G-8 INTERIOR, JUSTICE MINISTERS DISCUSS TERRORISM, ILLEGAL MIGRATION IN MOSCOW
Anton Troianovski
AP Worldstream
Jun 15, 2006
The ministers of interior and justice of the Group of Eight member
countries on Thursday opened two days of talks on international
strategies to combat terrorism, Internet crime and illegal immigration.
Franco Frattini, the European Union’s justice and home affairs
commissioner, told reporters that he would propose that each EU and G-8
member state establish a central national unit to prevent cybercrime
in order to create "a real international network of cooperation."
Frattini said he would also discuss new measures to combat illegal
immigration, focusing on the countries where migrants start their
journeys as well as transit countries. He called the black labor market
"the most dangerous pull factor for illegal immigration to Europe."
Frattini said the EU had recently flown its first joint repatriation
flight out of Europe _ an Austrian-organized mission to return dozens
of Georgian and Armenian crime suspects to their home countries.
At the outset of Thursday’s meeting, Russian presidential chief of
staff Sergei Sobyanin called illegal immigration a pressing problem
for G-8 member countries.
"Uncontrolled and illegal migration is fraught with significant side
effects, and we are feeling this throughout the world," Sobyanin said,
according to the Interfax news agency.
"The criminalization of the labor market, a rise in interethnic tension
in society, shadow financial flow _ ultimately, these are serious
threats to the internal stability of all our countries," he said.
This week’s talks, held in advance of the G-8 summit in St.
Petersburg next month, will also focus on the financing of terrorism.
Frattini said that within 12 months the EU would enact limits on
moving more than A10,000 (US$12,600) in cash through Europe, and
noted that the European Council had approved "in principle" plans on
the traceability of public and private financial transactions.
Frattini spoke to reporters before a bilateral meeting with U.S.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, with whom he planned
to negotiate a new agreement on providing passenger data to the U.S.
after the EU’s highest court found problems with the current agreement.
Frattini also called on the U.S. Congress to expand the country’s
visa waver program to all EU member countries.
"The Congress of the United States is thinking about extending step
by step _ I mean first to Poland and then we will see," Frattini
said. "It would be very much preferable for us to have a road map
for all new member states."