Illegal immigrants, captured by Ukrainian border guards while trying to cross into Europe, queue for breakfast in a detention camp 
Posted on 12/16/2007 10:32:32 AM PST by BGHater
The deputy commander of the European Union's new border post was anxious. "Is the camera switched on?" he whispered to his colleagues. Heads shook. "Sort it out," he ordered them quietly, not realising he was being overheard.
An officer hurried down a corridor of the small brick building, on the frontier between Hungary and Ukraine, to switch on a television monitor and look busy.
Moments later, as The Sunday Telegraph was escorted into his office, he was in front of his screen, panning the camera across the drab Hungarian countryside, apparently searching for illegal immigrants attempting to sneak in from the east.
But the logbook at his elbow showed that the last shift had finished hours earlier and no one was on duty now.
This is the reality of Europe's new eastern frontier, 1,800 miles long, from Estonia in the north to Slovenia in the south. From Friday, it will be the only line of defence against tens of thousands of would-be immigrants drawn inexorably towards the EU every year.
Under rules which take effect on Friday, anyone inside this frontier will be able to travel between countries without having to show a passport.
Hungary, Poland and other countries that became EU members in 2004 are joining the "Schengen" area, within which there are no internal border controls.
There will no longer be checks on anyone entering Germany and Austria from the east. And although Britain is not within the zone, illegal immigrants will be free to roam all the way to the French side of the Channel.
The intention is to make it easier for European citizens to move around, but word has spread quickly to those dreaming of a new life in the West.
Somalis, Afghans, Iraqis, Mongolians, Georgians and Kosovan Serbs and Albanians are beating a path to the border, eager to try their luck.
They do so with good reason. Beregsurany sits on a short, fenced section of the border, about 175 miles east of Budapest. Last week, a line of cars waited to be searched by the guards and customs officers. But only the naive try to get in this way.
Most illegal immigrants cross in the surrounding countryside, often at night. The border here is an undulating landscape of fields and thick birch forest, mostly unfenced.
Many make it across, with Hungarian officials estimating that less than a third of those who try to enter illegally are intercepted.
Local residents have become accustomed to seeing small groups of dishevelled immigrants resting in their gardens.
Martha Varga, who runs the village shop in Beregdaroc, two miles from the main crossing point, said: "I don't think it's hard for them to get across the border. We saw a group of Afghans caught in someone's back yard a month ago."
With the new rules on the way, more and more are trying to get in.
Zoltan Toth, deputy commander of the guards at Beregsurany, said that of the 166 people stopped in the past 10 months, 70 had been picked up in the previous three weeks. Most said they wanted to go to Britain, Germany, Italy or Spain.
Those caught regard it as only a temporary setback. At a detention centre in nearby Nyirbator, Adrian Caldico, 24, was waiting with his mother and sister to be returned to Kosovo.
He was determined to join his father and brother, who had gone to Austria. "I will try again," he said. "Sooner or later I will get through and then I'll be able to go anywhere I like."
The three were sharing a room in the centre, which was built to hold up to 150 people, although only 20 were in residence last week. Security is minimal. Later that day, there was no sign of Mr Caldico or his sister.
Gabor Tolnai, the head of the centre, said: "People try again, without a doubt. It is quite possible that they will get through." He had not seen anyone brought back to the centre a second time. "But the law says we have to stop them," he said, and shrugged.
The camera, mounted low on a radio mast above the border post, is the first line of defence, supplemented by a mobile camera mounted on the roof of a van.
The guards were eager to demonstrate the cameras, zooming in on small objects and switching to infra-red mode. "Look," said the operator, Sandor Kiss, pointing to a small blob moving on the edge of the forest. "A rat."
But the guards' task is enormous. The fixed camera can monitor no more than 10 of the 16 miles of border in that sector, and operators admit that much of the border is obscured by trees or high ground.
Guards pull over occasional vehicles for checks. But on a cold December day, many stayed in their EU-bought cars as a stream of vehicles sped west, away from the border.
In the shop in Beregdaroc, George Kiss, 52, a nightwatchman, said it was a far cry from the days when Soviet electric fences sealed the border. "Illegal immigrants are coming day and night," he said. "They are just coming and coming and coming."
Illegal immigrants, captured by Ukrainian border guards while trying to cross into Europe, queue for breakfast in a detention camp
Europe is so screwed.
Yeah, those border guards look so professional and well paid. I am sure bribes won’t be a problem.
This is do idiotic, it must be happening by design. The West is eager to destroy itself as payback for imagined “crimes”. Either that and/or they are looking for cheap labor and the EU is just too far for Mexicans to swim to.
Same here. At this point, it is by design. No other explanation.
“Europe is so screwed.”
So are we here in the USA.
When you have a judge ruling that an ILLEGAL didn’t commit a crime
by employing Identity Theft to gain employment.
(I guess ID Theft is a crime...but getting a job as a result of
the ID theft is not.)
Newport couple faces taxes on income never earned
(IRS and Illegals on ID theft )
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1939547/posts
the real kicker from the article about one of the Identity Thieves:
“...Valdez avoided the identity-theft charge because a judge ruled
that it was not a crime to use someone’s identity to obtain employment.”
Over there over there
Send the word, send the word over there
That the immigrants are coming, the immigrants are coming,
The drums rum-tumming ev’rywhere
So prepare say a pray’r
Send the word, send the word to beware
We’ll be over, we’re coming over,
And we won’t come back till it’s over over there!
The “New Border” line looks amazingly similar to the August ‘41 Front line.
Yeah, those border guards look so professional and well paid. I am sure bribes won’t be a problem.
The EU govt is really stupid if they depend on East european guards for border protection.
in the last 2 years the EU has invested 500 million euros to help to secure these new borders.
Fascinating, informative, timely. Thanks for posting. Very interesting topic.
IF GWB has his way, that's exactly what's going to be our fate!! I would say, "God help us", but we've pushed Him out of America and I don't expect Him to help us any more!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.