Brussels, 03/10/2001 (Agence Europe) - When they met in Ljublijana on 1 October in the presence of the acting President of the Home Affairs Council, Antoine Duquesne, the Interior Ministers of Slovenia (Rado Bohinc), Croatia (Sime Lucin), Hungary (Sandor Pinter), Austria (Ernst Strasser) and Italy (Claudio Scajola) adopted a declaration for "enhanced regional co-operation to combat illegal immigration into Western Europe". Illegal immigrants tend to use the Balkans as their entry point (as was shown at the public debate on human trafficking organised at the Justice/Home Affairs Council last Friday (see EUROPE of 1-2 October, pp 9/10).
The final declaration means that Ministers will be exchanging information in this connection and do all in their power to standardise asylum and visa policies, ensuring better border controls and enhanced co-operation in the fight against organised crime, particularly the trafficking of human beings. Antoine Duquesne said that the declaration matched the aims pursued by the EU, but pointed out that improving bilateral exchanges between the countries involved was only one step towards solving the problem. The Belgian Minister felt that solutions also had to be sought in the countries where illegal immigrants came from. Asked about the danger of people coming in from Afghanistan, Antoine Duquesne said that all types of illegal immigrants had to be intercepted.