Immigration Spending Millions On RepatriationJune 11th, 2009
By ROGAN SMITH
The Department of Immigration has spent more than $5.2 million over the past five years on repatriation exercises, according to Immigration State Minister Branville McCartney.
The government also announced yesterday that 2,256 illegal immigrants were repatriated for the January to May 2009 period.
According to Minister McCartney, for the 2004/2005 period, the government spent $639,801 on repatriation exercises, for the 2005/2006 period, the government spent $801,832, for the 2006/2007 period, the government spent $986,620, for the 2007/2008 period, the government spent $1,337,136 and for the 2008/2009 period the government spent $1,453,201.
Immigration officials have long admitted that repatriations are very expensive and absorb much of the department’s budget.
"We will continue to repatriate as quickly as possible. Where persons are found on certain islands, they will be repatriated directly from those islands," Mr. McCartney said.
"The apprehension exercise of illegal immigrants is one of our greatest challenges, amidst its high level of controversy because of the public and the media at times. However, the Immigration Department continues to persist and be courageous in its relentless effort to rid The Bahamas of all illegal immigrants."
The minister was giving his contribution to the 2009/2010 budget debate in the House of Assembly Wednesday.
During his contribution, Minister McCartney also sought to set the record straight on a few misconceptions regarding his department’s investigative efforts.
"It is important to note that our officers investigate both blue and white collar infractions against our immigration laws. We all know of the construction worker, the maid, plumber, carpenter and persons in assorted sales business such as restaurants or clothing stores who are often arrested for infractions against immigration laws," he said.
"Still the public should be aware that our investigations often take us to banks, hotels and business houses where magistrates, chefs, sales managers and bankers and others have arrested as well. Essentially, no illegal foreign national, blue or white collar worker is exempt from immigration control. Wherever they are found in breach of our immigration laws, where the evidence exists, we will arrest and prosecute them to the full extent of the law."
According to January to May 29, 2009 statistics, 121 illegal immigrants have been charged in court for working illegally in The Bahamas. Several Bahamians have also been charged and convicted on various infractions, including employing illegal immigrants, knowingly assisting in illegal landing or possessing forged documents.
Blog of Rights: Official Blog of the American Civil Liberties Union » Private Prisons for Immigrants Lack Accountability, Oversight
(Originally posted on AJC.com)
On March 11, a 39-year-old man held in detention at the Stewart Detention Center, a federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in southwest Georgia, died at a hospital in Columbus.
To this day, the immediate cause of Roberto Martinez Medina’s death remains unclear (a press release pronounced the cause of death as “apparent natural causes”).
Last month, Leonard Odom, 37, died at the Wheeler County Correctional Facility in south-central Georgia.
Both facilities are operated by Corrections Corp. of America, which has a contract with the Department of Homeland Security to operate the Stewart center and one with the Georgia Department of Corrections to operate the one in Wheeler County.
The DOC has not released additional information about the death of Odom, due to an ongoing investigation by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
What sets apart the deaths of these two men held at CCA-operated facilities is the difference in official responses.
In the case of the death at the immigration detention facility, there have been no further explanations regarding what may have prompted the death — much less an official investigation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which was created as a part of Homeland Security in 2003 to consolidate immigration enforcement.
Medina’s tragic death marks the latest in the mounting number of immigrant deaths in the custody of CCA, the largest corporation in the business of for-profit detention.
From October 2003 through Feb. 7, 2009, 18 people died in immigration detention custody in facilities operated by CCA alone, according to information from The New York Times.
Yet ICE has failed repeatedly to hold CCA accountable. Instead, the federal agency continues to reward CCA with additional contracts, most recently for operation of the North Georgia Detention Center in Hall County.
The CCA’s track record should come as no surprise to those who read the report issued in April by Georgia Detention Watch, a coalition of several organizations and individuals advocating an end to unjust and inhumane immigration detention and local enforcement practices.
