The Independent: Ten Saudis seek asylum after princess is allowed to stayJuly 21, 2009
By Robert Verkaik, Home Affairs Editor
Chairman of home affairs committee welcomes decision to give sanctuary to woman with illegitimate child
Ministers are considering asylum applications for 10 Saudi Arabian nationals who claim they are at risk of persecution if they are forced to return to the Middle Eastern kingdom, it emerged last night.
The new cases were made public after The Independent revealed the plight of a Saudi princess who was granted asylum in Britain after she had an illegitimate child with a British man.
The young woman, who has also been granted anonymity by the courts, won her claim for asylum after she told a court that she faced execution if her husband found out about her adultery and she was forced to return to Saudi Arabia.
Immigration and asylum experts said last night that asylum cases from women fleeing the kingdom were very rare. But Keith Vaz, chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, said of the case: "This is the kind of person that our asylum laws are designed to protect. A woman and her unborn child should under no circumstances be sent back to a country where it is likely that they will be harmed. I welcome the decision made in this case."
New figures released by the Home Office also showed that a further 15 Saudis were refused asylum by the Government last year. There are no details about the sex of each of the applicants nor for the number of asylum applications received this year.
Mr Vaz called for more information to be made public about claims from Saudi Arabia. He said: "This is a country with a questionable human rights record. It is important to make clear the number of people who are fleeing similar treatment."
The princess's case is one of a small number of claims for asylum brought by citizens of Saudi Arabia which are not openly acknowledged by either government. British diplomats believe that to do so would in effect highlight the persecution of women in Saudi Arabia, which would be viewed as open criticism of the House of Saud and lead to embarrassing publicity for both governments.
The woman, who comes from a very wealthy Saudi family, says she met her English boyfriend – who is not a Muslim – during a visit to London. They struck up a relationship after he gave her his telephone number in a department store. She became pregnant the following year and worried that her elderly husband – a member of the royal family of Saudi Arabia – had become suspicious of her behaviour, she persuaded him to let her visit the UK again to give birth in secret. She feared for her life if she returned to Saudi Arabia.
She persuaded the court that if she returned to the kingdom she would be subject to capital punishment under Sharia law – specifically flogging and stoning to death. She was also worried about the possibility of an honour killing. Since she fled Saudi Arabia, her family and her husband's family have broken off contact with her.
The woman has been granted permanent leave to remain in the UK after the Immigration and Asylum Tribunal allowed her appeal. Keith Best, of the Immigration Advisory Service, said that Saudi nationals who were in genuine fear of persecution had the right to claim asylum in the United Kingdom. He explained: "They may also be able to claim if they were subjected to degrading and inhumane treatment. I can see why these cases can be difficult for Britain when one considers the relationship with the Saudi royal family and the many military contracts."
One case already refused by the Home Office is that of Yahya Al Faifi who claims he was persecuted in Saudi Arabia for conducting trade union activities, where trade unions are illegal. He and his family fled to the UK before 2006. In 2004, Al Faifi organised a trade union in BAE Systems after the company announced it was cutting pay by 40 per cent. More than 500 workers turned up to the first union meeting. But Mr Al Faifi and two others were sacked by BAE Systems. For several months afterwards Mr Yahya, whose case has been taken up by the RMT in the UK, continued to campaign for workers' rights leading to his case being given considerable media coverage.
However, when he refused to give up, he received repeated threats and was told that if he didn't leave the country immediately "the safety of his family could not be guaranteed". He left Saudi Arabia with his family to seek sanctuary in the UK. But after his case was refused he now faces deportation.
Saudi women: Victims of oppression
*Women are not allowed to drive or ride bicycles on public roads in large cities. But they are allowed to fly aircraft, though they must be chauffeured to the airport.
In September last year, women's rights activists petitioned the King to allow women to drive all vehicles. There were also calls for Saudi Arabian women to be allowed to compete in international sporting events along with their male counterparts. According to Amnesty International discrimination has fuelled violence against women, with foreign domestic workers particularly at risk of abuses such as beatings, rape and even murder, and non-payment of wages. Concerns have been raised that discriminatory laws relating to marriage mean women are trapped in violent and abusive relationships from which they have no legal recourse.
The Independent: Princess facing Saudi death penalty given secret UK asylumJuly 20, 2009
By Robert Verkaik, Home Affairs Editor
Woman feared she would be stoned after giving birth to an illegitimate child in Britain
A Saudi Arabian princess who had an illegitimate child with a British man has secretly been granted asylum in this country after she claimed she would face the death penalty if she were forced to return home. The young woman, who has been granted anonymity by the courts, won her claim for refugee status after telling a judge that her adulterous affair made her liable to death by stoning.
Her case is one of a small number of claims for asylum brought by citizens of Saudi Arabia which are not openly acknowledged by either government. British diplomats believe that to do so would in effect be to highlight the persecution of women in Saudi Arabia, which would be viewed as open criticism of the House of Saud and lead to embarrassing publicity for both governments.
The woman, who comes from a very wealthy Saudi family, says she met her English boyfriend – who is not a Muslim – during a visit to London. They struck up a relationship.
She became pregnant the following year and worried that her elderly husband – a member of the Royal Family of Saudi Arabia – had become suspicious of her behaviour, she persuaded him to let her visit the UK again to give birth in secret. She feared for her life if she returned to Saudi Arabia.
She persuaded the court that if she returned to the Gulf state she and her child would be subject to capital punishment under Sharia law – specifically flogging and stoning to death. She was also worried about the possibility of an honour killing.
Since she fled Saudi Arabia, her family and her husband's family have broken off contact with her.
The woman has been granted permanent leave to remain in the UK after the Immigration and Asylum tribunal allowed her appeal.
The Home Office yesterday declined to discuss the case. A spokesman for the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in London said that he would call back but subsequently became unavailable.
Relations between the UK and Saudi Arabia have been strained in recent years and were brought to a head in 2006 when Tony Blair intervened to end a Serious Fraud Office (SFO) inquiry into alleged kickbacks paid in a multibillion military aircraft deal between the two states.
The Saudi royal family was deeply concerned about the idea that the investigators might try o open up their Swiss bank accounts, it was alleged at the time.
This led the Saudis to threaten to restrict the sharing of intelligence relating to terror activity if the prosecution went ahead. They also threatened to pull out of other highly-lucrative arms deals.
Last year, the House of Lords ruled that the SFO's decision to drop the corruption investigation into the £43bn Saudi arms deal with BAE Systems was unlawful.
In a hard-hitting ruling, two High Court judges described the SFO's decision as "an outrage".
One of them, Lord Justice Moses, said the SFO and the Government had given into "blatant threats" that Saudi intelligence co-operation would end unless the probe into corruption was halted.
"No one, whether within this country or outside, is entitled to interfere with the course of our justice," he said. "It is the failure of government and the defendant to bear that essential principle in mind that justifies the intervention of this court."
The Middle East state has been shrouded in controversy over oppressive policies against women and homosexuals. Secrecy surrounds much of the Saudi legal system, but in a recent report on the use of the death penalty in the kingdom, the human rights group Amnesty International highlighted its extensive use against men and women.
Adulterers face public stonings and floggings and, in the most serious cases, beheadings and hangings.
The high numbers of executions in Saudi Arabia in 2007 continued into 2008. There were at least 102 executions of men and women last year – at an average rate of two every week. Amnesty is aware of at least 136 individuals currently awaiting execution.
Last week, Saudi Arabia's religious police were blamed for the death of two sisters who were murdered in what was deemed an "honour killing" by their brother, after the sisters were arrested for allegedly mixing with men to whom they were not related.
The Society for Defending Women's Rights in Saudi Arabia said that the religious police had arrested the two sisters, aged 19 and 21, thus putting their lives in danger.
Their brother shot them dead in front of their father when they left a women's shelter in Riyadh on 5 July, according to Saudi news reports.
In 2007, in a case that shocked Saudis, a woman from Qatif was sentenced to 200 lashes and six months in prison after being gang-raped. She offended cultural expectations because she was unaccompanied when she got into a car with a former boyfriend.
The man had agreed to hand back a photograph of the woman who was about to marry another man, but as they drove along a street they were stopped and seized by seven men who raped them both. The woman was originally sentenced to 90 lashes but the sentence was increased when she appealed. Eventually, after an international outcry, she was pardoned.
In 2007, King Abdullah II of Saudi Arabia was jeered during a state visit to Britain as dozens of demonstrators turned out to protest at his country's human rights record.
Immigration Act gives UK Border Agency customs powers | Home Office
22 July 2009
UK border controls were strengthened today as thousands of customs and immigration officers, sharing wide ranging powers, created a new unified force at the border following Royal Assent of the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009.
Frontline customs and immigration officers now work together as the UK Border Agency, with the power to quiz passengers on immigration and customs matters. This means many passengers will face just one primary check point when coming in to the UK, speeding up their journey.
