Migrant workers

Labour Education 2002/4 No. 129: Today immigration, once a favourite issue covered by labour ministries, falls under the competence of ministries of the interior or of justice. This short-sighted political approach, combined with the closure of borders, has achieved precisely the opposite of what it set out to do. And should we really be surprised? The nations in the West have as many holes in their fortress walls as Swiss cheese. Migrant workers are today at the mercy of mafia like groups specializing in human traffi cking, and the security forces appear to be conceding that they are powerless to stop them.