The Economist UK - 10.08.2019

26 Europe The EconomistAugust 10th 2019

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authorities for fear of being registered in It-

aly. Under the eu’s so-called Dublin Regu-

lation, asylum-seekers are the responsibil-

ity of the first country to record their

presence. “Invisible migrants”, as Mr Schia-

vone calls them, try to slip unnoticed

through Italy to countries with more of

their compatriots, or to richer countries

with better job opportunities and welfare

provision. But even among those who are

registered in Italy, many still prefer to leave

for other eumember states.

That explains a second migrant flow

that has passed almost unnoticed: that of

the dublinati, as they are known in Italy.

These are migrants who were registered in

Italy, moved on to other eustates, were

picked up and returned to Italy.

At dusk, in the shadow of Rome’s hyper-

modern Tiburtina railway station, volun-

teers from another ngo, Baobab Experi-

ence, have just finished doling out food

from a makeshift soup-kitchen to scores of

Africans who are starting to bed down in

the open. There was until recently an en-

campment on a nearby disused bus park

where the migrants could pitch tents, but it

was broken up on Mr Salvini’s orders. Most

of the migrants are without papers. Some

have dodged registration. Others have

failed in their bid for asylum. Many are

heading north. But not all: one man, who

declined to give his name, said he had been

caught without papers in France and re-

turned to Italy. Andrea Costa of Baobab Ex-

perience says that in the previous 12

months the number of dublinati turning up

at the soup-kitchen has increased tenfold.

According to the eu, there were 6,351

transfers to Italy last year. But that was less

than a tenth of the number Italy was actual-

ly asked to take back. As Matteo Villa, of Ita-

ly’s Institute for International Political

Studies, wrote in an article for Politico, a

website, “Once migrants move to another

eucountry...it is very hard to send them

back.” Many go to ground after being

stopped. Officials in the country of arrival

(Italy, in this case) can use bureaucracy to

slow the process. And after six months the

migrants become the responsibility of

their new host state, giving a strong incen-

tive for foot-dragging.

According to Mr Salvini’s own ministry,

more than a quarter of a million immi-

grants who have entered the eusince 2015

through Italy (out of a total of around

480,000) have already been found in other

member states, having somehow managed

to cross borders ostensibly closed by

France, Austria and Switzerland. He and

other Italian politicians rail incessantly at

the Dublin regime, arguing that it places an

unfair burden on the eu’s frontier nations

and that what is needed is a comprehensive

system for the redistribution of migrants.

In fact, despite Mr Salvini’s rhetoric, the

“burden” is quietly shifting itself. 7

A

t most international borders the

authorities look for anything they

think smells fishy: drugs, weapons, ciga-

rettes or alcohol. In Norway they also look

for fish. This summer, Norwegians are

worrying that tourists are depleting their

crystal-clear waters and smuggling their

catch out of the country.

Popular prejudice says that the typical

fish-smuggler is a beer-bellied German.

But new statistics show that Ukrainians,

Czechs, Poles, Lithuanians and Belgians

are the true scoundrels. Border guards

seized eight tonnes of illegal catch from ve-

hicles driven by people from those coun-

tries in the first six months of this year.

Visitors to Norway are allowed to take

home 10kg of their catch (salmon, trout and

char are not counted), and double that if

they fish with a licensed tourist company.

The current bout of turistfisk activity, as the

phenomenon is known, suggests many are

going far past that limit. In recent weeks of-

ficials have caught dozens of cars and mo-

torhomes laden sometimes with 100kg or

more of fish, mainly cod.

Officials refuse to be drawn on whether

the smugglers are simply enthusiastic

holidaymakers, or part of a bigger racket.

But the fact that some of those caught in the

trawl have been exporting fillets ready for

consumption rather than fresh fish sug-

gests they may be organised, and are trying

to evade Norway’s systems of licences and

controls for commercial fishing.

In an attempt to stop the piscine flow,

spot-checks have increased, says Geir Pol-

lestad, a Centre Party mpand chairman of

the Norwegian parliament’s committee for

business and industry. Prosecutors have

also doubled the fines for smuggling.

Norwegians increasingly see tourists as

a problem, not a boon. Cruise ships bring

thousands to tiny villages at the heads of

hitherto pristine fjords. Nusfjord, in the

northern archipelago of Lofoten, has al-

ready set a limit of two tourist coaches a

day. “We’ve had enough of people coming

here and leaving nothing but shit and pol-

lution,” says one resident. A growing num-

ber of politicians support a tourist tax. The

idea would be to raise money while deter-

ring those tourists who strain infrastruc-

ture but spend no money. Now that tourists

are after precious Norwegian fish, perhaps

parliament will bite. 7

OSLO

Norway has had its fillet of

fish-smugglers

Fish-smuggling

Cod awful

There’s competition

C

ome november 1st, 17 of the 28 Euro-

pean commissioners, one per eumem-

ber state, will be thumbing through their

Rolodexes in search of their next job. (The

rest have either been nominated for anoth-

er term or won seats in the European Parlia-

ment.) Germany’s outgoing commissioner,

Günther Oettinger, has wasted no time. At

the end of July news broke that he had

founded a political-consulting firm in

Hamburg, where he plans to work after

leaving office.

Mr Oettinger’s foray into political con-

sulting has provided a test case for rules on

commissioners’ post-term activities,

which were recently revamped by the cur-

rent European Commission president,

Jean-Claude Juncker. The rules were tight-

ened after his predecessor, José Manuel

Barroso, who presided over the commis-

sion at the peak of the Greek sovereign-

debt crisis, accepted a non-executive role

at Goldman Sachs, an investment bank that

is said to have profited from disguising the

extent of Greece’s debt.

The passage leading from the Berlay-

mont building, the commission’s head-

quarters in Brussels, into political advisory

work for corporate clients is well-trodden.

One-third of the commissioners who

served during Mr Barroso’s second presi-

dential term took up lucrative positions at

corporate giants, including ArcelorMittal,

Volkswagen and Bank of America Merrill

Lynch. One of them, Neelie Kroes, a former

A consulting firm founded by an

outgoing commissioner tests the rules

Brussels jobs

All aboard the

gravy train