries. On the one hand, the policy created enormous, superfluous, expecta- tions among labour in the sending countries and, on the other, it produced masses of largely marginalized non-citizens in the receiving countries, giving rise to social and political unrest (Okólski, 1999a). In part, it was also an effect of the increased flow of various categories of migrants, especially asylum seekers, from Africa, Afghanistan, the Asian subcontinent, South-East Asia, and former Soviet-block countries.
In addition, the collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe and the end of the Cold War almost instantly triggered off huge international flows of people. In certain instances (e.g. the former GDR and Romania) a feedback between the declining ancien regime and the outflow of migrants contributed to the pace of the collapse of the system and consequently the rate of outmigration. Furthermore, shortly after the lifting of the Iron Curtain, nearly all CEE countries, which before then and with few exceptions were tightly closed to international movements of persons, liberalized their migration policies and some of them entered bilateral visa-free agreements with a number of western countries. At the same time, CEEC countries generally retained their (up to that point) largely ineffective or idle, institutional arrangements allowing for non-visa travelling or preferential treatment of the citizens from other countries of the region and certain (“friendly” in old communist parlance) developing countries. Central and Eastern Europe, which until then had been a non-functional element (if not an obstacle) in international flows of people, thereby became a fully permeable area, not only well connected to Western Europe but also providing a missing link for many potential migrants from the South in their efforts to reach the West.
The disintegration of Central and Eastern Europe has had two other important consequences for international movements of persons, one of which ensued from the rapid differentiation of the region and the establishment of its own migration poles of attraction. The Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland are examples of relatively fast political and economic transition, and display, among other things, a rapidly increasing demand for cheap and temporary foreign labour. Belarus, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine and a few others, however, might be regarded as countries relatively slow in reforming their systems and, among other things, sending large numbers of workers to the labour markets of the faster changing economies. This implies that the opening up of Central and Eastern Europe to foreign migrants may have induced not only outward flows but also intraregional ones.
The collapse of the communist system in Europe was related to a geographically much more widespread phenomenon, namely an intensification of catastrophes of various kinds, which led to massive involuntary transfers of people. The Illegality of international population movements in Poland 79 flight of people that erupted at the end of the 1980s from Africa and Asia, prompted by local wars, ethnic and religious conflicts, political purges and persecutions, famines, droughts and epidemics, was joined in the beginning of the 1990s by intensive flows of people from Central and Eastern Europe, who abandoned their countries of residence for ethnic reasons. For most of these people the main cause was the break up of former federal communist states, in particular the former Yugoslavia and the former Soviet Union. By and large, residents of areas or regions affected by civil wars and ensuing ethnic cleansing sought temporary protection or refuge in Western Europe, but a significant proportion of them also entered other countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Additionally, large numbers of the representatives of various ethnic minorities have either been encouraged to seek new residence in their “titular homelands” or left voluntarily for those countries. A great portion of those flows was contained within Central and Eastern Europe, mainly within the former Soviet Union, but many persons migrated to other countries: Germany, US, Canada, France, Greece, Turkey and a few others. Finally, countries of Central and Eastern Europe, embedded in long lasting political turmoil, witnessed a spontan- eous outflow of politically motivated refugees who almost exclusively headed for the West (e.g. from Albania to Italy). All this generated a strong wave of asylum seekers and other migrants in need of protection, both from the South and Central and Eastern Europe, which above all stormed the borders of western European countries.
This upsurge of asylum seekers in Western Europe found the region unprepared to cope with a variety of claims and the magnitude (or intensity) of flows (Miles and Thraenhardt, 1995). In view of growing backlogs in processing the applications of asylum seekers and gradual paralysis of the asylum system in those countries, genuine refugees have increasingly been joined by economic migrants from the South and Central and Eastern Europe. These people pretended to be persecuted in their home countries and also requested asylum. Within a short time, many asylum systems in Western Europe found themselves on the brink of collapse.
