June 14, 2002	Friday	Rabi-us-Sani 2, 1423

PARIS, June 13: The relative comfort and help given to refugees in Britain are the main reasons so many illegal immigrants turn up there rather than elsewhere in Europe, a new study by a French researcher released Thursday said.

The report, by Smain Laacher of the state-run CNRS research body, also concluded that closing the controversial Red Cross refugee centre in the northern French town of Sangatte, near the Channel Tunnel, would be pointless and do little to stem the flow.

His interviews with 284 of the 1,400 immigrants staying at the centre between October 2001 and March 2002 found that almost all were Iraqi Kurds or Afghans, male with an average age of 25, and highly educated for their background.

In most cases, their families had chosen them and scraped together the 5,000-8,700 dollars (6,400-9,200 euros) needed to pay the people smugglers who promised to sneak them into a safe Western European country.

As the bearers of all their kins’ hopes, the young men were under pressure to succeed at all costs by building a richer life and sending money back to their families.

“They sold everything — land and cattle,” Laacher quotes one Afghan as saying. “They sacrificed themselves for me, so that I could go and work in Europe.”

The man, who had a leg amputated by a train as he tried to sneak through the Channel Tunnel into Britain, added: “My family counted on me. I lost. I don’t know what to do now.”

The researcher found the immigrants were in Sangatte after an arduous smuggling route that often led through the Balkans, then Austria, Italy and France.

None started out with a clear idea where he was going or any comparative ideas of what each European country offered.

It was only en route that news filtered through of those who preceded them being given clean sheets, accommodation and being informed of their rights as refugee-seekers in Britain — a vision of heaven after weeks or months of furtive crossings, little food, abusive police and sometimes jail.

The preconception that many were trying to rejoin families was undermined by statistics from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees showing that Germany’s Afghan population was four times bigger than the 3,500 believed to be in Britain.

When it came to Iraqis, an estimated 35,000 were in Germany, 24,000 in Sweden and 22,900 in the Netherlands, compared to just 5,700 in Britain.

Immigrants who made it across the Channel telephoned friends in the overcrowded Sangatte centre to tell them of the warm welcome they were given, reinforcing the determination of others, the report said.

It was only there that Britain became “a collective plan,” “a common destiny,” it said.

But closing the camp — as London has been pushing for — would simply displace the thousands who arrive each year, forcing them to other French towns, to other areas where they could make their cross-Channel bid.

It would not solve the problem, the author stressed.

Better would be to improve accomodation standards in Sangatte, thus diminishing the appeal of moving on.

But more important would be to remove the people-smugglers from the centre, to stop them extorting money from the immigrants even for facilities such as showers or blankets, Laacher said.

Maybe then the young refugees would feel that their journey through hell had come to an end, he concluded.—AFP