Writing in the International Journal of Learning and Change, researchers explain how more than a million unauthorised immigrants and refugees entered Europe in 2015. Unfortunately, there are many delays facing those with a legitimate claim to seeking asylum. Many people are also rejected for a wide variety of reasons and various factors have encouraged many migrants to bypass the legal routes. They enter Europe and travel through it illicitly in land vehicles being smuggled across borders and into and through their chosen European country often without being noticed. This often ends tragically for many of those seeking a new life in another country as we have seen very recently in the news.
Aidas Vasilis Vasiliauskas and Ieva Meidut?-Kavaliauskien? of the General Jonas Žemaitis Military Academy of Lithuania, Virgilija Vasilien?-Vasiliauskien? and Margarita Marija Lietuvnik? of Vilnius Gediminas Technical University have looked at the economic costs of illegal immigration on European road freight transport companies operating in the corridor between France and the United Kingdom.
“Taking into consideration that road freight transport is the main mode of transport ensuring the functioning of logistics system in Europe, the consequences may surely be serious: disruption in the processes of supply, production and distribution, cargo delays or failures to arrive, interrupted factory operations, losing cooperation with clients,” the team writes. There is an ever-pressing need for the private and public sectors to work together to find a way to address the problem of illegal migrants. Solutions could save lives as well as reduce the detrimental effects on companies and their employees involved in freight between France and the UK.
Vasiliauskas, A.V., Vasiliene-Vasiliauskiene, V., Lietuvnike, M.M. and Meidute-Kavaliauskiene, I. ‘Risks of illegal migration and associated damage to transport companies. The case of the corridor France – UK’, Int. J. Learning and Change