The report was based on interviews with 16 detainees during a humanitarian visitation coordinated by Georgia Detention Watch in December 2008. The report uses ICE’s own Performance Based National Detention Standards to evaluate conditions at Stewart.
Even compared to ICE’s own nonbinding standards, conditions at the CCA-operated facility can best be described as grossly inadequate.
Members of Georgia Detention Watch and partner organizations have requested on several occasions to meet with ICE to discuss the findings of the report, but have gotten no response.
Georgia Detention Watch is not alone in demanding answers and accountability for immigrant deaths in U.S. detention.
The United Nations Expert on Extrajudicial Killings, Philip Alston, who toured the United States on a fact-finding mission in June 2008 on a mandate to investigate killings in violation of international human rights and humanitarian law, recently released a report demanding greater transparency and swift and public investigations for deaths in immigration detention.
Today marks three months since the death of Medina. ICE has yet to provide any answers regarding why this man died in detention.
Neither have Georgia Detention Watch members been provided with an opportunity to meet with ICE representatives to discuss the mounting concerns regarding the treatment of immigrants at the CCA-run Stewart.
With the prospect for yet another CCA-run immigrant detention facility in Hall County, these concerns become especially urgent.
If ICE’s oversight of the CCA operation of Stewart is any guide, we can expect yet another facility funded by taxpayers held to no standards at all.
I will join others in front of the ICE office in downtown Atlanta today to honor the memory of Medina and other immigrants who have died in CCA custody.
Georgia Detention Watch members will wear black T-shirts reading: “Why Did Roberto Martinez Medina Die in Detention?” Our message is clear: The era for impunity is over. ICE must hold CCA to account.
ASGI12.06.2009
Rafforzato il diritto dello straniero al rilascio di un permesso di soggiorno per motivi umanitari su segnalazione della Commissione territoriale per la protezione internazionale.
La Corte di Cassazione, a Sezioni Unite Civili, ha , per la prima volta affermato la giurisdizione del giudice ordinario su un provvedimento del Questore di diniego di rilascio del permesso di soggiorno per motivi umanitari, richiesto ai sensi dell'art. 5, sesto comma del d.lgs n. 286 del 1998. La Corte, per affermare questo nuovo orientamento, ha valorizzato il mutato quadro normativo del regime giuridico del permesso per ragioni umanitarie, emergente dall'inserimento dell'art. 1 quater (ex art. 32 L. n. 189 del 2002) del d.l. n. 416 del 1989, convertito nella l. n. 39 del 1990, ai sensi del quale le Commissioni territoriali competenti a decidere delle domande di asilo devono, nei casi in cui non accolgano la domanda di protezione umanitaria, trasmettere gli atti al Questore per l'eventuale rilascio del permesso di soggiorno, quando ricorrano gravi motivi di carattere umanitario. Questa rilevante innovazione, entrata in vigore il 20 aprile 2005 e puntualmente confermata nella successiva normazione di derivazione comunitaria sulla protezione internazionale (art. 32 del d.lgs n. 25 del 2008 non derogato dal d.lgs n. 159 del 2008), ha radicalmente modificato, secondo l'interpretazione delle S.U., il rapporto tra attribuzioni della Commissione territoriale e poteri del Questore in quanto le Commissioni sono dotate di tutte le competenze valutative, di natura esclusivamente tecnica e non politico discrezionale in ordine alla pluralità di misure di protezione umanitaria previste dall'ordinamento (status di rifugiato, protezione sussidiaria e misure residuali e temporanee desumibili dall'art. 5, sesto comma del d.lgs n. 286 del 1998) mentre al Questore residua il compito di dare attuazione a tali deliberazioni senza alcun margine di autonoma valutazione sulla condizione "umanitaria" dello straniero.