The three groups of phenomena required only a very brief period of less than 10 years to interact fully and develop a sort of ad hoc game of mutual outwitting between Western European governments and the migrants from the South and Central and Eastern Europe, with Poland and a few other countries in the middle. An ultimate form of that game has become, on the part of destination countries, sealing the leaks and gaps by more and more restrictive legislation and administrative procedures concerning the entry, reception, stay and expul- sion of foreigners and, on the part of migrants, inventing ever new routes of reaching those countries. These involve the increasing use of transit countries and resorting to professional smugglers for assistance in crossing state borders illegally and insertion in the West. 80 Okólski
It has already been suggested that the past migration policies of certain western countries have triggered a great migration potential in many other countries, mainly located outside Europe. Migrants’ networks have consequently been established and expanded in many countries of Western Europe and contribute considerably to facilitating and perpetuating the inflow of foreign labour. While at one time the demand for migrant workers stabilized or tended to (occasionally) decrease, the movements of people kept growing. When the recruitment of foreign labour was abandoned, migrants started coming in large numbers for family reunion or setting up a family. Finally, with the tightening by receiving countries of the rules that concern migration for family reasons, the asylum “channel” has become widely used by migrants other than bona fide refugees. Gradually countries of Western Europe, particularly those of the European Union, arrived at more efficient ways of controlling the entries and movements of citizens of third countries, harmonizing related laws and co- ordinating preventive or repressive activities.
These developments could only have had a marginal influence on propensities to migrate from the major countries of origin, since people had already been on the move there. It was, therefore, not a matter of “if” but rather of “which way” to go. In the beginning of the 1990s, citizens of many CEE countries were added to the masses of those in the process of getting ready or actually moving to the West. The countries of Central and Eastern Europe themselves presented formidable and virgin (from the point of view of preventing illegal migration) ground for transit towards Western Europe. Around the same time relatively tough controls on the inflow of asylum seekers, together with more effective processing and readmission procedures, had been introduced in the European Union and other western countries. This almost completely closed the only remaining gateway to Western Europe for migrants from the South and East.
The only way that remained open for migrants to reach their goal was by illegal entry. Early successes in applying relatively simple means of transit to the West through Central and Eastern Europe by migrants from both the South and East encouraged many others to follow in their footsteps. At the peak of this process, illegal transit movements to Western Europe involved probably hundreds of thousands of persons annually. Since 1993-1995, however, the trend has contracted. Due to a more consistent and thorough control of state borders, especially in the countries of the western cordon sanitaire (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia), together with systematic collaboration between these countries with other transit countries and major target countries (Austria and Germany) to combat illegal transit migration, the smuggling of people became less widely accessible or more costly and the number of persons attempting that way of realizing their migration goals started to contract.
Migrant smuggling into the West from the East proved a difficult task. It was frequently a lengthy, complicated, multistage process, involving international Illegality of international population movements in Poland 81 collaboration of criminal groups, requiring extensive logistic support and, because of using road rather than air or sea transportation, was vulnerable to counter measures by the States involved. It is probably for this reason that criminal networks of migrant smugglers operating in Central and Eastern Europe have been neither stable nor deeply rooted in the region’s underworld and that transit routes and the ethnic composition of smuggled migrants were systematically subject to dramatic changes.
Against this background, Poland seems to be a rather reluctant player in the game. On the one hand, her government is strongly committed to combating illegal migration; on the other, corruption of Polish institutions is minimal. Finally, ample opportunities exist for more profitable illegal businesses than human smuggling. With professionalization of the business of assisting illegal transit migration, the related movements of people are becoming increasingly exclusive and available only to a tiny minority. For some of those who cannot afford to pay the very high costs of getting to the West, however, the destination, temporarily rather than permanently, is increasingly Poland or one of the other countries in Central and Eastern Europe that offer jobs and a decent standard of living.
