Illegal smuggling on the rise in Estonia

  • 2009-07-27
  • TBT staff
TALLINN- The Chief of the Russian Border Guarding Service, army General Vladimir Pronitshev chief of the Russian Border Guard has stated that both illegal immigration and the smuggling of drugs and alcohol have increased into Estonia.

Pronitshev reported that citizens of Afghanistan are prepared to pay 5,000 's 6,000 U.S. dollars to be able to escape the war in their home country and move to the European Union. Estonian border guards have caught citizens of Afghanistan who do not have the right to enter Estonia on the Koidula border crossing point.

Afghan nationals have also been apprehended on ships bound for Stockholm.

Estonian Minister of Internal Affairs MarkoPomerants said that Estoniais merely a stopping point and not a destination for illegal immigrants.