Facilitated Irregular Migration Towards Scandinavia, Central and Western Europe via Estonia in the Period of 2008–2013

Facilitated illegal immigration is driven, to a large degree, by factors external to the EU and is not expected to decreasein the near future. The EU will remain an attractive destination for irregular migrants providing organised crime with a large poolof potential clients. Russia and Estonia are located on the Eastern transit route for irregular migration to Scandinavia and Centraland Western Europe. While in the period 2008–2009 the main modus operandi for irregular migration into Estonia was illegalborder crossings outside the official border crossing points and use of falsified or forged travel documents, since 2010 the abuseof legal visa system has increased. The forgery of identity and visa documents is an important tool used by organised crime in thisarea of crime. In 2013 approximately 62% of all irregular migration incidents detected by the border guard at all borders was relatedto misuse of the visa system, followed by incidents of illegal stay and illegal border crossing of the green border. The pressure onEstonian external land borders as well air borders will remain moderate. According to the typology of organised crime constellationsby Klaus von Lampe, facilitated irregular migration pertains either to criminal networks which rely on the social support structuresof an ethnic minority separate from society and its institutions, and those support structures are broader than their immediatecriminal environment, or the criminal networks that exist in mainstream society in a covert form that include seemingly law‑abidingindividuals who have no obstacles in the use of the legitimate social infrastructure. Vietnamese irregular migration is tightlyintertwined with transnational organised crime.