If nothing else it will help us to meet our removal targets

If nothing else it will help us to meet our removal targets.”The Government is anxious to give employers more opportunities to fill skill shortages by legally hiring foreign staff. An overseas advertising campaign will attempt to lure up to 350,000 specialist workers to Britain.Lord Rooker said: “We have to advertise and let people know that we have ways into this country to work to meet our skills shortages in a more upfront way than before. We want people to avoid the traffickers.”The purge on illegal working comes as concerns grow about the extent to which smuggling gangs are exploiting weak border controls in Balkan countries to bring people illegally into the European Union and on to Britain, where some are forced to work in brothels and sweatshops. Lord Rooker said Britain was “extremely concerned” about the Balkan route.Britain is to set up a network of immigration intelligence officers across the region to investigate the activities of organised gangs who are smuggling people into Britain from Turkey, Kosovo and the Middle East.A team of senior British immigration officials has also been posted to Bosnia to set up controls at borders which are leaking up to 50,000 illegal immigrants a year to Western Europe. The British team has requested the help of military helicopters for border patrols.Intelligence reports suggest that Turkish and Chinese criminal gangs are working together to transport migrants to Britain through Bosnia and Yugoslavia..

How does “a little girl from the mountains of Norway” – Eva Joly’s description of herself – end up being named European of the Year?

How does “a little girl from the mountains of Norway” – Eva Joly’s description of herself – end up being named European of the Year?
It is a remarkable story, but then Ms Joly, 58, is a remarkable woman. Having arrived in France as an au pair, she went on to become one of the country’s most feared magistrates.Her latest accolade, voted for by readers of the European editions of Reader’s Digest, has been given for her work investigating corruption among some of the most rich and powerful people in France. It is a task she began eight years ago, aged 50.She helped to bring down Bernard Tapie (a corrupt businessman turned corrupt politician and football boss) and Roland Dumas (a former socialist foreign minister, convicted of taking bribes from France’s largest company).Her award is well timed. Eric Halphen, a magistrate who spent seven years investigating President Jacques Chirac’s party, resigned in frustration last week – suggesting the tide is now against the 562 investigating magistrates, or juges d’instruction, who lead all but the most straightforward criminal investigations in France. There are even suggestions from right-wing politicians and some senior members of the judiciary that it is time to abolish them.In an interview with The Independent – the only interview that she agreed to give in connection with her award – Ms Joly would not comment on Mr Halphen’s resignation directly, but said: “What we are seeing now is a change in the wind: a concerted attempt, by some politicians, by some in the press, by some in the judiciary, to try to persuade the people of France that their country is threatened, not by corrupt politicians or businessmen, but by the judges investigating corruption.”It is important to resist that campaign. Corruption is a threat to the values of democracy and freedom and equality, and especially equality before the law.”Ms Joly has said that an “ocean of corruption” existed in France until the early 1990s.

But she believes that “the few convictions that have been achieved have had an important, symbolic effect”. “The complete sense of impunity that existed 10 years ago has gone,” she said. “Younger generations of politicians think twice now before becoming involved in corruption.”Ms Joly said 95 per cent of corrupt practices in France have not been brought to court “But we should not just talk of France,” she said. “Look at Argentina, where billions of dollars have left the country illegally. Look at Italy, where the Prime Minister is trying to remove a judge who is investigating him.

Look at the Enron affair.”Corruption, like everything else, is a question of supply and demand The demand .. remains immense The supply remains immense. And the ease with which money can move across borders undetected makes it easier than ever to get away with it.”Ms Joly said the amountlaundered in the world each year for political corruption, terrorism, drugs, tax evasion and embezzlement is estimated at $1,000bn (£696bn), the equivalent of all the cash in circulation in the US.Gro Eva Forseth was 20 when she arrived in Paris to study French and work as an au pair in 1964. She married the eldest son of the family in which she worked. He studied to become a doctor; she worked as a secretary and studied law in the evenings. In 1993, after her two children had grown up, she became a member of a team of examining magistrates in Paris. Her husband died last year.Ms Joly believes her Norwegian origins have helped. She is not part of, or easily browbeaten by, France’s self- perpetuating ?tes.