Governments are reluctant to admit to their existence, let alone permit entry to the camps; a reporter was denied access to centers in Greece and the Canary Islands of Spain; under the government of Silvio Berlusconi, Italy barred even the United Nations refugee agency from its center on the Italian island of Lampedusa. The current prime minister, Romano Prodi, allowed the agency in.
The camps are concentrated along Europe's eastern and southern borders, while a large swathe of them runs east-west through Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Germany, according to Migreurop, a network of researchers and lawyers that has mapped the phenomenon.
Läs mer: Obscurity and confinement for asylum-seekers and illegal i
mmigrants in Europe - International Herald Tribune