Illegal immigration, procurement of fictitious visas

Although Estonia's joining the Schengen zone at the end of 2007 did not bring along a sudden rise in illegal immigration to Estonia, there were more cases in 2009 where citizens of risky countries tried to come to Estonia in different illegal ways in order to travel to other EU states from here. In 2009 there were 8 incidents with more than 100 Afghans who were detained when arriving in Estonia from Russia or via Latvia and who planned to go to Western Europe, first of all to Sweden and Finland. They are mostly economic immigrants but there can also be individuals related to radical Islamic groups, eg. Taliban.

During the past two years there has been a growing tendency to use different fraudulent practices to procure an Estonian visa. For example, in 2009 there were several cases when some goods were found via the Interest which a person claimed to purchase in Estonia. The person promised to pay for the goods in cash on the spot and in order to enter Estonia, an invitation letter for visa was needed from the seller. It is also a continuing practice to take advantage of naive women whom one meets on the Internet or on a holiday trip in order to get to Estonia. It is also known that some citizens of risky countries show interest in finding women in Estonia who would agree to conclude a fictitious marriage for money.