CHARM OFFENSIVE - Orient Aviation

m a i n s t o r ytors, has been aware of the issue for sometime and has taken steps to help its membercarriers. Commerical director, Carlos Chua, saidthe association issued an audio-visual CD-ROMtraining package in 1998. It includes examplesof good and bad documents, how they arecounterfeited and briefings on where documentsare made and trends in illegal immigration.Many airlines have used the package.Singapore Airlines bought 40 copies to usein training programmes at its headquartersand outstations.“Illegals try to penetrate the region’s airlinesevery day and the costs are very steep,”said Chua. “We cannot rest easy after a certaintrend is caught because the criminal forces arealways one step ahead of us. They are veryadept at changing their modus operandi.”The AAPA has fraud prevention andfacilities working groups that address the issueand the association is in ongoing negotiationswith government and immigration authoritiesfrom target countries to resolve issues arisingfrom human trafficking, particularly levels ofairline responsibility.While airlines are held responsible forillegal passengers they are faced with animpossible situation, said Davidson. “Todaywe are seeing fraudulent documents of suchhigh quality that forensic laboratories oftenhave to spend hours to determine whether adocument is genuine or counterfeit.”“There has been a significant changefrom what we saw 10 years ago when mostaltered documents were rather amateurish.Now we are seeing documents that are beingproduced in garages and back room printingshops that equal the quality of those issuedby the various states,” he said.Not only do most countries imposefines on airlines for arriving in a port with apassenger not carrying proper documentation,carriers also are made to pay the detentioncosts and return transport of the individualto their point of origin.These costs can be high, said Qantas’sLong. When someone seeking asylum iscaught coming off a flight he or she is placedin detention until government authoritiesmake a decision on their bona fides. In theU.S., Australia and elsewhere, they can beheld for weeks, months or even a year andthe airline has to cover the cost.Conservatively, estimates IATA, airlineshave paid $250 million in fines since 1991, butwhen the cost of detention, return transportViability’s fine lineHow can a few illegal travellersthreaten the viability of an airline’sroutes? IATA’s assistant director facilitation,Bob Davidson, explained:“Many aviation routes are thin andsometimes used simply to justify otherroutes in the area or maybe to justify theuse of an aircraft. But the profit marginswithin the airline business are generallymuch lower than other recognised commercialenterprises.“If you are in a market where yourload factor or the number of seats you areselling is not significantly high, or if thereis downward pricing pressure so yourfares are lower and therefore your yieldper seat is lower, it does not take toomany fines to impact the bottom line.“If the airline is fined US$2,000 perindividual for incorrect documentationThe airport viewAlthough illegals embark and disembark aircraft at airports and their documentationis checked by airline staff, security officials and immigration authorities at theairports, the airport authorities themselves are seldom involved, said Airports CouncilInternational (ACI) director general, Jonathan Howe.“In physical terms airports are only involved as the facility through which these illegalimmigrants are moved,” said the ACI chief. “If someone is taken into custody by lawenforcement or immigration officials, they are held temporarily before being moved todetention centres or holding facilities outside the airport.“In practical terms it is almost entirely an issue between the airlines and the variousgovernment and immigration authorities.”People trafficking for the airports “was not an issue brought to the attention of theACI by its members requiring any form of action”, said Howe.and you have just one a day over a 30-day month that is $60,000. That amountof money could erase the profit entirelyfrom that market.“If you wish to continue in that marketand try to enhance your ability to keepthe individuals off the aircraft, you maybe forced to hire a specialised securityfirm to conduct document verification atcheck-in and boarding. But that equatesto a significant additional expense thatmay make that route unprofitable. It maytip the balance.“In some markets, where yields arehistorically low, if you are suddenly facedwith the problem of illegal migrantsand political asylum seekers coming offa flight airlines have to decide if thatroute is still viable for them on a commercialbasis.”and counter-measures is added to the bill thefigures rises to more than $1 billion.That sum may be significantly higher becausethere is no collated official airline dataon fines and costs for illegal immigrants asmany airlines will not talk about the issue.However, airlines were shocked at a Junedecision by the European Commission thatapproved a directive to all member statesmandating the imposition of fines againstairlines for persons arriving without properdocumentation in the European Union (EU).Aimed at harmonising action againstthe flood of illegal aliens, the directive givescountries the option of imposing fines onairlines of between 3,000 Euros (US$2,610)and 5,000 Euros ($4,350) for each arrivingillegal or, alternatively, a fine of up to 500,000Euros ($435,000) per incident, regardless ofthe number of illegal travellers on board anaircraft.IATA is lobbying the EU to have the directivedropped or at least adjusted to include arider that airlines can avoid the penalty if theydemonstrate they took all reasonable steps tocheck passenger documentation. Davidsonsaid the European move shows countries arebeginning to believe there is nothing they cando about the problem.“Instead, they are looking to place more ofthe cost burden on airlines,” he said.Of course, not all illegal immigrants moveby air. Many are transported by sea or overland.In Europe, large numbers of them fromsuch places as China and the Balkans, arrive byroad or sea. The U.S. faces a constant overlandinvasion from Mexico. However, in the Asia-Pacific air travel is traditionally the main routefor the smugglers of human cargo.In Australia in 1998-99 there were 926unauthorised arrivals by sea and 2,106 by air.In 1999-2000 there was an explosion in boatarrivals, to 4,174, with 1,694 arriving by air. In2000-01 it is understood around 1,500 illegals20 | Orient Aviation | September 2001