Migrants now under open skies in chilly Brussels

The media frenzy generated in Belgium with major media outlets carrying the story of a dawn raid on a Gurdwara (a worshipping place for Sikhs) obscured the real cause “human smuggling,” behind the police action in Brussels. 

The police found in different houses nearly 200 people who are in Belgium illegally and living in inhuman conditions. In one house in Brussels 24 people were packed into a room of 12 meters-squares, according to Information provided by the government sources.

Culminating an investigation of almost a year, the Belgian authorities had found that a network of traffickers in humans have been operating in Belgium for the past year and a half. Hundreds of illegal immigrants from India and Pakistan have allegedly been smuggled through Belgium into the UK. The investigation into the network started after a couple of human traffickers operating from India were arrested. 

Belgium authorities in keeping with usual practice, released all the detained migrants except marked human smugglers, who were arrested after raids last month by the Belgian federal police on 19 houses in Brussels’s Vilvoorde regions including one gurdwara (Sikh Temple) and Tubize (just outside Brussels).

After taking their finger-prints and delivering a written order to leave the country, the illegals without any legal documents were released within eight to 12 hours after the initial arrests. With the safe houses raided and agents behind bars, the illegals were left to fend for themselves for now.

GREEN PARKS, OPEN SKIES

Catching up with them in many green local parks on the benches under the open skies, Tejinder Singh interviewed dozens of them finding a heart-rendering story of tears, desperation and clinging to survival with hope to move onto greener pastures in United Kingdom. With his hands in his jeans pockets and wearing all the clothes that he owns, Bittu from Indian Northern state of Haryana says in Haryanavi Hindi, “Now I regret leaving home. There was food and shelter there and love of parents.”

The open environs of Brussels parks have equated all and the sad expressions in the eyes say it all as Sukha from neighbouring state of Punjab nods in agreement adding in Punjabi, “These agents are to be blamed. They go and spread all these stories of how the legalisation papers have opened and how it’s very easy to get legal once one lands in England.” Contrary to earlier press reports, some of the migrants have been arrested more than once but released within a few hours after the usual procedure of finger-printing and issuance of written orders to leave the country.

ELUSIVE ROUTE TO UK

Moreover, there are two ways the migrants are trying to cross into the UK: 

First and more costly one is when the agents on the main land Europe talk to a few drivers who take the risk and take one or two boys ready to pay up to 6000 Euro across the English Channel by hiding them in specially designed cabins around the driver’s cabin. 

The other cheaper method is run by Albanian and Kurdish gangs who scout the highway rest places for trucks and are experts in opening the back of trucks to put migrants in without the knowledge of the resting drivers. These gangs charge anything between 1000 Euro to 2000 Euro on arrival at destination and the illegal migrants talked of the ruthlessness of smugglers in extracting money and professionalism in operating the hide and seek game with the drivers.

After the raids and arrests, Brussels assistant prosecutor Tim de Wolf had told journalists that two of those arrested were “the brains behind the trafficking operations ... They controlled a whole series of little groups. We hope we have broken up the core of the network.”

Kaka from Punjab told this journalist, “The main kingpin called Pahlwan, a jat from Punjab, was arrested a week before the raids and he along with another person named Baja are the master-minds of these operations.” “Pahlwan came to Belgium more than a year ago and is still illegal but operated this clandestine smuggling ring, successfully ferrying thousands across to England,” Kaka added in his Punjabi punctuated with English words.

ASIA TO EUROPE

The migrants, mostly from Punjab, had been brought to Belgium through Moscow, De Wolf said. “We found 24 people crammed inside one windowless room, measuring around 12 sq m,” he said. Most of the migrants, I spoke to have come through the route Delhi (India) - Moscow (Russia) - Kiev (Ukraine) - Slovakia - Italy - Belgium. After arriving in Moscow on visas - about which they hardly want to talk, the migrants were moved by trucks most of the time in connivance of the drivers and agents, they disclosed. For this purpose, the well-organised smuggling rings provide seaman’s book for around Indian Rs 60,000 (about 900 Euro) and the person flies to a port city to join the ship as “crew.”

Sometimes there is no ship and the person is routed along the land routes. And if there is a ship, it is usually the ones operating with not much of sea-worthiness left in them and which transport illegal aliens to somewhere along the thousands of kilometres of unmanned Greek and Italian coastline. In all cases, the passports which have the airport stamps of departure from India and arrival at some transit destination are destroyed by the human smugglers as soon as the person finishes legal part of the journey.

NO DOCUMENTS, NO NATIONALITY

The documents are destroyed to make sure that the authorities cannot tie a person down to the country of his origin and in that case the authorities cannot immediately deport him. They need to establish his nationality, which is a time-consuming process.

Indian embassy in Brussels refused to comment on the fate of the migrants as embassy official R K Goel (First Secretary, Education and Culture with the responsibility to handle media) had told this journalist over the phone, “The ministry (Indian Foreign ministry) is looking into the matter so we can not comment on the subject.”

Resham Singh, President of Gurdwara Guru Nanak Sahib, Vilvorde said, “There should be cooperation and programmes to educate people in Punjab about the futility to take these risks,” adding, “May be European Union and the European governments can cooperate with Punjab and Indian governments to take the message to masses there.”

