Fine Gael MEP calls for setting up of EU coastguard

A European coastguard is the only way to combat the rapid increase in cigarette smuggling, now valued at about €1 billion a year, according to the Fine Gael MEP, Mr John Cushnahan.

Increases in trafficking of people, arms and drugs also highlighted the need for a common security system at sea, the MEP has said. He called on the new Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, to support the concept, and has sent him a copy of a detailed proposal he has drawn up for the Convention on Europe.

Justice and home affairs ministers in the EU are due to meet today to consider the problems of illegal immigration, trafficking and crime.

The Munster MEP, who is an advocate of an EU coastguard system similar to that in the US, said that failure to tackle the problems is fuelling support for political extremism in the EU.

Recent successes of such "racist and xenophobic politicians" as Jörg Haider, leader of the Freedom Party in Austria, and Jean-Marie Le Pen in France, hinge on exploitation of genuine concerns about growth in illegal immigration and a significant increase in crime, he said.

"The only effective way of successfully tackling these problems is through a co-ordinated EU response in a number of areas," Mr Cushnahan said, stressing that a land-based security approach is not sufficient.

He also cited major pollution disasters, breaches of maritime safety involving huge loss of life and the policing demands of the EU's Common Fisheries Policy.

"In December, 2001, the bodies of eight Romanian refugees were found in a cargo container in Rosslare, Co Wexford, while in the English port of Dover, 58 Chinese illegal immigrants died in a hermetically-sealed refrigerated lorry.

"Some of the routes used by these gangs are via boats from Albania, Tunisia or Morocco into southern Europe; from Sarajevo airport via Croatia and Slovenia into Italy and Austria; or overland starting from Istanbul and often ending up in Germany", Mr Cushnahan said.

"Recently, a new route from Russia into Finland has emerged."

The meeting of justice and home affairs ministers "is an opportune time to consider how best we can tackle all these problems in a uniform way", Mr Cushnahan said.

"I believe the establishment of an EU coastguard along the lines of the US coastguard would be the most effective way of doing that", he concluded.