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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
Frantic quest for asylum-seekers | The Australian
Paul Maley and Stephen Fitzpatrick | July 10, 2009
Article from: The Australian
AUSTRALIAN officials were last night frantically trying to ascertain the fate of up to 74 asylum-seekers aboard a stricken fishing boat, after Foreign Minister Stephen Smith conceded reports that the Indonesian navy had rescued the boat were wrong.
Mr Smith's admission came as Indonesian officials expressed frustration over what they described as "inaccurate" information from the Australian Federal Police regarding the boat's supposed sinking.
In a statement released late last night, Mr Smith said an assurance he offered on the ABC's Lateline program 24 hours earlier -- that the boat had been rescued after the AFP tipped off Indonesian authorities -- was wrong.
Mr Smith said his advice was based on reports conveyed by the Indonesians to Australian officials in Jakarta.
He conceded that Australian officials had no idea what had become of the Australia-bound vessel, understood to contain a number of women and children.
Mr Smith's comments mark the latest chapter in an extraordinary rescue attempt, which began with a text message sent by one of the boat's passengers to a contact in Pakistan.
That message was then relayed to Australian refugee advocate Ian Rintoul, who, after contacting passengers aboard the boat, alerted Australia's Border Protection Command.
Border Protection Command is understood to have alerted the AFP, who sent a text message to Indonesian authorities.
Border Protection Command yesterday refused to confirm it had been contacted by Mr Rintoul.
The AFP confirmed it was aware of reports of a vessel in distress but declined to comment further, saying the incident occurred in Indonesian waters and was the responsibility of Indonesian authorities.
Mr Rintoul said he had three conversations with passengers on the boat after he received the message at 5am on Wednesday.
"They kept saying, 'We need help, we need help, there are people in distress, we're taking on water," Mr Rintoul told The Australian.
"I kept saying, 'Where are you, where are you?' but I couldn't make any sense of it."
Mr Rintoul said he received four or five text messages from one of the passengers.
The last one read: "I dont know da location. My mb has no power now. I cnt contact u anymore. May God help us."
Mr Rintoul said he had since received a text message from his contact in Pakistan, who had been in contact with passengers aboard the boat.
The passengers said they were on an island, indicating the boat made land and did not sink.
That conclusion was supported by Indonesian authorities, who said yesterday they had called off their search for the 74 Afghans and Indonesian boat crew members.
Okto George Riwu, from police headquarters in East Nusa Tenggara province, where the asylum-seekers were reported to have landed, described the situation as "confusing".
"The information we received was certainly inaccurate," Mr Riwu said. "We conducted our search and rescue operation based on what it said, and didn't find anything. All the islands in this area have been thoroughly combed."
El Tribunal de la UE condena a España por no trasponer una directiva sobre asilo - Yahoo! Noticias
jueves, 9 de julio, 13.27
EFE
Bruselas, 9 jul (EFE).- El Tribunal de Justicia de la UE condenó hoy a España por no trasponer a tiempo una directiva comunitaria que establece los requisitos mínimos para el reconocimiento y el estatuto de refugiados o persona que necesitan asilo.
Esas medidas, incluidas en una norma comunitaria de 2004, no han sido aplicadas aún al ordenamiento jurídico español, según constataron los jueces de Luxemburgo al aceptar los argumentos planteados en la denuncia que presentó en 2007 la Comisión Europea.
El Tribunal rechazó el argumento español de que las disposiciones vigentes en la actualidad se ajustan a esa directiva, aunque no garantizan una adaptación completa de la norma, según indicaron fuentes jurídicas.
El proyecto de ley de asilo se aprobó en el Congreso de los Diputados a finales de junio y se espera su aprobación en el Senado para después del verano, según indicaron fuentes españolas.
allAfrica.com: Mozambique: Maratane Refugees Complain of Ill-Treatment
16 June 2009
Maputo — Some refugees in the Maratane centre, in the northern Mozambican province of Nampula, mostly from the Great Lakes region in central Africa, have accused the commander of the local police post, Muriricha Chicopo, of abuse of power, reports Tuesday's issue of the Maputo daily 'Noticias'.