Sunil Prasad, President of the Global Organization of People of Indian Origin said, “One of the main reasons why economic mi gr ants from India want to migrate to UK is because UK is more fri endly than many countries in Europe with respect to giving asylum.”

“Also, because of a large Indian community in UK, it is natural that these immigrants want to come to UK and seek better life,” Prasad, who is also the Secretary General of the Brussels Europe India Chamber of Commerce (EICC) added.

The dream lives on as is evident when speaking to Sucha, who was one of the few lucky ones to survive the clutches of law and order authorities. He shares an unhygienic dwelling with seven more. His eyes sparkle when questioned if he would make a dash to more promising lands. He replies, “I am looking for a good opportunity to go to England or maybe Canada.” (Names changed to hide identities)

Brussels sees dawn raids to break human smuggling ring

The police raided 19 houses in Brussels's Vilvoorde region including Gurudwara (Sikh Temple) and Tubize (just outside Brussels).

The Sikh community expressed outrage at the handling of the affair at the Sikh Temple, alleging that the police went in with shoes on and forced the reader of the Holy Book to abandon the continued recital that was going on to observe 300 years anniversary of the Holy Book.

On the other hand, at other places the raids yielded some major suspects according to reliable sources.

The police also found at least 200 people who are in Belgium illegally and living in inhuman conditions. They were shacked up in safe houses, used as places of hiding for many illegals. In one house in Brussels 24 people were packed into a room of 12 meters-squared according to Information received by VRT television.

Today's roundup is the result of an investigation of almost a year. A network of traffickers in humans is thought to have been operating in Belgium for the past year and a half. Hundreds of illegal immigrants from India and Pakistan have allegedly been smuggled through Belgium into the UK. The traffickers allegedly made hundreds of thousands of Euro so far. The investigation into the network started after a couple of human traffickers operating from India were arrested. It became clear that there is a huge demand for illegal immigration from Asia.

People are willing to pay enormous amounts of money to the smugglers: and it ranges from 5000 Euro to 8000 Euro. The gangs in Belgium are operating from parking lots along the motorways.The candidate refugees are loaded on to lorries going into the UK. The lorry drivers are reportedly offered huge amounts of money to take the illegal migrants across the borders into the UK.

Interview with: Pavan Duggal; Advocate, Supreme Court of India

A warning against the Internet’s dangers


Cybercrimes ranging – from child pornography and racism to identity theft, fraud and cyber terrorism – were addressed at a Council of Europe conference in Strasbourg on April 1 – 2.

More than 200 participating experts from all over the world, as well as representatives of governments, police forces and the Internet industry – including Microsoft, eBay, Symantec and McAfee – interacted in a series of workshops while reviewing the effectiveness of current cybercrime legislation, identifying new threats and trends and discussing ways to improve international co-operation and the functioning of the 24/7 contact points.

The guidelines were floated based on the existing Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime and call for formal partnerships between internet service providers (ISPs) and law enforcement.

On the sidelines of the Conference, Pavan Duggal, Advocate, Supreme Court of India; President, Cyberlaws.Net; President, Cyberlaw Asia; Member, .org Advisory Council, spoke to Tejinder Singh, Editor-in-Chief of New Europe about his experience and vision on the subject.

Q.

The guidelines adopted at the Conference are voluntary for ISPs and law enforcement, and are intended to be a set of best practices to supplement a particular country’s existing laws against cybercrime. Do you find these enough to face the growing menace of cybercrime?

A.

The guidelines adopted at the conference are a very interesting way to deal with the emerging menace of cybercrime. Considering the fact that different countries across the world have different national legislations that impact cyber crimes in one way or the other, it is extremely important to come across a common platform of understanding which should encapsulate the best practices pertaining to cooperation and sharing of information between the law enforcement agencies and the network service providers.

In this regard, the guidelines that have been approved at the conference are a tremendous move forward. The said guidelines are the repository of all prevailing international best practices pertaining to cooperation between law enforcement agencies and the Internet service providers.

Although these are voluntary in nature, these become the starting point for developing a healthy cooperative relationship between the police and the network service providers. The said guidelines cover in detailed and minute manner, the various nuances that are essential for a healthier relationship between the law enforcement agencies and the service providers.

I personally see the guidelines adopted at the conference as a great step forward and subsequent attempts will only try to better the existing body of knowledge that has been so encapsulated in the best practices that have been so encapsulated in the said guidelines.

Q.

What are the legislative avenues available to law enforcement officials to tackle cyber crime?

A.

There are various legislative avenues that are available to law enforcement officials to tackle cybercrimes. The said legislative avenues depend upon nation to nation and depend upon the various prevailing laws that have been so legislated and prevailing at the relevant time in the concerned national jurisdictions. For example, to take the case of India, India has got a distinct law relating to the electronic environment which has detailed provisions on various cyber crimes and the punishments of the same.

Q.

Being a cross-border crime, what do you see the future at the global level?

A.