NOTES
1. For instance, a protocol of 13 May 1999 of the UN Convention against Organized Crime (the opposite case being, e.g. the Europol Convention of 26 July 1995). 2. In other words, helping a migrant who is already in Poland to organize his/her illegal stay or employment is not accounted for in legal acts regarding illegal migration, and may not be punishable. 3. A document adopted by the Budapest Group in 1998 argues that in case of trafficking in migrants “the concept of exploitation does not necessarily mean direct coercion but violation of human dignity and fundamental rights, abuse of the vulnerable situation [of migrants], making them dependant and treating them as trade products rather than as human beings (Expert Group, 1988: 10). In my opinion, this proposition softens the above definition and blurs the boundaries between “smuggling” and “trafficking” (Okólski, 1999b). 4. Since 1998 the regulations and procedures relating to entry into Poland by nationals from former socialist countries have been consolidated and tightened and this appears to have led to a dramatic decline in corresponding incidences of illegality. 5. A large part of the relevant movements, which I have termed “incomplete migration”, was described in detail elsewhere (Okólski, 1997). 6. Almost all asylum seekers enter Poland illegally and some of them are deported to Poland from the West on the basis of readmission agreements. A large majority of the asylum seekers disperse (disappear) in the very early stage of the processing of their applications in Poland, and strong evidence indicates that this is due to a 82 Okólski
successful smuggling to the West. The failure rate (including refusal and procedure discontinuance) exceeds 95 per cent of all applications. All this suggests that migrants treat the asylum system in Poland instrumentally as a means of temporary “legalization” of their stay in Poland or to avoid expulsion. 7. In this latter case the two leaders were nationals of Afghanistan (bearing also German citizenship) and Lebanon (with a residence permit for Poland). Both men owned restaurants in Hamburg, Kiev and Warsaw, as well as various companies trading with several African and Asian countries. Local representatives of those companies recruited migrants and handed them over in Belarus, Lithuania, Russia or Ukraine to agents (usually foreigners studying in Poland) representing the head office of those companies, who then arranged to smuggle the migrants across the Polish border and for their place of hiding in Poland. 8. One country of crucial importance in the statistics of illegal border crossings, Ukraine, was deliberately omitted from the sample. There were various reasons for this but it was chiefly the predominantly “local” character of the illegality of the Ukrainians (i.e., their movements within a relatively short radius of the Polish- Ukrainian border), and the fact that most of the illegal border crossings could be connected with smuggling goods rather than people. 9. It should, however, be noted that information from the sample on the migrants’ countries of destination might have been strongly biased in favour of Poland. This was because the majority of persons investigated had either been apprehended by Polish police or border guards or voluntarily subjected themselves to Poland’s asylum procedures. The sample included very few migrants who had successfully reached the West (a few of the persons investigated had already been readmitted to Poland from the West) and for whom Poland could not be the target country. According to some accounts, two to three illegal migrants are successful for every one caught. 10. Interestingly, no African migrant in the sample expressed a desire to reach Germany ultimately, whereas Poland was not mentioned as a target country by any migrant from Afghanistan, China, India and Iraq. 11. It is highly probable that many of those indicating Poland as the country of final destination did so out of desperation at the time of the investigation as many interviews took place while deportation proceedings or asylum claims were pending. 12. Viet Nam ranks very high in practically all registers of legal foreigners in Poland (e.g. marriages to Polish citizens, work permits, residence permits, etc.). 13. A note of caution must be expressed regarding the high incidence of migrants changing their mind about the country of destination. The analysis of interviews suggests that in many cases it has been done in order to confuse the Polish authorities and thus enter Poland’s asylum procedure. This was “winning time” in order to rest, supplement financial resources and let smugglers properly organize the final stage of migration. It would seem, therefore, that the change of mind of many “converted migrants” was not genuine. 14. Siron and Van Baeveghem (1999: 27, 28), referring to sources other than those quoted here, seem to support this view, by suggesting that women subject to trafficking “usually have a university degree ... They are often employed as luxury call girls in escort agencies, and their living and working conditions [in Poland] are usually very good”. 15. The findings of the study in this respect are reflected in the model developed by Salt and Stein (1998). Illegality of international population movements in Poland 83
16. A typical example was that of a migrant from Bangladesh whose only personal belongings during his trip was a chip telephone card by which he could contact smugglers and receive assistance. 17. Quite often (typically in the case of Chinese migrants) all money was to be paid after the successful insertion of the migrant into the country of destination. In such a situation the payment was guaranteed by the family in the home country. Also common was that the payment could be made in two or more instalments. 18. In some cases the smuggled migrants, despite a lengthy, multi-stage trip, made no contact with anyone who appeared to be Russian. In other cases the only “proof” of the Russian connection seemed to be the language spoken by a smuggler, which might be misleading due to the great similarity between certain Slavonic languages and Russian. Finally, a number of migrants followed a “piecemeal approach” in their journey, seeking assistance locally and only when necessary and were their own bosses. 19. This article makes no comment on the accuracy or plausibility of these “estimates”.