Since the creation of the UK Border Agency (new window) in April 2008, bringing together immigration, customs and visa checks, more than 3,500 officers have already been trained with the skills to carry out passport and customs checks.
From 5 August 2009, 4,500 HM Revenue and Customs (new window) staff will formally become part of the UK Border Agency. This is a further step in the transformation of the Agency and strengthens its ability to crack down on those attempting to smuggle drugs and weapons into the UK and ensures Britain continues to have one of the strongest borders in the world.
The UK Border Agency, since April 2008, has already:
* stopped over 30,000 individual attempts by illegal migrants to get into Britain through France and Belgium
* stopped over 12,900 dangerous weapons, including firearms, stun guns and knives, reaching the street
* seized over £379m worth of illegal drugs
* seized in excess of 923 million cigarettes - representing a potential loss of £174m in tax revenue.
Statement from the Border and Immigration Minister
Phil Woolas said, 'This is part of the biggest transformation of our border controls in a generation. A unified force at the border with the powers to carry out customs and immigration checks allows us to continue the crack down on illegal immigration and the smuggling of drugs and weapons.
'I am determined that Britain’s border remains one of the strongest in the world. This Act is an important part of ensuring it stays that way.'
The Act also ensures that migrants who want to become British citizens earn the right to stay by speaking English, paying taxes and obeying the law.
It will speed up the path to citizenship for those who contribute to the community by being active citizens. Under the new system full access to benefits and social housing will be reserved for citizens and permanent residents — a route that can take up to ten years.
Mr Woolas added:
'This new Act ensures that those who want to stay earn the right to do so, learn to speak English and play by the rules. Those that don't will not be allowed to become citizens, making our system both firmer and fairer.
'I want to go further and within the next few weeks we will publish a consultation to examine how the current points based system for economic migrants, which has proved to be an effective and powerful tool for controlling migration, could be applied to citizenship.'
In the next few weeks the Home Office will publish proposals to extend the points based system to citizenship. This will build on the reforms to citizenship in the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act, providing even greater controls over the number of people who want to settle permanently in the UK. It will allow for a more flexible approach with the ability to raise and lower the threshold depending on the needs of the UK.
Notes to editors
The UK Border Agency (new window) was established in April 2008 with a budget of over £2bn and 25,000 staff that work in local communities, at the border and in 135 countries around the world.
The Act also enshrines in law a duty on the UK Border Agency to ensure that it safeguards and promotes the welfare of children in all of its work. The UK government has also signed and ratified the UN convention on the rights of the child.
The provisions in relation to the common travel area - to prevent abuse of the UK and the Republic of Ireland border by third-country nationals – did not form part of the final Act. They will be brought back to parliament at the first possible opportunity.
ekathimerini.com | EU wants Turkey and Libya to help fight illegal immigration
STOCKHOLM (AFP) – The European Union will soon undertake tricky political talks with Turkey and Libya as they look for their help in cracking down on people-smuggling rings to stem the flow of illegal immigrants into Europe.
But some of the demands Ankara and Tripoli are making in exchange for their help could prove complicated.
EU Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot, in Stockholm for a meeting of European Union justice and home affairs ministers on Thursday and yesterday, told reporters he was preparing visits to the two countries.
“I plan to travel to Libya after the summer break and to Turkey in September or October,” Barrot said, adding that he expected “an official invitation” from Turkey’s interior minister soon. The fight against illegal immigration “can only be fought by resolving two issues: ties with Turkey and Libya,” French Immigration Minister Eric Besson told AFP.
“When it comes to Turkey, their willingness to cooperate with the EU needs to be tested,” he added. “The first comments by Turkey’s interior minister have been encouraging. But now we have to see the concrete details.”
The 27-member bloc wants Turkey and Libya to crack down on the organized people-smuggling rings and to agree to take back the illegal immigrants who departed from their coasts, Barrot said.
Barrot is determined to curb the influx of illegal immigrants, which threatens to destabilize some countries in Europe – such as Greece – and hampers EU efforts to handle legitimate asylum requests.
“If we don’t link migration to development and diplomacy we won’t succeed,” he warned.
Yet a number of obstacles remain before Turkey agrees to cooperate with the EU.
“Turkey is ready to sign readmission agreements” to take back immigrants who left from its territory,” Barrot said.
“But it says it is merely a transit country and wants similar agreements signed with Pakistan and Afghanistan” to enable Ankara to send back the immigrants who came from those countries, he added.
Metrò Milano, si al ricorso di un immigrato Salvini: "Giudici vadano in Marocco" - cronaca - Repubblica.itL'uomo, marocchino, era stato escluso da un concorso in base a un regio decreto
I giudici: "C'è un carattere discriminatorio nel comportamento dell'azienda"
MILANO - Il Tribunale del lavoro di Milano ha parzialmente accolto il ricorso del marocchino Mohamed Hailoua, che lamentava di non poter essere assunto dall'Atm, l'Azienda di trasporti milanese, a causa di un regio decreto del 1931 che prevede l'obbligo di cittadinanza italiana o europea per poter lavorare nel trasporto pubblico. I giudici hanno ordinato all'azienda milanese di "rimuovere la richiesta di cittadinanza italiana o europea tra i requisiti per l'assunzione".
Il ricorso era stato presentato con l'associazione Studi giuridici sull'immigrazione e la onlus "Avvocati per niente". A stretto giro il commento di Matteo Salvini, consigliere comunale ed eurodeputato della Lega Nord: "Sentenza aberrante, i giudici si trasferiscano in Marocco". Per il vicesindaco di Milano, Riccardo De Corato, "c'è il dubbio che la questione sia stata strumentalizzata ad arte per alzare un polverone contro Atm e, di riflesso, contro il Comune". Soddisfatti gli avvocati dell'immigrato: "Rimosso un ostacolo discriminatorio all'accesso al lavoro".
L'uomo aveva presentato reclamo contro l'ordinanza del Tribunale del lavoro di Milano che aveva respinto un suo primo ricorso. Il collegio presieduto dal giudice Chiarina Sala ha dichiarato il "carattere discriminatorio" del comportamento dell'azienda, ordinando ad Atm "la rimozione della richiesta della cittadinanza tra i requisiti di selezione delle offerte di lavoro e delle proposte di assunzione, in moduli cartacei o telematici". Il tribunale di Milano ha stabilito che la permanenza del requisito di una determinata cittadinanza, ai fini dell'assunzione, "verrebbe ad assumere i connotati di una disparità di trattamento in senso diseguale e più svantaggioso per il 'non cittadino'".
I giudici hanno quindi accolto quasi tutte le richieste del marocchino - escluso il risarcimento danni - e "accertato il carattere discriminatorio del comportamento di Atm". Quindi hanno ordinato all'azienda "la cessazione del comportamento e la rimozione della richiesta della cittadinanza tra i requisiti di selezione". Secondo i giudici, infatti, il regio decreto 148 del 1931, "è da ritenersi implicitamente abrogato nella parte in cui richiede la cittadinanza quale requisito di accesso al lavoro nel settore".
Il primo commento è quello della Lega Nord. Secondo Salvini, che tempo fa aveva polemicamente proposto di riservare i vagoni della metropolitana ai residenti milanesi, "la sentenza è aberrante": "E' arrivata l'ora che questi giudici si trasferiscano in Marocco - dice - dove potranno assaporare le virtù del sistema giudiziario marocchino. A Milano i mezzi pubblici dovranno essere guidati solo da cittadini italiani. Chiamerò immediatamente Elio Catania (presidente di Atm, ndr) perché Milano e i milanesi siano rispettati e tutelati e gli fornirò centinaia di curricula di aspiranti autisti lombardi".
De Corato, prende atto di una sentenza che "ribalta quanto deliberato in primo grado, segno che comunque la questione non è così chiara". Ma si dice "comunque perplesso che l'extracomunitario abbia fatto ricorso a un giudice in termini generali senza preoccuparsi di presentare la domanda di assunzione. Il che non spazza via i dubbi che la questione, che poteva essere sollevata in qualunque città d'Italia, sia stata strumentalizzata ad arte da alcuni ambienti solo per alzare un polverone contro Atm e di riflesso contro il Comune di Milano".
Prevedibile la soddisfazione degli avvocati Alberto Guariso e Livio Neri che rappresentavano sia il marocchino che le organizzazioni che si sono occupate del caso. "Come associazioni promotrici dell'azione - commentano "Avvocati per niente" e "Studi giuridici" - siamo estremamente soddisfatti della decisione, che viene così incontro a esigenze di uguaglianza tra lavoratori e di efficienza del sistema economico". Una smentita, spiegano, "alle tesi di quanti pretendevano di fornire assurde giustificazioni a queste barriere che qualificano gli stranieri, per il semplice fatto di essere 'non cittadini', come fonte di rischi per la sicurezza pubblica".