The future belongs to Cybercrime. The last decade has shown that while technology has developed on a neck breaking speed, the law is invariably behind technology when it comes to regulating cyber crime. That explains the reason why, despite having the best of intentions, nations are not able to keep abreast. Their existing laws are still not able to tackle cybercrime and the cutting edge level. In the coming times, I have reason to believe that cybercrime is going to grow extremely rapidly, who will become extremely sophisticated and will become far more pervasive in the relevant years.

Q.

According to some experts, France, UK and US have good legislation while rest of the world including rest of Europe is still struggling to get a hold on the situation? How do you see the progress being made in this sector?

A.

The progress in the area of having appropriate national legislations to regulate cybercrime has been very erratic. There have been some nations which have come across with good legislations to prevent and regulate cyber crimes. However the vast majority of the nations still have no clue on how to effectively deal with cyber crimes. I think the progress in this area, progress will also be in fits and starts. We are not likely to have a uniform trend of all countries simultaneously coming up with good legislations to cover cyber crimes.

Q.

India, a vibrant democracy and open society is on a fast track to the Virtual World. How do you perceive the Indian government handling the situation arising out of this?

A.

The Indian government has been alive to the need for regulating various kinds of kinds of cyber crimes. Despite the fact that the Indian Information Technology Act 2000 is an ecommerce enabling legislation, still the Indian government inserted various provisions concerning different cyber crimes and the punishment in order to effectively regulate emerging cyber crimes in India.

Various provisions concerning different cyber crimes were inserted in the Indian Information Technology Act 2000. The cyber crimes covered include the offence of hacking, damage to computer source code, publishing obscene electronic information, breach of protected system, breach of confidentiality and misuse of Digital Signature certificates.

Q.

Indian police are still considered a baton-wielding, tobaccochewing and rough-handling force so how do you see it coming to grips with cybercrime?

A.

This is one of the big challenge areas. It is true that the Indian police has to change itself radically in order to come to grips with cybercrime. A majority of people in the Indian police do not even have knowledge of computers and their functionality.

Under the Indian cyberlaw, since cyber crimes are perceived to be specialised crimes, they can only be investigated by police officer not below rank of a Deputy Superintendent of police.

However, practical experience has shown that DSPs invariably do not have the time to investigate cyber crimes. It is high time that the Government comes up with a dedicated budget on creating more awareness and training on cybercrimes.

Q.

As you are actively involved at domestic level in the prosecution of Cybercrime, please give some examples of how it was tackled and what you expect in future?

A.

I am involved on a very active level at the domestic level in India. I was the counsel for the complainant in India’s first cyber crime conviction that took place in 2003. This is a case where my client was a big multi-national electronics company and on its own website, a call centre executive had misused the credit card number of an American lady who had no knowledge of the transaction. The Central Bureau of Investigation registered the case of the complainant and thereafter arrested the call centre executive, who was convicted for online cheating. Thereafter there has been only one the conviction pertaining to cyber crime in India.

Q.

Moreover, how these experiences can be shared at global level?

A.

The experiences of India can be shared on a global level. India can also become a model leader, if it comes up with adequate and effective provisions which are a deterrent against the commission of cyber crimes. In addition, these experiences can be shared at the global level for developing countries, who have not enacted any cyber laws, and/or laws on cyber crimes in order to not reinvent the wheel but leapfrog keeping in mind the experiences of nations like India in regulating cybercrimes.

Q.

What are your recommendations to Indian federal and state governments when it comes to dragging their feet while making legislation on this subject?

A.

My recommendation to the Indian federal and state governments is that India as a nation needs to act very fast when it comes to the area of the regulating cyber crimes. In India, it will be imperative to have an appropriate dedicated legislation specifically dedicated to cyber crime, which should supplement the Indian Penal Court.

Q.

How vulnerable we are today in the growing social technical world?

A.

We today are extremely vulnerable in the growing social technical world. The Web 2.0 phenomenon has brought in social networking as the norm of the day. People are getting onto the social networking bandwagon without any application of mind and without thinking the potential consequences of revealing all their personal information on such networks. If people today are not careful about placing their personal information on the Internet, they may have to repent for a lifetime for the same. Unfortunately people have no clue about what kinds of information is being targeted and misused by Cyber criminals. People need to be extremely careful about the dangers of Internet as they emerge.

Q.

How has your experience been enhanced by attending this Council of Europe Conference on Cybercrime?

A.

The Octopus Conference on Cybercrime organised by the Council of Europe has been a unique learning opportunity. The quality of speakers, the variety of subjects covered and the depth of the discussion that has taken place, has been remarkable and the said conference has immensely increased enhanced my perspectives on various nuances of different emerging cyber crimes and its related trends across the world.

This conference has provided not just an opportunity to listen and interact with the best minds working in this area but also has provided a platform to share about the ongoing developments pertaining to Cybercrime legislation that exists in India.

This conference has also enabled me to update the members of the world community about the various developments that are taking place in India pertaining to regulation and prevention of Cybercrime.

All said and done, this conference has been an excellent opportunity for learning, interaction and more importantly for expanding the midstream horizons and discussing about newlyemerging trends and thought processes concerning cyber crime across the world.