REFERENCES
Expert Group of the Budapest Group 1998 “Is international organised crime expanding its activities into trafficking in persons?”, Sixth Meeting of the Budapest Group, Warsaw, 7-8 December. Ghosh, B. 1998 Huddled Masses and Uncertain Shores. Insights into Irregular Migration, Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague/Boston/London. Golik, P. 1999 “Illegal migration: freedom costs”, The Warsaw Voice, 30 May. Hollifield, J.F. 1992 Immigrants, Markets, and States: The Political Economy of Post-war Europe, Harvard University Press, Cambridge Massachusetts. Iglicka, K., and K. Sword (Eds) 1999 The Challenge of East-West Migration for Poland, Macmillan, Houndmills. IOM 1999 Trafficking in Migrants: IOM Policy and Responses: 12. 2000 Migrant Trafficking and Human Smuggling in Europe, Geneva. Jachowicz, J. 2000 “Raport z rozbitych gangow”, Gazeta Wyborcza, 6 January. Miles, R., and D. Thraenhardt (Eds) 1995 Migration and European Integration. The Dynamics of Inclusion and Exclusion, Pinter, London. Nowak, W. 1998 “The river and the refugees”, Transitions, 5(12): 40-47. 84 Okólski
Okólski, M. 1997 “Incomplete migration – a new form of mobility in Central and Eastern Europe: the case of Ukrainian migrants”, paper presented at ISS/FES Inter- national Conference, Central and Eastern Europe – New Migration Space, Pultusk (Poland), 11-13 December. 1999a “Recent migration in Poland: trends and causes”, in K. Iglicka and K. Sword (Eds), The Challenge of East-West Migration for Poland, Macmillan, Houndmills: 15-44. 1999b “Migrant trafficking in Poland. Actors, mechanisms, combating”, ISS Working Papers – Seria: Prace Migracyjne, no. 24, March. 1999c “Migration pressures on Europe”, in D. van dee Kaa et al. (Eds), European Populations: Unity in Diversity, Kluver, Dordrecht. Salt, J., and J. Stein 1998 “Migration as a business: the case of trafficking”, International Migration, 35(4): 467-489. Siron, N., and P. Van Baeveghem 1999 Trafficking in Migrants through Poland, Maklu, Antwerpen/Apledoorn. UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) 1999 Human Development Report 1999, United Nations, New York. Illegality of international population movements in Poland 85
TABLE 1 MAJOR INTERNATIONAL FLOWS OF PERSONS OBSERVED IN POLAND IN THE 1990S BY MAIN GEOGRAPHIC ORIGIN AND DESTINATION
Destination West Poland Transit (through) Origin Poland Poland No transit East No transit preceded by east
South 1 2 6 7 East 3 4 8 9 Poland 5 West 10
Note: Numbers in bold represent movements that involve the illegality discussed in the text.
TABLE 2 MAJOR NATIONALITIES AMONG MIGRANTS ACCORDING TO SIX POLISH REGISTERS
Rank Decisions Persons Persons Persons Persons Persons on readmitted readmitted apprehended applying accommodated expulsion (to Poland) (from on illegal for refugee in reception Poland) border status centres crossing
(a) (b) (b) (c) (d) (e)
1 Romania Former Romania Sri Lanka Sri Lanka Sri Lanka Yugoslavia 2 Ukraine Afghanistan Ukraine Afghanistan Afghanistan Afghanistan 3 Bulgaria Sri Lanka Bulgaria Pakistan Armenia Former Yugoslavia 4 Armenia Ukraine Armenia Armenia Iraq Somalia 5 Moldova Armenia Moldova Ukraine Pakistan Pakistan 6 India Iraq Bangladesh India India Armenia
(a) Issued by district administration (in 1994-1998); (b) On the basis of bilateral agreements (in 1998); (c) In 1998; (d) In 1994-1998; (e) On 15 December, 1998. Source: Ministry of the Interior and Administration. 86 Okólski
TABLE 3 ILLEGAL MIGRANTS IN POLAND BY COUNTRY OR REGION OF ORIGIN AND COUNTRY OR REGION OF DESTINATION, ACCORDING TO THE INTENTION AT THE ONSET OF MIGRATION (percentage of the total)
Country or region of destination
Country or Germany Other Overseas Poland Any safe Total region of origin Western country European
Afghanistan 2.7 12.5 15.3 Asian sub-continent 9.7 1.4 1.4 9.7 5.5 27.8 East Asia 9.7 8.3 4.2 22.2 Africa 2.7 2.7 6.9 2.7 15.3 CEE (including Armenia) 2.7 8.3 2.7 13.9 Iraq 5.5 5.5
