Essay from the year 2006 in the subject Politics - Topic: Public International Law and Human Rights, grade: 8,60/10,00, The Hague University (School for Higher European Studies), language: English, abstract: Illegal immigration is a current issue, which has received a lot of attention in the last years and is still hotly debated. The topic is omni present: I recently opened the paper and found an article at the margin of the page: Hundred refugees drowned in Moroccan waters. It briefly explained that a group of people boarded a boat in Senegal and planned to head to the Canaries to enter the European Union. Due to a storm, however, the boat shipwrecked, which resulted in 102 people missing and therefore assumed to be dead (Kleine Zeitung 2006). Incidents like this one can be read almost daily in the papers. The dream of a better life in the states of the European Union leads to the fact that thousands of people try to enter Europe. Since asylum requirements have been restricted in many states of the European Union, it has become more difficult to enter the European Union legally. Therefore, illegal immigrant smuggling and trafficking of human beings have moved onto the European agenda.