Among the alleged irregularities, the accusers mention detentions for refusing to give products on credit, and a ban on wearing clothes which might be confused with military uniforms.
One of the refugees, Bishop She-Ndaby, told reporters that such complaints have been reported to the provincial police command and to the managers of the centre. He said that such irregularities have reached "intolerable" proportions, threatening that this situation may lead to demonstrations, with serious consequences.
"Nobody can bear any longer the humiliation to which he is submitting us", said She-Ndaby.
He added that one of the refugees, only identified as Alijo, was arrested recently for playing dice, an activity that the refugees regard as simple entertainment, after work in the fields, and not a crime.
Another refugee, whose identity was not revealed, is said to have been arrested for wearing clothes similar to military uniform, which he claimed to have purchased among bundles of second hand clothes.
She-Ndaby said that the matter has been reported to the provincial police command, "but no action was taken to reverse the situation'.
Nampula Police spokesperson Oliveira Maneque expressed doubt about the refugees' allegations.
For his part, the centre's interim manager Antonio Mussupai said that he has never received any reports on such irregularities. "I have never been informed about this matter, but now I promise I will take steps to find out the truth".
According to Mussupai, the main problem with some of the asylum seekers has to do with attempts to disobey the legally established order.
"I will not comment on the issue of credit, because I do not know in what circumstances it happened, but as for clothes with military characteristics, the regulations prohibit it, because there (in the refugee camp) you can't circulate things that make people think about war. And as for the dice game, it is an illicit activity and measures must be taken against it", said Mussupai.
On his recent visit to the centre, Nampula provincial governor Felismino Tocoli advised the about 4,000 refugees in the centre to respect the local authorities and the laws of Mozambique.
Sveriges Radio International - English -- Engelska
Three abandoned brothers from war-torn Congo Kinshasa who fled to Sweden two years ago are fighting to stay here after being told by the Swedish Migration Board that they must go back to their native country.
The boys, Asa, Kenneth and Patrick Vuvu who aged 7, 13 and 14 , say they face torture and death if they're sent back. Now their schoolfriends, local residents and politicians are campaigning to keep them in Sweden.
Listen to Dave Russell's report
Two years ago they fled Congo Kinshasa with their mother seeking political asylum in Sweden after their father, a member of the political opposition, disappeared. Six months later after their plea for asylum in Sweden was rejected three times, the mother fled underground, hoping that with her 3 children living alone, they'd have a legal right to stay. The boys now live with a guardian.
The Swedish Migration Board has said that it found no evidence that the children faced torture by being sent back to Congo. It did say that it would never leave children in a country on their own but if it could find a relative or another acceptable way, then it would follow the children over there and hand them into safe care. But it wouldn't do that until it was 100 percent sure that the boys would be looked after.
The Independent: Languages test for suspect asylum-seekersJune 16, 2009
By David Hughes, Press Association
Asylum seekers claiming to come from Palestine or Kuwait will face being tested on their own language in a bid to weed out bogus applications under changes announced by ministers today.
Immigration Minister Phil Woolas said a "significant proportion" of Palestinian and Kuwaiti claims were actually from other nationalities.
The change follows a similar effort to tighten up restrictions on Somali asylum applications.
In a written statement to MPs, Mr Woolas said: "Language analysis carried out for some Somali asylum applicants demonstrates that significant proportions of those tested have claimed to be of a nationality, or from a region or grouping, that is not their own in order to try to gain residence in this country.
"We are aware that a significant proportion of Palestinian and Kuwaiti claims also are from other nationalities.
"This new authorisation will assist the Secretary of State to make decisions in individual Palestinian and Kuwaiti cases, and to ascertain the extent of abuse within these nationalities."
Mr Woolas said the Home Secretary could take a refusal to be tested into account when determining a case.
The new power will be reviewed in April 2010.