(21 luglio 2009)
timesofmalta.com - Slovakia promises to take some of Malta's migrantsWednesday, 22nd July 2009 - 14:24CET
Slovakia has promised to take some of Malta’s irregular migrants, Foreign Miroslav Lajcak told his Maltese counterpart Tonio Borg at the end of a meeting.
Mr Lajcak told Dr Borg that Slovakia would initially take part in the pilot project being held under the umbrella of the Immigration Pact but it was willing to continue sharing the burden even once this project was concluded.
Immigrants have already been taken by France, Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Ireland, Portugal and the United States.
timesofmalta.com - Italy told migrants cannot be sent backThursday, 23rd July 2009 - 18:02CET
EU Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot has told Italy, in very clear terms, that it could not return immigrants to countries where their life was threatened.
Answering questions from members of the European Parliament, Commissioner Barrot said that following the warning, Italy had told the EU that it had not sent back any more migrants and announced a visit to Libya.
Mr Barrot said the commission had asked the Italian government for explanations on how some boats with irregular migrants, some asking for humanitarian protection, were returned to Libya.
He spoke about the voluntary burden sharing proposals for the immigration burden to be shared among the 27 EU states but said that obligatory burden sharing was not possible. He said that the voluntary measures were being embarked upon through a pilot project tailor-made for Malta.
ekathimerini.com | Greek-Italian push for EU migrant pacts
PMs promote repatriation agreements
CHRISTOPHE SIMON/AFP
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (r) ushers his Greek counterpart Costas Karamanlis into the Palazzo Chigi in Rome for talks that focused on illegal immigration. The leaders also discussed cooperation in the energy sector, in the proposed ITGI and South Stream gas pipelines, prompting Karamanlis to highlight their ‘strong common interests.’
Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis and his Italian counterpart Silvio Berlusconi yesterday agreed to promote the creation of a common European policy for curbing a growing tide of illegal immigrants, proposing repatriation pacts between Brussels and the migrants’ states of origin and transit countries.
Speaking after talks in Rome, Karamanlis said that Greek and Italian authorities saw eye-to-eye on many issues relating to illegal immigration. “We agreed to push forward with common initiatives in all directions including the promotion of repatriation agreements between the EU and the countries of origin and transit of the migrants,” Karamanlis said, adding that the role of the EU’s border monitoring agency Frontex should also be boosted.
Berlusconi struck a similar note, calling on all member states to contribute to efforts to make the 27-member EU the “common point of reference” so that repatriation pacts relate to the EU as a whole “rather than individual member states having to reach agreements with those on the African side of the Mediterranean coast.”
Earlier in the week the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) had criticized both Greece and Italy for their treatment of asylum seekers.
The UNHCR expressed concern over the decision by Greek authorities to raze a makeshift settlement in the western port of Patra that, until recently, had hosted hundreds of would-be migrants seeking an opportunity to sneak onto a ferry to Italy.
The United Nations refugee agency has also appealed to Greece to avoid so-called “push-backs” of migrants originating from war zones.
In a related development yesterday, Alternate Interior Minister Christos Markoyiannakis announced that an aircraft had left Athens with 90 would-be migrants from Pakistan and Afghanistan. Hundreds more migrants are believed to have been deported over the past few months.
New Policy Permits Asylum for Battered Women - NYTimes.comJuly 16, 2009
By JULIA PRESTON
The Obama administration has opened the way for foreign women who are victims of severe domestic beatings and sexual abuse to receive asylum in the United States. The action reverses a Bush administration stance in a protracted and passionate legal battle over the possibilities for battered women to become refugees.
In addition to meeting other strict conditions for asylum, abused women will need to show that they are treated by their abuser as subordinates and little better than property, according to an immigration court filing by the administration, and that domestic abuse is widely tolerated in their country. They must show that they could not find protection from institutions at home or by moving to another place within their own country.
The administration laid out its position in an immigration appeals court filing in the case of a woman from Mexico who requested asylum, saying she feared she would be murdered by her common-law husband there. According to court documents filed in San Francisco, the man repeatedly raped her at gunpoint, held her captive, stole from her and at one point tried to burn her alive when he learned she was pregnant.
The government submitted its legal brief in April, but the woman only recently gave her consent for the confidential case documents to be disclosed to The New York Times. The government has marked a clear, although narrow, pathway for battered women seeking asylum, lawyers said, after 13 years of tangled court arguments, including resistance from the Bush administration to recognize any of those claims.
Moving cautiously, the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately recommend asylum for the Mexican woman, who is identified in the court papers only by her initials as L.R. But the department, in the unusual submission written by senior government lawyers, concluded in plain terms that “it is possible” that the Mexican woman “and other applicants who have experienced domestic violence could qualify for asylum.”
As recently as last year, Bush administration lawyers had argued in the same case that in spite of her husband’s brutality, L.R. and other battered women could not meet the standards of American asylum law.
“This really opens the door to the protection of women who have suffered these kinds of violations,” said Karen Musalo, a professor who is director of the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies at the University of California Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco. Professor Musalo has represented other abused women seeking asylum and recently took up the case of L.R.
The Obama administration’s position caps a legal odyssey for foreign women seeking protection in the United States from domestic abuse that began in 1996 when a Guatemalan woman named Rody Alvarado was granted asylum by an immigration court, based on her account of repeated beatings by her husband. Three years later, an immigration appeals court overturned Ms. Alvarado’s asylum, saying she was not part of any persecuted group under American law.
Since then Ms. Alvarado’s case has stalled as successive administrations debated the issue, with immigration officials reluctant to open a floodgate of asylum petitions from battered women across the globe. During the Clinton administration, Attorney General Janet Reno proposed regulations to clarify the matter, but they have never gone into effect. In a briefing paper in 2004, lawyers for the Department of Homeland Security raised the possibility of asylum for victims of domestic violence, but the Bush administration never put that into practice in immigration court, Professor Musalo said.
Now Homeland Security officials say they are returning to views the department put forward in 2004, refining them to draw conditions sufficiently narrow that battered women would prevail in only a limited number cases.
“Although each case is highly fact-dependent and requires scrutiny of the specific threat an applicant faces,” said Matt Chandler, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, “the department continues to view domestic violence as a possible basis for asylum in the United States.” He said officials hoped to complete regulations governing the complex cases.
The new policy does not involve women fleeing genital mutilation.
Any applicant for asylum or refugee status in the United States must demonstrate a “well-founded fear of persecution” because of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or “membership in a particular social group.” The extended legal argument has been whether abused women could be part of any social group that would be eligible under those terms. Last year, 22,930 people won asylum in this country fleeing all types of persecution; the number has been decreasing in recent years.
Because asylum cases are confidential, there is no way of knowing how many applications by battered women have been denied or held up over the last decade. The issue is further complicated by the peculiarities of the United States immigration system, in which asylum cases are heard in courts that are not part of the federal judiciary, but are run by an agency of the Justice Department, with Homeland Security officials representing the government.
The government has not disputed the painful history that L.R., now 42, recounts in a court declaration. The man who became her tormentor first assaulted her when she was a teenager and he was a physical education coach, 14 years her senior, at a high school in the Mexican state of Guanajuato. He and his family were regarded as wealthy and influential because they owned a restaurant in town, L.R. said.
Over the years, he made her live with him, and forced her to have sex with him by putting a gun or a machete to her head, by breaking her nose and by threatening to kill the small children of her sister. Once when she became pregnant, she said, she barely escaped alive after he had poured kerosene on the bed where she was sleeping and ignited it. He stole the salary she earned as a teacher and later sold her teacher’s license.
Local police dismissed her reports of violence as “a private matter,” the court documents said, and a judge she turned to for help tried to seduce her.
“In Mexico, men believe they have a right to abuse their women because they are like a possession,” she said. With three children born from her involuntary sex with the man, who never married her, she fled to California in 2004.
An immigration judge denied her asylum claim in 2006. In its new filing, the government urged that L.R.’s case be sent back to the immigration court for further review, suggesting she might still succeed. But the government also injected a caveat, insisting that “this does not mean that every victim of domestic violence would be eligible for asylum.”
ekathimerini.com | Greek-Spanish bid to curb migrants
Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis and his Spanish counterpart Jose Luis Zapatero yesterday issued a joint appeal for tighter border controls and closer cooperation between the European Union and African and Asian states to curb a relentless influx of illegal immigrants that has placed a particularly heavy burden on Mediterranean countries.
“Tackling illegal immigration demands solidarity and common action from within the EU,” Karamanlis said following his talks with Zapatero in Madrid before boarding a flight to Rome, where he is due to meet with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi today for talks on the same subject.
Yesterday both Karamanlis and Zapatero stressed the importance of boosting the EU border control agency Frontex to stem the tide of undocumented visitors. “The need to strengthen border controls is clear and for that Frontex is essential,” Zapatero said. Karamanlis grasped the opportunity to reiterate Greece’s desire for the creation of a joint European coast guard and to prod EU candidate state Turkey to cooperate by honoring a bilateral pact for the repatriation of migrants signed by Athens and Ankara in 2001. “Turkey must realize that it has to cooperate more closely, more constructively and more effectively with the EU and with Greece,” Karamanlis said. He and Zapatero stressed the need for closer ties to be forged between the EU and the migrants’ countries of origin, chiefly in Africa and Asia.
