Belgium expels illegal immigrants from Taiwan

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32971, 18 July 1972, Page 21

Belgium expels illegal immigrants from Taiwan

(From

HOWARD WILLIAMS

in Brussels.)

Belgian police have ordered a strengthening on immigration controls after the expulsion of more than 100 Chinese illegal immigrants, mainly living in the port area of Antwerp. The expulsions followed a series of police raids on Chinese restaurants in the area which led to the detention of 99 Qiinese immigrants and the later expulsion of 89 of them. Within days of the raids, another group of 12 Chinese were turned back at Antwerp airport. All the people expelled or refused entry had forged papers, claim the police, and had not obtained permission to enter the country as immigrants. The police have asked Interpol, the international police organisation, to help them track down a mysterious “agent” in Europe. The agent, it is claimed, works for a Hong Kong organisation which has specialised in placing Chinese workers throughout Europe. Most of the illegal immigrants found in Belgium came from Nationalist China (Taiwan) and could not speak any European languages. The Belgian authorities believe that the immigrants are employed on virtually slave labour terms by ruthless restaurateurs making small fortunes from the European popularity of Chinese cuisine.

At least five Chinese restaurants in the Antwerp region alone have been closed down as a result of police raids. These raids followed an anonymous tip, probably from a disgruntled restaurant employee who also alleged that many of the immigrants were paying for their fares to Europe by smuggling in drugs. Although the police have so far been unable to sub-

stantiate this allegation, they : are still treating it seriously. . Staging post This is the first time in recent years that Belgium has suffered from the illegal trafficking of Asian immigrants, even though the country has been used as a “staging post” for Indians and Pakistanis seeking illegal entry into Britain. The Pakistanis were, and ' still are, brought by overland route to the Belgian coast ' from where they travelled ' by small aircraft or boat to ' England’s south coast in the dark of night. The Chinese came in grea- 1 ter comfort: by scheduled ; airlines. The main difference be- : tween the two operations, i apart from the means of transport, was that the Chinese entered Belgium 1 openly with forged docu-

meats while the Pakistanis and Indians were smuggled into England in the hope that they would not be discovered. The authorities have discounted all possibilities that the smuggling of the Chinese and of the Pakistanis and Indians might be a combined operation. For a start, the two ethnic groups usually cannot tolerate each other. And, more important to the authorities, the organisations behind the two operations are totally different. The Chinese operation is based on a highly efficient system of forgery while the Pakistanis and Indians often fail to reach even the Belgian coast because they are transported from their homelands by dilapidated minibuses incapable of making the overland journey.