Corte di Cassazione, Sezioni Unite civili, sentenza del 21 aprile 2009, n. 11535
ASGIConsiglio di Stato, Sezione Sesta, ordinanza del 5 giugno 2009, n. 3765
Il Consiglio di Stato ha respinto il ricorso della Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri e del Ministero dell'Interno contro il provvedimento con cui nel mese di gennaio il TAR del Lazio ha accolto la domanda di sospensiva del Decreto Flussi per l'anno 2008.
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Consiglio di Stato -Decisione 3765/2009 (19.16 KB)
Consiglio di Stato, Sezione Sesta, ordinanza del 5 giugno 2009, n. 3765
allAfrica.com: Nigeria: Switzerland - Nigeria Tops Illegal Migration List
Dele Ogbodo
11 June 2009
Abuja — The Ambassador of Switzerland to Nigeria, Mr. Andreas Baum, Tuesday in Abuja, disclosed that his country witnessed rising number of illegal immigrants from West African countries with Nigerian nationals accounting for the highest number in the last one year.
He said the number tripled when compared to 2007 statistics of migration to Switzerland. Migration Advisor at the Switzerland Embassy, Miss Patricia Dvoracek, who represented the Ambassador made this disclosure at the opening of the 2-day workshop on "National Migration Policy for Regional Project: Migration in West Africa and Central Africa: National Profiles for Strategic Policy Development".
The Ambassador pointed out that the global financial crisis was one of the major causes of illegal migrantion to Europe in search of new job opportunities.
Baum explained that "These facts put our Federal Office for Migration, supervised by the Ministry of Police and Justice, under public and political pressures. Quick and effective answers are required. One of the solutions which the Swiss government is promoting is by supporting the programme "Migration in West and Central Africa: National Profiles for Strategic Policy Development through the International Organization for Migration (IOM)".
He said Swiss Foreign Minister, Mrs. Michelline Calm-Rey, tabled the issue before Nigeria's Foreign Affairs Minister, Chief Ojo Maduekwe, during her recent visit to Nigeria two months ago.
In a key note address, the Minister of Special Duties, Ambassador Ibrahim Kazaure, who spoke through his Permanent Secretary, Edith Gonda, said the workshop which was aimed at the presentation of migration, data-based profile for Nigeria would equip policy makers with the necessary tools to face the challenges of mixed migration flow was not only timely, but a right step towards mainstreaming migration issues in development programme of Nigeria.
He said the Federal Government's commitment to proffer solutions to the challenges posed by regular and irregular migration issues in Nigeria made it to grant additional responsibility granted to the National Commission for Refugees as a focal agency for the management of migration underscores its front burner in the present administration policy trust.
He said government is committed to effective management of migration issues by steaming the tide of irregular migration by discouraging migrants from using illegal routes that often lead to their untimely deaths. He said if migration is effectively managed will reduce the issue of brain drain and ensure the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals as well as the 7-point Agenda
Greece to toughen policy on migrants
2009-06-11 19:07:02 -
ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Greece will toughen its policies on illegal immigration to combat a surge in trafficking from Turkey, the country's interior minister said Thursday.
Traffickers will face tougher penalties, and more detention centers will be created allowing authorities to detain illegal immigrants for up to 12 months, up from the current official limit of three months, Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos said.
Pavlopoulos said a sharp increase in illegal immigration had been worsened because Turkey, with which Greece shares a border, was not adequately enforcing an agreement to take back migrants facing deportation from Greece.
In 2008, Greek authorities arrested more than 146,000 illegal immigrants, a 30 percent increase from the previous year and a 54 percent jump from 2006, according to figures from the Interior Ministry.
The measures announced Thursday follow the surge in support for a rightist party in European Parliament elections last Sunday, as well a violence protest on May 22 by Muslim immigrants in central Athens, protesting the alleged defacement of a Quran by a Greek policeman.
Earlier this week, police clashed with rival groups of demonstrators near the center of the capital, when local residents tried to block mostly Asian immigrants from entering a public playground.