Meanwhile in Athens Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis stressed that any crackdown on illegal immigration should not be prejudicial to migrants fleeing war zones. “The need for policing our national borders must be balanced against the need to provide asylum to refugees who have been uprooted from their homes,” Bakoyannis told a conference organized by the Greek office of the United Nations refugee agency.
Suspect asylum seekers at Christmas Is | The AustralianUPDATED: Mark Dodd | July 11, 2009
Article from: The Australian
A suspected asylum seeker vessel intercepted yesterday off Christmas Island by the Royal Australian Navy has arrived at the island's small port and is expected to disembark.
They will be held at the island's immigration detention centre which is now reaching capacity following a surge of asylum seekers over the past eight months.
The RAN's patrol boat HMAS Armidale intercepted the boat - the 17th to be detected so far this year - 80 nautical miles from Christmas Island.
It brings to more than 900 asylum seekers detained in Australian waters so far this year along with more than 35 foreign crew.
'The group will be transferred to Christmas Island where they will undergo security, identity and health checks to establish their identity and reasons for travel, Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor said in a statement yesterday.
Meanwhile, there are growing fears for the safety of 59 asylum seekers whose boat foundered and sank of the eastern Indonesian island of Sumbawa last week.
Indonesian authorities have detained 15 people off the boat who currently being held in the small port town of Bima.
An initial claim by Foreign Minister Stephen Smith that all the passengers on the boat had been rescued was incorrect.
Asylum-seekers promised 'a big ship' | The Australian
Paul Maley and Stephen Fitzpatrick | July 14, 2009
Article from: The Australian
THE Afghan asylum-seekers whose boat foundered in eastern Indonesia last week were told by people-smugglers they would be travelling to Australia on a "big ship" with their passports.
In a revealing insight into the way smugglers do business, Hussain Ali, 24, told The Australian the Afghan who organised his passage to Australia disappeared as he and his fellow Hazaras were due to board the ill-fated vessel.
The news came as investigators in Indonesia said the bulk of the up to 85 Afghan asylum-seekers aboard the boat had probably filtered back to Jakarta, where it is feared they will try to launch a second attempt to reach Australia.
Mr Ali said yesterday he had paid $US8000 ($10,300) for his trip to Australia, which began with a meeting with an "agent", or people-smuggler, in Kabul more than two months ago.
"He says, 'we take you to Australia by the passport, by the plane, by the big ship'," Mr Ali said. "When we arrived in Jakarta they put us in the small ship." Mr Ali said he and his fellow passengers, some of whom had travelled via Kuala Lumpur from refugee camps in Pakistan, were angry.
He said he tried to contact the agent, but his phone was off.
"We angry, we were angry," Mr Ali said. "So what should (we) do? We are illegal. His mobile was off." Only 29 of the group are in custody on the eastern island of Sumbawa. One member of that small group, Ali Yewar, alias Juma Khan, fled soon after speaking to The Australian on the weekend. According to the owner of the lodgings where police have temporarily housed the asylum-seekers, Mr Yewar's absence was discovered on Sunday when dinner was being distributed.
Another of the group, Afghan teenager Mustafa Ismael, told The Australian yesterday he had taken a 24-hour bus journey nearly two weeks ago from Jakarta to the boat's launching point, the industrial port of Surabaya, in east Java.
"I was about one month and a half in Indonesia before I left Jakarta, and then after the bus ride, we were three days to travel by sea," the 15-year-old said.
The overloaded boat's engine gave out last Tuesday night near Komodo island, in eastern Indonesia. However, it appears either crew members or someone among the Afghans was able to nurse the engine for another 24 to 48 hours and get the craft near a small port in the southwest of Sumbawa island.
"All the people who understand swimming, they went swimming (to land)," Mustafa said. "The captain just helped his brother and the other crew, but we had to leave the boat by ourselves."
Indonesian police believe the group was helped to shore by local fishermen in small groups. Police subsequently arrested several of them on buses heading for Jakarta or at a bus terminal. However, many more got away.
Those who have been apprehended are being dealt with by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organisation for Migration, the organisations that manage refugee claims in Indonesia, which does not recognise international conventions on refugees.
Yesterday, four Indonesian men accused of crewing another asylum-seeker boat that was carrying 74 passengers and was intercepted by Australian authorities on May 24 appeared before a Perth court.
timesofmalta.com - Greek police raid illegal immigrant campSunday, 12th July 2009 - 15:36CET
Reuters
Greek police raided an illegal immigrants' camp in the port city of Patras today, moving out 150 people and levelling shacks with bulldozers.
Hundreds of immigrants, mostly Afghans, had lived in squalid conditions at the camp for years, prompting protests from residents. "We evacuated the camp," Thanassis Davlouros, chief of the Patras Police, told Reuters.
"We moved about 110 immigrants to Patras hotels and other camps in Athens and 40 minors to a special centre in northern Greece. The immigrants were mainly Afghans", Davlouros said. It was not immediately clear what would happen to them next.
Around 80 police officers took part in the operation.
Police said that during the operation a fire broke out and burned the camp down, but no one was injured. Two immigrants were arrested for arson.
Immigrants, mainly from Asia, use the Patras port to pass to Italy and other European countries. Greece, is often criticised by international organisations and rights groups for its treatment of illegal migrants, including poor conditions in detention centres.
The conservative Greek government said this month it would get tougher on illegal immigration. It said that it had arrested about 47,000 immigrants who came from Turkey last year.
Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis will visit Spain and Italy next week to discuss among other issues the illegal immigration problem.
timesofmalta.com - Migrants 'living in absolute poverty' - NGOMonday, 13th July 2009 - 13:40CET
A grouping of 18 non-government organisations is calling for assistance and policy changes to help migrants who are living in poverty after having been asked to leave open centres.
"These people, about 30 mostly women and children, have no money and they even lack food," Vince Caruana, chairman of SKOP, told timesofmalta.com.
He said these people were living with other migrants in rented apartments in the area of St Paul's Bay and Qawra and lacked basic necessities, such as nappies for the babies.
"This is absolute poverty by any definition," he said.
"Refusing or failing to acknowledge such categories of people is a sure way to guarantee that their needs will not be met. The situation is only set to worsen with the regulations where migrants are sent out of open centres after a specified period of time."
He said the authorities needed to meet these people to discuss their needs.
SKOP, he said, is an unmbrella organisation of NGOs involved in development issues. Its purpose is to lobby for policy changes, but several of its members had taken the initiative to coordinate assistance to the migrants. (Tel number. 21315562).
timesofmalta.com - Illegal immigrants land at St Thomas BayTuesday, 14th July 2009 - 08:23CET
Twenty-eight illegal migrants have been apprehended after landing at St Thomas Bay this morning - the first arrivals in nearly two months.
The group was made up of 22 men and six women, who were all in good health. All are claiming to be from Somalia.
They arrived on an outboard-motor powered 13-foot long boat, and were relatively clean and well stocked with food and water onboard, the AFM said.
The police said the migrants were arrested as they disembarked from the boat.
They were taken to the Detention Compound at the Ta' Kandja Police Training Facility.
The AFM said that during the night, its Operations Centre at Luqa Barracks unsuccessfully tried to locate another boat carrying 16 migrants, who had used their satellite-phone to call for assistance through an unidentified person who in turn alerted the rescue centre in Palermo.
As AFM radar and observation posts around the Islands were alerted, the Maritime Squadron's P-61 offshore patrol vessel was diverted to a position, some 23 nautical miles East of Delimara Point. A communications search via satellite-phone to establish contact with the boat was also unsuccessful.
Descienden un 50 por ciento las peticiones de asilo en Barajas en los primeros seis meses de 2009 - Yahoo! Noticias
domingo, 12 de julio, 12.47
EFE
Madrid, 12 jul (EFE).- La demanda de solicitudes de asilo en el aeropuerto de Barajas ha descendido en un 50% en los primeros seis meses de 2009, ya que en este período se ha contabilizado una media de 41 peticiones mensuales, frente a las 83 del mismo período de 2009, han informado a EFE fuentes aeroportuarias.
Estas fuentes han detallado que entre enero y junio de 2009 se han presentado en la frontera del aeropuerto madrileño 250 peticiones de asilo y, por nacionalidades, el colectivo más numeroso de demandantes ha sido el somalí, con 87 solicitudes.
A los nacionales de Somalia les siguen los demandantes colombianos, con 87 solicitudes; los nigerianos, con 11; los de Guinea Conakry, con 13 y los de Sri Lanka, con 10.
