BOAT PEOPLE IN THE BALTIC SEA<
Between autumn 1992 and spring 1995, approximately 1,200 boat people refugees entered Sweden via the Baltic sea. Most of them came via Estonia and Latvia.
So far, the Swedish authorities have shown hesitation in returning them to these countries. Neither Latvia nor Estonia have signed the Geneva Refugee Convention so far and can therefore not be considered as "safe third countries".
As a consequence, crossing the Baltic sea with the help of reckless smugglers and in often old and unseaworthy boats has become one of the last loopholes for migrants and refugees seeking protection and permanent residence permit in Sweden.
Under a recent Swedish law, "human smugglers" can now be sentenced to up to two years' imprisonment, and - what is more important - their boats may be seized by the Swedish state. As a result, smuggler organisations have begun putting migrants on old, defective boats that are towed out into the Baltic sea and then left to drift, leaving it to fate whether they will be discovered and their passengers saved by Swedish Coast Guard. Other migrants are dropped near the Swedish island of Gotland or the country's south eastern coast in rubber rafts by larger sea-going merchant ships.
According to Swedish police, smuggler organisations are charging up to 65,000 Swedish crowns per person for transport to Sweden.
Chronology of boat people arrivals
1992:
- 16 October: 20 refugees arrive at the coast of the Swedish island of Öland, from Kaliningrad.
26 October: A ship from Tallin with 47 refugees runs ashore near Stockholm.
14 December: 76 refugees reach the island of Fårö (near Gotland) from Riga.
1993:
- 20 January: A ship from Riga lands in Gotland with 391 (!) refugees on board.
23 January: A ship from Riga lands in Gotland with 81 refugees on board.
24 August: A merchant vessel from St Petersburg arrives in Kalix (Northern Sweden), with 13 refugees.
2 November: 28 refugees are dropped in rubber rafts outside the island of Gotska Sandö (near Gotland).
1994:
- 2 February: 54 refugees are transported from Latvia to Gotland.
20 February: 66 refugees arrive in Stockholm on board of the passenger ferry "Estonia", from Tallin. They had been smuggled into the ferry in freight containers.
6 June: 48 refugees reach the island of Fårö (near Gotland) with a fish trawler from Latvia.
25 September. A fish trawler from Latvia is stranded outside Gotland. 128 refugees reach land by swimming or in rubber-boats.
18 October: A Swedish air force plane discovers an unmanoeuvrable boat near the island of Öland. 2 Iraqi refugees are discovered on board.
8 November: A Russian vessel arrives in Karlskrona with 41 refugees.
18 November: 36 refugees in two rubber rafts are saved 10 km away from the southern Swedish coast (Smygehuk).
19 November: 2 rubber rafts with 36 refugees on board are discovered outside the port of Trelleborg.
16 December: Air force helicopters discover three rubber rafts with 63 refugees near the southern coast of Gotland. One refugee is dead.
1995:
Sources: Dagens Nyheter, 21.4.95, p. A6; our sources.
- 1 April: 43 refugees are discovered on a former Russian navy vessel drifting without power in the sea, south-east of Gotland.