Allowing Bulgaria and Romania to join the border-free Schengen zone is likely to spur irregular migration through Turkey and the Black Sea, an analyst from EU’s police agency Europol said on Tuesday (14 June) in Sofia.
VALENTINA POP| EUOBSERVER.COM
"The accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the Schengen zone has a potential to raise the pressure on the Turkish-Greek border and lead to increased targeting of the Bulgarian Black Sea coast by illegal immigrants," Jean-Dominique Nollet, head of Europol’s Analysis and Information Department said during a conference in the Bulgarian capital.
Even if the entry of the two countries would not "change the face of the earth," he stressed the need for risk assessments and other appropriate measures to be taken, especially since the Balkan region has seen the biggest increase in smuggling and human and drug trafficking in Europe in recent years.
Both countries had hoped to join the border-free area of 26 countries in 2012, but opposition from the Netherlands, France, Germany and a handful of other states with mounting domestic debates about immigration have hampered these plans.
Meanwhile, in the Nordic countries – once a safe haven for refugees and irregular migrants – the anti-immigrant debate is heating up. The Finnish capital of Helsinki on Tuesday evacuated several Roma camps, following a decision by the city counci – a move similar to the French crackdown last summer.
Denmark, where the government had to give in to demands from the anti-immigrant People’s Party when securing a vote on the pension reform – is also going ahead with increased customs controls on its borders.
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