Desde el Comité Español de Ayuda al Refugiado (CEAR), su portavoz Mauricio Valiente, ha manifestado que este descenso de solicitudes de asilo en el aeropuerto de Barajas confirma la tendencia a la baja, que se registra en los últimos dos años por el aumento de los controles en terceros países.
"Es el caso de Sri Lanka", ha asegurado Valiente, al recordar que en ese país la guerra continúa y este año Naciones Unidas ha declarado catástrofe humanitaria en la zona.
Por ello, ha dicho, que el hecho de que haya disminuido el número de solicitantes de asilo de Sri Lanka este año, frente a las 30 demandas entre enero y junio de 2008, "no responde a una mejoría en la zona, sino a las dificultades de desplazamiento interno".
También se ha referido al descenso de solicitantes de asilo colombianos (unas 250 peticiones en los primeros seis meses de 2008 y 64 en el mismo período de 2009), que ha atribuido al cambio de criterio de la Oficina de Asilo y Refugio española (OAR), dependiente del ministerio del Interior.
Valiente ha destacado que la "práctica totalidad de peticiones de asilo de colombianos son rechazadas en las fronteras españolas, lo que les ha llevado a intentarlo por otras vías".
En este sentido, Valiente ha resaltado que en España el derecho al asilo "está en vías de extinción", con la imposición de numerosas trabas que hacen que los emigrantes renuncien a pedir asilo.
Además, ha criticado la nueva Ley de Asilo, que en la actualidad está en trámite, ya que en ella "desaparece la vía diplomática", es decir la posibilidad de pedir asilo en consulados y embajadas.
Según Valiente, el nuevo texto la único que recupera es la "facultad discrecional" de los embajadores y representantes consulares de dotar de un visado a quien ellos consideren oportuno.
En cuanto al trámite para solicitar asilo en el aeropuerto de Barajas, fuentes del Colegio Abogados de Madrid, han detallado a EFE que, a su llegada a Madrid, los viajeros comunican su intención a los funcionarios policiales, quienes, a su vez, lo transmiten a la OAR.
En un plazo no superior a las 72 horas se personan en el aeropuerto madrileño funcionarios de la citada oficina, acompañados de letrados e intérpretes, por si fuera necesaria la actuación de estos últimos.
Estudiado el caso, los funcionarios emiten un veredicto sobre la admisión a trámite o no de la petición de asilo y, si esta es denegada, se puede solicitar la revisión del caso, por lo que los trámites se pueden demorar hasta nueve días.
Durante este tiempo los demandantes de asilo permanecen en unas salas habilitadas para su estancia, ubicadas en las terminales 1 y 4 del aeropuerto de Barajas, en las que son asistidos por personal de Cruz Roja.
Zapatero propondrá en su presidencia aumentar los medios de Frontex y negociar acuerdos de repatriación - Yahoo! Noticias
lunes, 13 de julio, 15.08
Europa Press
España propondrá en su presidencia de la UE en la primera mitad de 2010 "aumentar" los medios de la Agencia Europea de Control de Fronteras Exteriores (Frontex) contra la inmigración ilegal y alcanzar acuerdos para la repatriación de 'sin papeles' negociados a nivel europeo con los países de origen y tránsito, ha avanzado hoy el presidente del Gobierno, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.
En rueda de prensa conjunta con el primer ministro griego, Kostas Karamanlis, con quien ha hablado de la próxima presidencia española de la UE, Zapatero reconoció que Frontex "necesita más medios y compromiso de los países de la Unión", pero advirtió de que para controlar la inmigración irregular resulta "esencial" construir una política de cooperación en la materia con los países de origen y tránsito de la inmigración, como la que España ha elaborado con Marruecos.
El fortalecimiento de la política europea de inmigración será una de las prioridades de la presidencia española de la UE, que apostará por que la Unión "lidere" las negociaciones para conseguir acuerdos comunes de repatriación, en lugar de los pactos que existen de forma bilateral entre ciertos países comunitarios y africanos, según Zapatero. Karamanlis señaló que los acuerdos de readmisión tendrán que ir acompañados de ayuda financiera para los países africanos.
Zapatero destacó que la elaboración de una política europea de asociación con los países emisores y de tránsito de la inmigración debe constituir una de las grandes políticas exteriores de los Veintisiete.
Para ello, Zapatero y Karamanlis acordaron proponer en los próximos meses la creación de "un nuevo espacio de concertación política" en torno a la inmigración ilegal dentro de la Unión por el Mediterráneo, la asociación que integra a los Veintisiete con sus vecinos de la ribera sur. "Sin una fuerte asociación, no se pueden conseguir los objetivos", advirtió el presidente español.
Karamanlis confió en que la presidencia española de la UE sirva para dar un "nuevo empuje" a la Unión por el Mediterráneo, una iniciativa del presidente francés, Nicolas Sarkozy, que bebe del Proceso de Barcelona lanzado en la década de los 90 a propuesta de España.
Al margen de la inmigración, Zapatero y Karamanlis repasaron el estado de la situación económica internacional y de las perspectivas sobre la entrada en vigor del Tratado de Lisboa. Zapatero calificó de "muy buenas" las relaciones entre España y Grecia, al que se refirió como el país, junto con Portugal, con el que España más coincide en lo político.
La prensa griega se interesó por si los dos líderes hacían una lectura en clave nacional de los pasados comicios europeos. Zapatero, como ha dicho en anteriores ocasiones, indicó que las elecciones del pasado 7 de junio eran para renovar el Parlamento Europeo y aseguró que su partido "saldrá a ganar" en los próximos comicios generales.
Interceptada una patera con 14 ocupantes en Cabo de Gata (Almería), lo que eleva a 30 las personas rescatadas - Yahoo! Noticias
lunes, 13 de julio, 15.10
Europa Press
La Guardia Civil y Salvamento Marítimo han rescatado a mediodía de hoy a 14 ocupantes de una embarcación neumática que navegaba a aproximadamente 12 millas náuticas al este de Cabo de Gata (Almería), lo que eleva 30 las personas de origen magrebí que, desde la madrugada, han sido trasladadas al puerto de la capital.
La operación conjunta se activó después de que el Servicio Integral de Vigilancia Exterior (SIVE) detectase la presencia de zódiac, según informó a Europa Press Salvamento Marítimo, que precisó que fueron efectivos de la Salvamar 'Denévola' los que procedieron al transbordo de 12 varones y una mujer adultos, además de un posible menor de edad.
Los 14 ocupantes de la segunda patera interceptada en la jornada de hoy, en buen estado de salud, han llegado al puerto de la capital pasadas las 12,15 horas, donde esperaban efectivos del Equipo de Respuesta Inmediata ante Emergencias (ERIE) para proporcionarles ropa seca, calzado, mantas, bebidas calientes, y agua.
Un grupo de 16 personas de origen magrebí también eran atendidos a las 01,40 horas tras ser rescatados de la embarcación neumática en la que viajaban a alrededor de tres millas náuticas al este de San José, en el término municipal de Níjar (Almería).
Mueren dos inmigrantes clandestinos africanos al llegar en cayuco a Canarias - Yahoo! NoticiasÚltima Hora
Mueren dos inmigrantes clandestinos africanos al llegar en cayuco a Canarias
lunes, 13 de julio, 21.30
AFP
Dos inmigrantes irregulares africanos que viajaron al archipiélago de Canarias en una embarcación precaria con 68 personas, murieron, indicaron este lunes las autoridades regionales.
Uno de ellos fue hallado muerto en un barco de pesca en la pequeña isla canaria de El Hierro, indicó la delegación del Gobierno en Canarias. El cayuco, precaria embarcación de fibra de vidrio de 12 metros de largo y que transportaba 68 "hombres de origen subsahariano", fue localizado el domingo hacia las 22H30 locales (21H30 GMT), cerca del puerto La Estaca, precisó un portavoz de la delegación. Había "cinco posibles menores a bordo" y el cuerpo de un adulto fue hallado sin vida, precisó.
Cinco personas con "deshidratación o hipotermia" fueron trasladadas al hospital de El Hierro, donde una de ellas, un hombre, falleció poco después, indicó una portavoz de la subdelegación del Gobierno a la AFP.
El Gobierno se congratuló a principios de junio de que ninguna embarcación de inmigrantes clandestinos había alcanzado en dos meses las costas del archipiélago canario, principal puerta de ingreso de los inmigrantes africanos en España, destacando los acuerdos firmados con varios países de África.
El número récord de 31.678 clandestinos subsaharianos llegados a las Canarias en 2006 a bordo de embarcaciones rudimentarias provenientes de África cayó hasta los 1.318 en el primer trimestre del 2009.
Las travesías son peligrosas y no son escasos los naufragios. Veinticinco inmigrantes subsaharianos, de ellos 19 adolescentes, murieron en febrero pasado, en el naufragio de un cayuco cargado de clandestinos en las costas de la isla canaria de Lanzarote.
ekathimerini.com | New law increases threat of deportation
An amendment to Greece’s existing legislation, which could be passed through a reduced summer session of Parliament later this week, may lead to foreigners living in the country legally as well as those who are here illegally being deported over misdemeanors even if they are not convicted.
