BBC News Online: Despatches

Refugees raise security concerns for Europe

The meeting in Rome of police chiefs and security officials from Turkey and six European union countries to discuss ways of dealing with the influx of Kurdish refugees to Italy underlines a new and developing security challenge to the more affluent countries of western Europe. This report from our Defence Correspondent Jonathan Marcus:

Long considered an essentially economic or social phenomenon, immigration is increasingly being viewed by many of the more wealthy countries as a major security concern. Italy's problems are a case in point.

In March of last year the Italian authorities faced a wave of Albanian refugees fleeing from the political chaos at home. Now, it is again Italy that is the destination for Kurdish refugees drawn by what they see as the promise of a better life in western Europe.

Collecting and accomodating refugees is often a job where only the military can help out. But this latest refugee crisis is seen by many planners as a pointer to much greater difficulties that may lie ahead.

The ending of the Cold War and the fragmentation of so much of the former Communist World, has left many relatively poor, and sometimes unstable countries, with highly porous borders. It's a problem that has domestic political as well as diplomatic and humanitarian aspects.

Right-wing opposition in Italy to the influx of Albanian refugees was an important lever in encouraging the Italian government to play a key role trying to shore up Albania's crumbling state by sending in a multi-national military force. It is Europe's long southern flank that is the focus of the problem.

The extreme right-wing National Front party in France owes its success to its ability to play upon the fear of immigration. And its leaders point to the violence in Algeria as a potential source for a new exodus of refugees, highlighting the sensitivity of this issue for the French Government.

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