El Gobierno abre la puerta a la regularización del inmigrante que perdió un brazo
El ministro de Tranbajo espera que recaiga "todo el peso de le ley" sobre el empresario que abandonó a Franns Rilles
AGENCIAS - Alicante - 11/06/2009
La secretaria de Estado de Inmigración y Emigración, Consuelo Rumí, ha asegurado que el Gobierno está dispuesto a estudiar la posibilidad de regularizar al inmigrante que perdió el brazo izquierdo en una máquina de amasar en una panificadora de Gandía y que fue abandonado por su jefe a 50 metros de llegar al hospital. Rumí ha señalado que el caso puede encajar en los supuestos de regularización por razones humanitarias.
Rumí hizo estas declaraciones en Alicante, donde inauguró una jornada técnica sobre la futura ley de Extranjería, al ser preguntada por la posibilidad de regularizar la situación del herido. La secretaria de Estado destacó que "la ley contempla actualmente situaciones donde se puede estudiar la posibilidad de la documentación en función de razones humanitarias".
Atendiendo a ese supuesto, "si se solicita" la regularización, "se va a estudiar", puesto que "es evidente que es uno de los casos que pueden" acogerse en él. "Esto llevará sus trámites por parte de la Subdelegación del Gobierno correspondiente", añadió.
Según Comisiones Obreras, otra de las condiciones que reúne Rilles es carecer de antecedentes penales en España y en su país de origen, así como poder demostrar la existencia de relaciones laborales "cuya duración no sea inferior a un año". El sindicato estudiará además la posibilidad de solicitar una pensión de invalidez si se reconoce la relación laboral entre el empleado, que estaba contratatado en situación irregular, y la panficadora.
Asimismo, la secretaria de Estado ha afirmado que su departamento ha requerido al Observatorio del Racismo y la Xenofobia un análisis del caso para estudiar qué medidas se pueden adoptar si se constatan los hechos. Rumí calificó de "repugnante" la conducta del empresario y manifestó que si los hechos se constatan, "puesto que está abierta una investigación, se tomarán todas las medidas que ya hoy tenemos en nuestro alcance en el ámbito legal". No obstante, añadió que prefiere "esperar a tener todos los resultados de esa investigación", para adoptar una decisión.
En este sentido, el ministro de Trabajo e Inmigración, Celestino Corbacho, ha asegurado que "debe recaer todo el peso de la ley" sobre el empresario que, presuntamente, no asistió al inmigrante boliviano. Corbacho, durante una rueda de prensa en Valladolid, ha comentado que en época de crisis muchas personas "aceptan cualquier puesto de trabajo y alguien puede tener poco escrúpulo para obtener un beneficio económico" sin respetar derechos de los trabajadores. Por ello, añadió se ha incrementado en lo que va de año un 30% la labor de la Inspección de Trabajo contra "la economía irregular". "Quienes contratan tienen que saber que la Inspección será contundente", ha advertido.
Corbacho ha reiterado que espera que "recaiga todo el peso de la ley" sobre un empresario que "no le prestó la atención necesaria" al trabajador herido, al que supuestamente abandonó en las cercanías de un centro sanitario antes de arrojar el brazo amputado a un contenedor.
Investigación de la Guardia Civil
En este sentido, la Fiscalía de Siniestralidad Laboral de Valencia ha pedido informes a la Guardia Civil y a la Inspección de Trabajo para investigar lo ocurrido. Según fuentes próximas a la investigación, el fiscal de Siniestralidad de Valencia, Jaime Gil, ha requerido al fiscal de Gandía que oficie a la Guardia Civil y a la Inspección informes "en la mayor brevedad posible", para determinar en qué delitos pudieron incurrir los jefes de este joven, de 33 años.