With immigration becoming a pressing political issue, the government has embarked on an effort to adopt a series of measures that will stem the flow of illegal migrants arriving on Greek shores.
Sources told Kathimerini that the amendment would allow authorities to classify as “dangerous for public order and safety” any foreigner who is charged with committing a crime that carries a prison sentence of three months or more.
This means that the person can then be deported to his homeland before even standing trial, as long as that country has signed a bilateral repatriation agreement with Greece.
The provisions of the proposed law have prompted a backlash from human rights activists.
“It is totally unacceptable in a just state for someone to face devastating consequences before it has been established in a fair trial whether he is guilty and before he has exercised every legal right to defend himself,” said an organization called Greek Action for Human Rights.
“It is absurd for foreigners who have been in the country for a long time, including those from the European Union, to face the danger of deportation simply if they are charged with minor infractions,” said the www.diavatirio.net site lawyer Vassilis Chronopoulos, who foresees a backlog of cases building up in the courts.
Lives in danger as European governments deny refugees protection | Amnesty International
19 June 2009
Governments in Europe are putting lives at risk by denying refugees protection, Amnesty International warned on Saturday.
“Refugees are risking their lives to find safety only to be turned away when they reach Europe,” said Nicola Duckworth, Europe and Central Asia Director at Amnesty International.
“Governments must stop putting lives in danger and start meeting their international obligations to protect these vulnerable people.”
Amnesty International’s call for government action comes on World Refugee Day, which is held on 20 June every year. World Refugee Day sees thousands of organizations in hundreds of countries coming together to focus global attention on the plight of refugees and the causes of their exile.
Countries at Europe’s border are showing a flagrant disregard for their international obligations towards refugees:
* Italy is intercepting refugees in international waters and physically transporting them, without assessing their protection needs, to Libya, where migrants, asylum-seekers and refugees are at risk of ill-treatment and forcible return to countries where they risk serious human rights abuses.
* Greece pushes back people at its land border and sea borders with Turkey without first assessing their asylum claims. For those that do enter the country there are many legal obstacles for refugees to gain protection.
* Spain’s bilateral agreements with several countries in Africa are used to justify the arbitrary arrest, detention and deportation of asylum-seekers and migrants in these countries.
* Turkey continues not to recognise people from outside Europe as refugees, meaning thousands of people are denied the protection they need.
On World Refugee Day, Amnesty International warned EU states that their actions are undermining the protection of refugees not only in their own countries but also across the world, by sending a dangerous message on the treatment of refugees.
The organization said that all countries must meet their obligations towards refugees and asylum-seekers not only within their own borders but wherever they exercise effective control.
Reaction to youtube video of expulsion | Amnesty International
19 June 2009
A video posted on Youtube this week graphically brings home the often degrading nature of forced expulsions of irregular migrants. The footage of a man lying on his stomach on the airport tarmac, his arms and legs tied together behind his back and apparently being gagged was shot by a passenger waiting for flight IB3722 to Dakar at Madrid airport on 15 June. Finally, he is picked up off the ground by two police officers, still tied up, and put in the back of the police van, more like a piece of luggage than a human being. It appears that the pilot of the plane refused to transport a man in such conditions, and other passengers refused to travel with him.
At one point in the film it appears that a police officer rests his foot on the man’s back after roughly rolling him onto his stomach. Such an action is clearly an unnecessary use of force, and the officer in question should be disciplined and/or prosecuted accordingly.
However, what is truly shocking about this film is that most of the actions of the police officers are not unlawful under Spanish guidelines. The dehumanising and brutal procedure you see is in line with Spanish police protocol for forced deportations which, contrary to the recommendations of various Council of Europe bodies, does not explicitly prohibit the use of gags or restraint techniques which may cause positional asphyxiation (i.e. suffocate the person being restrained by holding them in a position which blocks their airways, such as lying on the stomach for a prolonged period of time). The protocol also allows the use of handcuffs, reinforced tape, sedatives, masks and immobilising belts. Such restraint techniques not only increase the risk of suffocation to the person being expelled if used inappropriately, but are also a real security risk during take-off and landing. Nervous flyer? You would be.
States have the right to control who is allowed to enter their territory, and are free to expel those present without the proper authorisation. But this must be done in line with basic human rights standards and respect for human dignity. Amnesty International has repeatedly called on EU countries, including Spain, to ensure irregular migrants and rejected asylum-seekers being forcibly returned to their country of origin are not subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, or any excessive use of force. States’ protocols on forced deportations should reflect international human rights standards and be strictly adhered to by law enforcement officials. In fact, the Spanish protocol itself notes that individuals being repatriated should only be restrained in a manner which “does not harm their dignity or personal integrity”. But such wording is meaningless if not respected in practice.
One’s dignity is not the only thing endangered by such treatment : lives can also be lost. On 9 June 2007, almost exactly two years ago, Osamuyia Akpitaye died while being forcibly expelled from Spain to Nigeria. No video is available to show us what happened to him, but witnesses state he was gagged and tied by police officers. He died of suffocation shortly after take-off. Two officers have now been charged with negligent manslaughter and today, two years on, Osamayuia Akpitaye’s family is waiting for a trial date, and justice. The question is, were their actions in line with official protocols? And if so, how long before those protocols are changed?
timesofmalta.com - Immigrants found south of Lampedusa taken by Libyan patrol boatFriday, 19th June 2009 - 11:57CET
A Libyan patrol boat this morning took on board 76 illegal immigrants who had been met 29 miles south of Lampedusa by Italy's Guardia Costiera yesterday evening, international news agencies reported. The patrol boat headed to Tripoli.
They said that a Maltese private aircraft reported the migrants to a German Border Police helicopter operating out of Luqa as part of Frontex operations.
UNHCR | Refworld | Indonesia-Australia: "Significant" increase in illegal migration
JAKARTA, 12 June 2009 (IRIN) - Indonesia is experiencing a fresh influx of asylum seekers using the country as a transit point to Australia.
Conflict and economic hardship are driving the trend, officials say.
Many from Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Iraq seek better lives elsewhere, with hundreds transiting through the island nation and embarking on perilous journeys in creaky boats to Australia, officials confirm.
On 28 May, nine people were killed and 11 went missing after a boat carrying 36 Australia-bound undocumented migrants from Afghanistan sank off Indonesia's Sumatra Island.
On 2 June, police on the eastern island of Sumba arrested four suspected people-smugglers trying to send 59 Afghan and Pakistani migrants to Australia.
Between April and May alone, Indonesian police detained 147 undocumented migrants, mostly from war-torn Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, Indonesia's Directorate-General of Immigration (DGI) reported.
"There's definitely an increase compared to the previous months," said Muchdor, the director for enforcement at the DGI.
About 800 migrants were intercepted between September 2008 and April 2009 while fewer than 400 were caught in the previous period, he said.
National police spokesman Abubakar Nataprawira said there had been a "significant" increase in illegal arrivals this year, but did not give figures.
At a regional conference on people smuggling in Indonesia on 14 April, Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith warned that the global financial crisis might force more people to seek better lives, leading to more people smuggling and trafficking.
Porous borders
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), given Indonesia's porous borders and lack of resources and coordination among agencies, many illegal arrivals go undetected.
More than 800 asylum seekers are being held in detention centres across Indonesia pending examination by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) on their refugee status, said immigration spokesman, Maroloan Barimbing.
"Their main motive is that they don't feel safe in their countries and they have to escape to survive," Barimbing said.
This year alone, Australian authorities intercepted 12 boats carrying asylum-seekers mostly from Afghanistan and the Middle East, against seven last year.
The IOM's 2008 annual report stated it had helped 136 "irregular migrants" mostly from Iraq and Afghanistan last year, with 91 resettled in third countries and 36 returned voluntarily. The remainder were reunited with their lost families in different countries.
This year the IOM has helped 48 mostly Afghan asylum seekers to return home voluntarily and resettled 36 in third countries, including Canada and Australia, said Jihan Labetubun, an IOM Indonesia official.
Law enforcement
Indonesia said the recent arrests of undocumented migrants showed that law enforcers were doing their job well.
"It shows that the government has been successful in detecting the presence of illegal migrants. This is positive in terms of law enforcement," the Foreign Ministry spokesman, Teuku Faizasyah, told IRIN.
He also said the government was considering holding asylum seekers under one roof in Jakarta, instead of keeping them in separate immigration centres across the country under the present system, to monitor them more effectively.
Indonesian Justice Minister Andi Mattalatta and a high-level Australian delegation led by Home Affairs Minister Bob Debus met in Jakarta on 4 June to discuss further efforts to tackle people smuggling and the flow of undocumented migrants.
