Belgium+SFAR

JoEllen Marsh, //Writing For Intelligence 1 November 2009 //

=Illegal Immigration ** And Organized Crime Will Likely Continue To Affect Illicit Drugs And Sex Trafficking In Belgium **=

It is likely many of Belgium's transnational problems developed to the high number of illegal immigrants and the presence of foreign organized crime rings. Overall, it is likely the movement of people, drugs and sex workers from Belgium into other EU states will continue to pose transnational problems. Belgium is a center for the transportation of illicit drugs including marijuana, cocaine, heroine and hashish into Western Europe[|.] Belgium's lenient residency requirements and a recently enforced immigration law will likely pose problems for neighboring countries attempting to keep out immigrants. The poor quality of conditions and treatment of foreign workers likely affects drug use among immigrants and causes women and underage children to enter prostitution.
 * Executive Summary: **

Organized crime, most often related to transportation of illicit drugs, is prevalent in Belgium due to its location in the middle of Europe, its large ports (including Antwerp) and the political and corporate interests centered in Brussels. Several Russian, Italian, Bulgarian and Albanian organized crime families have branches in Belgium. The main Italian crime organizations are Cosa Nostra from Sicily and Camorra from Naples[|.] However, it is likely organized crime is either not a very large issue or the public is not concerned with it, as the Belgian government has not issued a large-scale official inquiry into organized crime since 1996. ** In 2008, Belgian customs officials seized over 2 million counterfeit pills, one of the biggest shipments recorded in Europe that year, headed from India to Africa[|.] ** **Drugs are an issue for illegal immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers living in poor conditions in Belgium[|.] **
 * Discussion: **


 * The issue of illegal imm ** **igrants ****<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">moving to Belgium for work will highly likely be a long term problem due to the country's declining population. According to the Belgian National Institute **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">[[image:http://www.euronews.net/images_old/09/W300px_1609-mat-belgique.jpg width="330" height="183" align="left" caption="An illegal immigrant filing for permanent residency in Belgium. Under the new law, immigrants may gain legal status if they prove they can integrate into society. Source: Euronews" link="http://www.euronews.net/images_old/09/W300px_1609-mat-belgique.jpg"]] **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">o ****<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">f ****<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Statistics, foreigners (including legal residents) make up approximately 8.3 percent of the 1 ****<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">0.4 million peop ****<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">le living in Belgiu ****<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">m, with the largest nu **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"> **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">mber of non-European foreigners originating in Morocco[|.] A Belgian study on labor force trends in Europe predicted it will decline .47 p ****<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">ercent annually, an **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"> **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">a ****<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">ggreg ****<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">ate growth o ****<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">f -7 ****<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">.19 between 2005 and 2025[|.] ****<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">The country's newest immigration law, which calls **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"> **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">f **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"> **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">or regularization of immigrants who **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"> **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">have "sufficiently **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"> **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">integrated" into Belgian **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"> **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">s **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"> **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">ociety, is an attempt by the government at improving humanitarian conditions for foreign workers [|.]** **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">However, relatively few **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"> **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">immigran **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"> **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">ts **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"> **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">took advantage of this when the government enacted the law on 16 September 2009, likely because the l **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"> **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">aw requires immigrants to **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"> **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">produce documents from **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"> **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">employer **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"> **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">s who prefer to pay in cash and not record their workers[|.] ****<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Opening up legal opportunities for immigrants to move to Belgium makes it less necessary for immigrants to turn **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"> **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">to organized crime groups to smuggle them into t **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"> **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">he country (Julie Kaizen, Walter Nonneman. "Irregular Migration in Belgium and Organized Crime: An Overview." International Migration, 2007). **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Belgium's neighbors complain ****<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"> Belgium's residency requirements, which are leaner than most other European Union co **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"> **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">untries, allow aliens to gain bypass stricter residency requirements and gain legal entry to other EU states after living in Belgium. ****<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">In 2002, the Belgian government granted 4,415 family reunification passes **[|.]**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Web sites aimed at helping immigrants reunite with their families refer to this simply as the "EU route." A guide titled "Handbook for the Belgian route" gave immigrants practical tips and detailed information on Belgian policies. ****<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">In January 2006, Belgium made an agreement with the Netherlands to limit the loopholes in the immigration system **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"> [|.]<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">By allowing greater numbers of **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"> **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">immigrants, the Belgium government does not solve deeply rooted problems with xenophobia and Islamophobia **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"> [|.]**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">These problems cause issues in the political arena and in small-scale racist crimes, but few reports of terrorist crime in 2009 appear in searches of country news sources. The European Agency for Fundamental Rights reported 1,289 cases of racist crime in Belgium in 2007[|.] ** **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">These crimes most often occur within immigrant communities[|.] ****<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"> According to Janes, there ****<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"> are no active terrorist groups in Belgium ****<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"> [|.]**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"> **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">The Belgian government stopped several Islamic extremist plots attempting to strike Belgium and take advantage of the lack of border controls on land routes and ineffective airport border controls in 2007 and 2008[|.] ****<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"> According to the EU Terrorism and Situation Trend Report, the Belgian government arrested 17 Islamic terrorist suspects in 2008 **[|.]
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">[[image:prostituees.jpg width="385" height="256" align="right" caption="The large prostitution market in Belgium creates opportunities for human trafficking and prostitution rings. Source: Knack.be" link="http://knack.rnews.be/cmp/72/77/29001/-article.html"]]Another issue experts trace back to illegal immigration and organized crime is sex trafficking. Over 30,000 legal prostitutes work in Belgium, creating a large market which becomes the target o ****<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">f illegal prostitution and human trafficking rings[|.] Approximately 70 percent of prostitutes in Belgium are from Bulgaria, but these rings often take women and girls from other Eastern European countries and ****<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">North Africa[|.]<span class="wiki_link_ext"> International Organization for Migration spokesperson Mathieu Luciano said, "Among EU member states, Belgium is one of the top destinations for victims of trafficking. It is also one of the main countries used for the transit of sex workers<span class="wiki_link_ext">. **[|"]**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">The 2002 Brussels Declaration on Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Human Beings lays out extensive guidelines for reducing sex trafficking, and warns EU countries not to confuse prevention techniques for sex trafficking with those used in general immigration issues **[|.] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"> ****<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Analytic confidence for this assessment is //medium.// Source reliability ranges from medium to high. There was little conflict among sources. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;"> **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">The analyst did not use any structured analytical methods for this assessment. The analyst had a low level of expertise, however the analyst did work with a team of three analysts who concentrated their efforts in Western Europe. The subject matter was moderately complex but there was adequate time to compile research and to analyze the issue. **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Analytic Confidence:

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">For questions or comments, please contact the author: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">JoEllen Marsh **


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