Con los informes, la Fiscalía decidirá qué actuaciones adoptará para esclarecer este asunto y determinar las posibles responsabilidades, indicaron las mismas fuentes, que aseguraron que por este caso se ha interesado también el fiscal de Sala de Siniestralidad, que ha pedido un seguimento puntual por parte del ministerio público.
La Guardia Civil ya detuvo la semana pasada a los dos jefes del joven, hermanos propietarios del horno, por un delito contra los derechos de los trabajadores, ya que, supuestamente, tenían empleados a su cargo a personas sin ningún tipo de contrato. Respecto a la denuncia del joven de que uno de los jefes lo abandonó, la Guardia Civil está investigando los hechos por si adopta cualquier otra medida. Por el momento, ha clausurado el establecimiento.
El brazo, en la basura
El joven, de origen boliviano, que se encuentra "bien" e ingresado en el Hospital Virgen del Consuelo de Valencia, llevaba trabajando en esa empresa de Gandia algo más de un año y medio, sin contrato de trabajo, al igual que el resto de los compañeros, según denunció su hermana, Silvia.
En el momento del accidente se encontraba amasando 40 kilogramos de harina y, cuando se le cayó un plástico, se le quedó enganchado el brazo izquierdo en la máquina. Según su hermana, "perdió el brazo, pero la máquina podía haberlo tragado si no la hubiera apagado".
Tras el incidente, el jefe del joven lo subió a su vehículo y dijo que iba a llevarlo al hospital San Francisco de Borja de Gandia, aunque unos 50 metros antes de llegar lo obligó a bajar y lo abandonó en plena calle, "mientras perdía mucha sangre". La hermana afirma que el empresario se comportó de esta manera porque "no tenía permisos ni licencias" y, además, "tenía a sus trabajadores sin contrato, sin papeles".
Un viandante ayudó al joven a llegar al servicio de Urgencias del hospital de Gandia, donde los médicos se pusieron en contacto con el cirujano Pedro Cavadas y su equipo para ver si le podían reimplantarle el brazo. Por este motivo, los facultativos trasladaron al joven hasta el Hospital Virgen del Consuelo de Valencia, donde el doctor Cavadas no pudo hacer nada por reimplantarse el brazo, puesto que éste "se encontraba en muy mal estado, ya que los empresarios, tras lo ocurrido, lo tiraron a un contenedor", denunció Silvia, quien también recordó que "limpiaron todo para no dejar restos de nada".
ekathimerini.com | Plan for migrant units, returns
Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos is expected to take advantage of today’s Cabinet meeting to propose the creation of temporary reception centers for the capital’s burgeoning population of illegal immigrants in disused military camps on the outskirts of Attica as well as closer cooperation with foreign embassies to arrange the repatriation of migrants where necessary, Kathimerini has learned.
According to sources, a chartered aircraft left Athens for Islamabad late last night with an undetermined number of Pakistani migrants aboard.
Apart from the sensitive issue of possible deportations, Pavlopoulos is also expected to broach the controversial issues of the construction of a mosque and cemetery for the capital’s Muslims. Also on the agenda is the intensification of police sweeps in central Athens, where hundreds of illegal immigrants live in filthy squats and are drawn into crime rings, and the recruitment of hundreds more border guards to keep out additional would-be migrants.
The news came following a tense Tuesday night in the central Athens district of Aghios Panteleimonas where self-styled anarchists clashed with residents alleged to have locked the entrance to a local park, ostensibly to keep immigrants out. According to police, locals tried to intervene when a group of the protesters turned up and tried to break a padlock on the gate to the park. A scuffle broke out between the two sides though no injuries were reported. Later that night, the self-styled anarchists clashed with riot police, who had been dispatched to the area to restore order, leading to five arrests. The large population of immigrants, mostly from Afghanistan, living in Aghios Panteleimonas has led to escalating tensions in the area in recent months, with many residents calling for the foreigners to be removed and supporters of extreme-right groups taking advantage of the situation. A makeshift mosque in the area was torched at the end of last month.
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