The two countries agreed on new measures, including improving arrangements for the care of migrants in Indonesia, detention management, mutual legal assistance and training for immigration and law enforcement agencies, the Australian embassy said in a statement issued on 4 June.
In a posting on the Australian Home Affairs Ministry's website, Debus said the government had allocated an additional Aus$654 million (US$531 million) to combat people smuggling.
"Our strengthened border security measures will enable us to identify people smugglers, intercept people-smuggling ventures and prosecute people smugglers," he said.
Meanwhile, Anita Restu, a spokeswoman for the UNHCR in Indonesia, said her office was verifying the status of 821 asylum seekers who had applied for refugee status, from Afghanistan, Iraq, Sri Lanka, Iran and Somalia.
"They will undergo an interview process," Restu told IRIN, adding that it would take time before it could be determined whether they were eligible for refugee status and resettled.
The IOM said it was cooperating with Indonesia and Australia under a tripartite agreement allowing Indonesia to determine the intention of intercepted migrants.
Those identified as transiting through Indonesia on their way to Australia or New Zealand were referred to IOM for assistance.
allAfrica.com: South Africa: Angolan Refugee Killed
Nomangesi Mbiza
17 June 2009
The death of an Angolan has raised more questions about the safety of refugees at the Nyanga refugee centre.
Sebastian Santana, 29, was stabbed to death by unidentified men on Monday morning at the bridge near the centre. Angolan refugee leader Joao Nascineto told the Cape Argus last night that Santana was on his way to the centre to renew his papers when he was approached by men who told him to go back to his country.
"They then tried to rob him and when he resisted, they stabbed him three times," Nascineto said. He said refugees were concerned about xenophobic attacks in the area, and had asked that the centre be moved.
"If the location is not changed, more bodies are going to be seen there. My friend, colleague and my countryman has died, how many have to die until something is done about the centre?" Nascineto asked.
Braam Hanekom, chairperson of Passop (People against Suppression, Suffering, Oppression and Poverty), said it was not only the refugees but also the neighbouring businesses who wanted the centre moved.
Bishop Lavis police spokesperson Captain Marie Louw said police found Santana's body at about 10.20am in the field alongside Borcherd's Quarry Road.
"According the clerk at the Nyanga Home Affairs office, (Santana) had an appointment for 7am to renew his work permit," she said. Santana had apparently not been robbed, since he still had his cellphone, as well as R2 400 in his pocket.
"Police are investigating a murder case," Louw said. A Somali shopowner was shot and killed in Guguletu on Monday night.
Police spokesperson Captain Elliot Sinyangana said four men entered the shop, then pulled out guns and demanded money. The shopowner was shot in the upper body and the men escaped with cash, cigarettes and airtime.
Sinyangana said that at a meeting called by the police in the area on Tuesday, local shopowners distanced themselves from the incident, saying it was a straight criminal case.
Bishkek Tells Uzbekistan To Free Kyrgyz Nationals - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty © 2009
June 18, 2009
BISHKEK -- Kyrgyzstan has officially asked Uzbek authorities to release two Kyrgyz citizens detained by Uzbek border guards for allegedly crossing the border illegally, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reports.
Kyrgyz Border Guard Service press secretary Dosnazar Abdulazizov told RFE/RL that Kyrgyz authorities are holding talks with Uzbek officials about the release of Zakir Akbarov and Ubaydulla Mitalipov, who are ethnic Uzbeks.
The two were detained by Uzbek border guards in May and charged with crossing the border illegally.
Uzbek authorities insist they must be tried in Uzbekistan, while Bishkek wants their cases tried in Kyrgyzstan.
Agresión racista en Belfast contra inmigrantes rumanos
Veinte familias de etnia gitana dejan sus casas tras ser atacados con botellas y ladrillos
WALTER OPPENHEIMER | Londres 17/06/2009
Un total de 115 ciudadanos rumanos de etnia gitana -incluido un bebé nacido hace cinco días- tuvieron que refugiarse el martes por la noche en una iglesia del sur de Belfast tras sufrir varios días de acoso racista. Irlanda del Norte ha vivido un incremento de los incidentes racistas en los últimos años, en parte por el aumento de la población inmigrante tras el fin de los disturbios entre católicos y protestantes y en parte porque algunos grupos de la población han dirigido a los extranjeros el sectarismo que antes mostraban contra sus conciudadanos del bando opuesto.
Las 20 familias afectadas por los ataques (les arrojaron botellas y ladrillos) pasaron ayer el día en un centro municipal y por la tarde fueron trasladadas a residencias ahora desocupadas en la cercana Universidad de Queens, donde estarán durante una semana. Aunque algunos de los rumanos atacados quieren volver a su país, las autoridades confían en encontrarles una residencia alternativa en Belfast para evitar que su marcha cause un mal precedente que pueda ser imitado por quienes se oponen a los inmigrantes.
Los ataques fueron condenados tanto por el primer ministro británico, Gordon Brown, como por el ministro principal adjunto de Irlanda del Norte, Martin McGuinness. La policía local, que pareció admitir que no ha actuado con la rapidez debida en este conflicto, descartó que los incidentes fueran orquestados por un grupo paramilitar lealista.
El Ulster acoge desde hace varias generaciones un nutrido grupo de inmigrantes indios, chinos y vietnamitas que en los últimos años se ha extendido a otros países. Este año ya se registraron incidentes tras un partido de clasificación para el Mundial de fútbol entre Irlanda del Norte y Polonia.
allAfrica.com: Botswana: Law for Exiles Needs Fixing
17 June 2009
editorial
Botswana's Refugees Act is obsolete and it needs revamping, some sections of the community urge.
It is gratifying that already there are initiatives to review the act. Last week, at the University of Botswana, the law department held a workshop on the review of the refugees act.
During the deliberations, some panelists raised issues about the prevailing practice in the country where asylum seekers are detained while their applications for asylum are processed.
Some of these applicants are kept in holding cells with illegal immigrants who are awaiting deportation to their countries of origin. Put differently, criminals are put together with asylum seekers. Some of these asylum seekers are children.
This practice has come under condemnation for flouting international best practices as it exposes children and other asylum seekers to security risks. The practice also has the potential to cause far reaching psychological problems for children when they mix with outlaws, some of whom are violent.
While Botswana has over the years tried very hard to be hospitable to asylum seekers, it is important that we maintain international best practices to ensure that we make refugees safe. They should feel at home even though they have fled their countries.
The Refugees Act should be reviewed and all the relics of the past that still exist in the act should be modernized. We believe this review exercise will eventually lead to such a process.
Youth must embrace 'day of African Child'
June has been set aside as the African continent's youth month. More specifically, June 16 has been adopted by the African Union as the 'Day of the African Child'. That gives the African youth an opportunity on that date to see how far they have progressed since the students of South Africa rose up in 1976 against education in the language of the settler community that spoke Afrikaans.
It does appear though, that since that historical milestone, must the African continent and its youth should now urgently consider availing economic resources to young people.
The youth too, have a great challenge, and they should be encouraged to take their destiny into their own hands.
HIV-Positive Migrants Face Deadly Barriers | Human Rights WatchHIV-Positive Migrants Face Deadly Barriers
June 18, 2009
International groups, nations and donors should give increased attention to the protection of human rights and the HIV-prevention and treatment needs of migrants, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The report was issued in advance of the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board meeting in Geneva on June 22, 2009.
The 22-page report, "Discrimination, Denial, and Deportation: Human Rights Abuses Affecting Migrants Living with HIV," describes how discrimination and human rights abuses faced by migrant populations result in increased vulnerability to HIV infection and barriers to care and treatment.
"Discriminatory laws and policies that deny migrants' access to prevention and treatment threaten progress on the global fight against AIDS," said Joseph Amon, director of the Health and Human Rights Division at Human Rights Watch. "HIV treatment interruptions can lead to more infections, the development of drug resistance, and death."
Hundreds of millions of people cross borders annually, travelling and migrating for work or school, for family reasons, or to flee persecution or natural disasters. Millions of others move within countries. Yet, even while pledging to achieve ‘universal' access to HIV prevention, treatment, care, and support by 2010, nations have largely failed to remove barriers and ensure that internal and international migrants have access to HIV services. Instead, many countries have discriminatory laws and policies that restrict the entry, stay, or residence of persons living with HIV and limit the access of internal and international migrants to treatment. Many countries deport migrants without considering whether HIV treatment will be available in their country of origin.
In its report, Human Rights Watch called on nations, international agencies and donors, and nongovernmental organizations to work jointly on law reform and provision of services to ensure freedom from discrimination and continuity of treatment for HIV-positive migrant populations worldwide.
Such discriminatory laws and policies can have devastating results. The report documents:
* The deportation of migrants who test positive for HIV in Saudi Arabia.
* How the vestiges of an internal registration system hinder access to free health care for internal migrants in China and Russia.
* The striking gap between South Africa's guarantees to refugees, asylum seekers, and especially undocumented migrants of access to health care and the harsh reality.
