Finland may soon be able to deport illegal immigrants using joint flights of the European Union. The establishment of such flights would be a cost-saving measure, as chartered planes from Finland alone are often flown half empty.

   

An authority for guarding the EU's external borders is to be set up in 2005, and its duties are to include "the coordination of operations for the return of citizens of third countries".

   

This means that the countries of the EU could charter planes for the return of illegal immigrants from various EU countries back home. This would bring savings: chartered deportation flights from Finland alone are often left half full, whereas the situation in Central European countries is the opposite.

   

Last year Finland expelled 2,450 foreigners whose asylum applications had been rejected, or who had been deported for committing crimes, for instance.

In Central Europe thousands

more people are deported each year, and physical restraints are not uncommon. Even in Sweden deportees are sometimes forced to wear motorcycle helmets and strait jackets, lest they try to hurt themselves or officials in their desperation.

   

"Last year deaths have occurred in connection with deportations from Central Europe. There have been fights, in which mouths of shouting people have had to be gagged because they were shouting so loud", says Jaakko Heinilä, head of the foreigners' unit of the Helsinki police.

   

To prevent trouble up to two police officers serve as escorts for each deportee on a return flight.

The Finnish police

have been considering chartering private planes for deportations: in cases in which a deportee behaves aggressively, the captain of a scheduled passenger flight can refuse to allow the person on board if he or she might be considered a risk to other passengers.

   

"This might sound cruel, but we have to be realistic", Heinilä says.