Total 30.5 20.8 4.2 23.6 20.8 100.0
Note: N = 72 persons surveyed in August-October 1998. Source: Institute for Social Studies, University of Warsaw. Illegality of international population movements in Poland 87
TABLE 4 ILLEGAL MIGRANTS IN POLAND BY COUNTRY OR REGION OF DESTINATION, ACCORDING TO THE INTENTION AT THE ONSET OF MIGRATION AND THE TIME OF THE SURVEY (percentages of the total)
At the onset of migration
At the time Germany Other Overseas Poland Any safe Total of the survey Western country European
Germany 8.3 2.7 11.1 Other Western European 6.9 2.7 2.7 12.5 Overseas 1.4 2.7 4.2 Poland 6.9 11.1 1.4 22.2 9.7 51.4 Home country 5.5 6.9 4.2 16.7 Undecided 1.4 1.4 1.4 4.2
Total 30.5 20.8 4.2 23.6 20.8 100.0
Notes: N = 72 persons surveyed in August-October 1998. Source: Institute for Social Studies, University of Warsaw. 88 Okólski
L’ILLÉGALITÉ DES MOUVEMENTS INTERNATIONAUX DE POPULATION EN POLOGNE
Jusqu’au début des années 90, il n’y a eu aucune immigration étrangère en Pologne, après quoi la situation a changé du tout au tout.
L’afflux soudain d’immigrants est apparu composé pour une bonne part d’immigrants illégaux, dont un grand nombre étaient en transit vers un pays d’Europe occidentale. Alors que ces mouvements déclinaient progressivement dès la seconde moitié de la décennie, on s’est aperçu qu’ils étaient de plus en plus liés, du moins en partie, à une forme relativement sophistiquée de traite des êtres humains. Les étrangers introduits clandestinement du Sud à l’Ouest sont devenus partie intégrante du paysage des mouvements migratoires en Europe centrale et orientale durant les années 90, au même titre que les filières criminelles internationales prenant part à ces mouvements.
Le présent article tente de décrire l’immigration illégale vue de la Pologne, un pays fréquemment perçu comme une étape de transit d’importance majeure dans la traite d’êtres humains en direction de l’Europe occidentale. Les conclusions tirées par l’auteur découlent des résultats de plusieurs enquêtes récemment réalisées en Pologne.
L’auteur définit et juxtapose des concepts de base relatifs à l’immigration illégale, tout en examinant divers mythes et stéréotypes en la matière, dont l’existence est généralement due au manque d’évidence empirique. Pour conclure, il interprète les tendances observées en Pologne dans le contexte plus large de la migration européenne contemporaine.
ILEGALIDAD DE LOS MOVIMIENTOS INTERNACIONALES DE POBLACIÓN EN POLONIA
Hasta principios de 1990, Polonia no acogía a migrantes extranjeros. A partir de entonces, la situación cambió drásticamente.
Gran parte de las corrientes afluyentes resultaron ser migrantes ilegales, que en su mayoría transitaban rumbo a Europa Occidental. Si bien estos movimientos disminuyeron gradualmente durante la segunda mitad de esa década, algunos tenían una creciente atinencia al cruce clandestino perfeccionado de personas. Una de las características de los movimientos migratorios de personas en Europa Central y Oriental durante los años 90, fue el cruce clandestino de fronteras por extranjeros que iban desde el sur hacia el occidente, asistidos por redes del crimen internacional. Illegality of international population movements in Poland 89
Este artículo intenta describir la migración ilegal desde la perspectiva de Polonia, un país que a menudo ha sido considerado como una importante región de tránsito para el cruce clandestino de personas rumbo a Europa Occidental. Las conclusiones se basan en los resultados de varias encuestas realizadas recientemente en Polonia. En este artículo se definen y superponen conceptos básicos relacionados con la migración ilegal y también se examinan diversos mitos y estereotipos que a menudo surgen de la escasez de pruebas empíricas. Finalmente, las tendencias observadas en Polonia se interpretan en el contexto más amplio de la migración europea contemporánea.