* How HIV-positive individuals deported from the United States often face harsh conditions and a lack of access to health care back in their country of origin.
Nations, international agencies, donors and nongovernmental organizations should continue to demand that countries that have HIV-related restrictions on entry, stay, and residence repeal them immediately and entirely, Human Rights Watch said. Restrictions on access to HIV/AIDS treatment based on origin and citizenship should be immediately eliminated, and deportation laws sending people living with HIV to countries where adequate treatment is unavailable should be reconsidered.
"Since the onset of the epidemic, the vulnerability to HIV infection faced by migrants has been well known," said Amon. "But donors and governments continue to fail to ensure that migrants can access HIV-prevention programs and neglect their urgent need for treatment. Instead of ‘universal access,' migrants face denial and deportation."
Study Finds Immigration Courtrooms Backlogged - NYTimes.comJune 18, 2009
By JULIA PRESTON
Nearly three years after the Justice Department found that the nation’s immigration courts were seriously overburdened and recommended hiring 40 new judges, only a few hirings have taken place and the case backlog is at its highest point in a decade, according to a study released Wednesday.
The report, by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a nonpartisan group that analyzes data about federal government performance, found that the shortage of judges had contributed to a 19 percent increase in the backlog of cases since 2006 and a 23 percent increase in the time it takes to resolve them.
As of April 12, Justice Department officials said, there were 234 active immigration judges, an increase of 4 judges since August 2006. At that time a review by the attorney general, Alberto R. Gonzales, determined that immigration courts were struggling with their case burden and recommended that 40 judges be brought on board.
“It’s a system at its breaking point,” said Dana L. Marks, an immigration judge in San Francisco who is president of the National Association of Immigration Judges. “How can a system function properly when it is starved from the critical basic resources it needs?”
The number of cases soared after the Bush administration hired thousands of new immigration agents and stepped up raids in factories and communities. Last year the immigration courts received 351,477 cases, also a record in the last decade.
“Promises were made and promises weren’t kept, and there is real hurt,” said David Burnham, a co-director of the clearinghouse, also known as TRAC.
Many thousands of immigrants have been affected by the delays because the authorities have started to hold many more of them in detention while the immigrants challenge deportation orders or seek political asylum through the courts.
Each judge in the immigration courts is sharing a law clerk, on average, with three other judges, the report found. In federal district courts, by contrast, each judge normally is assigned more than one clerk. In one week last year that the clearinghouse examined, an immigration judge typically handled 69 hearings. Yet according to the report, 186,342 cases were pending in the immigration courts at the end of the 2008 fiscal year, the highest number in a decade.
The courts that decide immigration matters have generally had lower visibility than the federal courts because they are not part of the judiciary. Instead, they are run by an agency, the Executive Office for Immigration Review, which is part of the Justice Department. Judges are appointed by the attorney general.
A spokesman for the Justice Department, Charles Miller, said the increased time to resolve cases did not mean that the courts were overwhelmed or inefficient. “For example, the case may involve significant legal or unusual issues,” Mr. Miller said.
But he said the department was hiring 19 new immigration judges and had requested 28 more judges and 28 clerks for 2010.
Unlike criminal defendants, immigrants in court do not have a right to be represented by a lawyer. In many cases, the judge is expected to explain basic rights and procedures. But according to the TRAC report, 78 percent of the immigrants that came before the courts since 2006 required a translator.
National Briefing - Washington - Immigration Agents to Get Expanded Powers - NYTimes.comJune 18, 2009
National Briefing | Washington
By GINGER THOMPSON
In an expansion of its crackdown on drug cartels, the Obama administration plans to announce Thursday that it will give Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents the authority to investigate drug crimes. Justice Department officials refused to divulge details of their plans, saying they did not want to pre-empt the news conference. But officials familiar with the plan said it would settle a long-running turf battle between the immigration agency and the Drug Enforcement Administration that has seriously undermined the efforts of both. The decision came amid drug-related violence that left more than 6,000 people dead in Mexico last year. Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, called the Justice Department’s decision “welcome news,” saying, “The cartels that smuggle drugs and illegal immigrants have integrated their activities, and now the federal agencies will have a better integrated response.”
Fiscalía de Cádiz pide siete años y medio para los dos supuestos patrones de una patera con 40 inmigrantes - Yahoo! Noticias
miércoles, 17 de junio, 15.15
Europa Press
El juicio celebrado en la Audiencia Provincial a dos personas de origen marroquí como presuntos patrones de una embarcación interceptada con 40 inmigrantes a bordo quedó visto para sentencia, solicitando la Fiscalía para ellos una condena de siete años y medio de cárcel.
En la vista oral, ambos acusados negaron ser los patrones de la embarcación, mientras que uno de los guardia civiles que actuó en el rescate de los inmigrantes señaló que los propios inmigrantes señalaron a los dos acusados como patrones de la patera.
Según el escrito de calificación fiscal al que tuvo acceso Europa Press, los hechos se produjeron el 6 de septiembre de 2008 cuando agentes del Servicio Marítimo de la Guardia Civil interceptaron a una embarcación con intención de alcanzar las costas españolas de manera ilegal.
La embarcación había partido horas antes de ser interceptada de la costa marroquí, concretamente de la localidad de Monali Bouslam, siendo patroneada, según la Fiscalía, por los dos acusados, que actuaron movidos por la intención de obtener un beneficio patrimonial ilícito procedente del dinero pagado por los inmigrantes, a razón de 1.000 euros por persona.
Por su parte, la defensa mostró su negativa al hecho de que ambos acusados fueron movidos por ánimo de lucro, afirmando que ese hecho no fue acreditado, ya que según el testimonio de inmigrantes que iban en la embarcación, el dinero fue abonado a personas que se quedaron en tierra y no a los acusados, que viajaban con la misma intención de quedarse en España.
Asimismo, la Fiscalía también hizo constar que la embarcación carecía de cualquier medida de seguridad y los ocupantes no disponían de chalecos salvavidas, además de no proveer a ninguno de alimentos y bebidas aunque el viaje podría durar más de 24 horas, suponiendo todo ello un riesgo para la vida y la integridad física de los ocupantes.
American Civil Liberties Union : Senate Overturns Obama Decision Wednesday To Rescind Flawed Bush “No-Match” Immigration Rule (7/9/2009)
Vitter Amendment Requires Employers To Fire Workers Unable to Resolve Discrepancies In Social Security Records
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: (202) 675-2312; media@dcaclu.org
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Senate passed by voice vote today an amendment offered by Senate David Vitter (R-LA) requiring employers to fire workers, including U.S. citizens, who are unable to resolve discrepancies in their Social Security records. The Senate vote seeks to overturn President Obama’s decision Wednesday to rescind the fatally flawed Bush administration Social Security no-match rule by prohibiting the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) from implementing any changes to it.
In passing the Vitter amendment, the Senate has taken a dangerous step that would threaten the jobs of tens of thousands of U.S. workers at a time when our economy is in great peril. The Social Security no-match rule, promulgated by the Bush administration in 2007, has been strongly opposed by groups across the political spectrum – business, labor, immigration, civil rights, and civil libertarian groups. Due to a federal injunction issued in 2007 as a result of a lawsuit filed on behalf of the ACLU and other groups, the no-match rule has not gone into effect.
“While the Senate might think it has taken a step to fix illegal immigration, it has actually set into motion a rule that will jeopardize the jobs of tens of thousands of U.S. citizens who could be unjustly fired under the rule due to SSA database errors,” said Joanne Lin, ACLU Legislative Counsel.
The no-match rule would unlawfully use the error-ridden Social Security database for immigration enforcement purposes by requiring employers to fire workers, including U.S. citizens, who are unable to resolve discrepancies in their Social Security records within 90 days of receipt of a no-match letter. If an employer does not resolve a data mismatch, DHS may conclude that the employer had “constructive knowledge” that an employee is not authorized to work, and may prosecute the employer accordingly.
“Social Security no-match letters were never designed to be immigration enforcement tools, and they cannot and will not solve the problem of illegal immigration,” added Lin. “Moreover, the no-match rule will harm people with disabilities and senior citizens by forcing them to deal with longer waits and more bureaucratic hassles in order to get their Social Security benefits checks. At a time of great economic instability, the Senate has taken a step towards jeopardizing the livelihood of U.S. workers, senior citizens, and people with disabilities.”
In 2007, a federal court blocked the no-match rule after the ACLU, AFL-CIO, and National Immigration Law Center sued DHS. The court concluded that the no-match rule would affect more than eight million workers nationwide and lead to the firing of tens of thousands of U.S. citizens. According to the Social Security Administration’s own Inspector General, more than 70 percent of the discrepancies in the SSA database belong to U.S. citizens. An economist hired by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce estimates that the total number of authorized workers who will be fired under the no-match rule because of their inability to resolve the data mismatch could top 165,000.
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