República Dominicana, ante el reto de reordenar la inmigración
Cientos de miles de haitianos indocumentados, destinatarios de la regularización
IBAN CAMPO - Santo Domingo - 16/06/2009
A Franklin Almeyda, ministro del Interior y Policía de República Dominicana, le atraen las misiones imposibles. En el verano de 2006 logró la aplicación de un decreto para establecer límites de horario de cierre a bares y restaurantes en un país en el que la diversión nocturna es casi una obligación nacional.
Ahora quiere cambiar la frágil realidad inmigratoria de su país, marcada por la ausencia de estadísticas fiables sobre los extranjeros que viven en él, pero sobre todo en lo concerniente a la cantidad de haitianos que lo habitan, la gran mayoría de manera ilegal, principal foco de discordia cuando se analiza el tema migratorio.
Para provocar el cambio, el ministerio ha iniciado el debate en torno a una propuesta para registrar y regularizar a los extranjeros, legales e indocumentados.
Los cientos de miles de haitianos que viven sin papeles en República Dominicana —el rumor público habla de que, junto con los legales, suman en total cerca de millón y medio— serían los principales destinatarios de una iniciativa que sigue el ejemplo de otros países que han llevado a cabo procesos semejantes.
Algunas de esas experiencias se analizaron en el encuentro
internacional Políticas Migratorias y Experiencias en Procesos de Regularización, celebrado el 10 y 11 de junio en Santo Domingo, la capital del país, y al que asistieron representantes de 25 países.
Una de las dificultades para el proceso que se quiere aplicar en República Dominicana se palpa en la epidermis del país, especialmente sensible a la hora de hablar de la legalización de sus vecinos isleños. Lo que se plantea como la solución definitiva para enfrentarse a la debilidad en la aplicación de legislaciones migratorias tiene los visos de una carrera de obstáculos que el ministro Almeyda pretende sortear apelando a altas dosis de firmeza y actitud racional en detrimento de las posiciones emocionales.
El debate iniciado la pasada semana trata específicamente sobre el reglamento para aplicar la ley de migración. En él se habla, entre otras cosas, de establecer cuotas para la inmigración laboral, de cuidar los intereses de los emigrantes dominicanos, de los procesos de deportación y de "preparar y ejecutar el Plan Nacional de Registro y Regularización de los extranjeros", que se extenderá durante 36 meses a partir de su inicio.
Tomando como límite la promulgación de la nueva Constitución dominicana, en proceso de revisión en la Asamblea Nacional, todo extranjero que probase hasta dicho tope su residencia en República Dominicana por espacio de 10 años o más recibiría la residencia permanente y un documento válido por cuatro años renovable. Quienes demostrasen lo mismo por un periodo de entre cinco y 10 años obtendrían la residencia temporal, válida por dos años y sujeta a su cambio a permanente. Al resto se le reconoce un estatus de no residente con la entrega de un documento valedero por 60 días para turistas y por un año para trabajadores temporales, de acuerdo con la ley.
Si bien es cierto que República Dominicana enamora a los visitantes y no son pocos los que fijan su residencia en ella, también lo es que los extranjeros de otras nacionalidades diferentes a la haitiana suelen a estar legalizados. Y hasta se nacionalizan.
Según datos del ministro Almeyda, en los últimos cinco años, se nacionalizaron dominicanos 700 cubanos, 400 chinos, 400 estadounidenses y entre 100 y 200 colombianos y venezolanos: "Sólo 25 del total de nacionalizados fueron haitianos", afirmó.
El proceso de regularización involucrará en especial a los llegados del país vecino, generalmente mano de obra barata que trabaja en el sector de la construcción, en el campo y, últimamente, en la hostelería, así como en la venta callejera de frutas y comidas de cuestionable calidad sanitaria.
Hay que añadir a quienes cruzan para acudir a los hospitales públicos dominicanos. Las embarazadas llegan a representar la mitad de los casos atendidos por los médicos. Sus hijos, sin embargo, no son susceptibles de obtener una nacionalidad dominicana que niegan las disposiciones constitucionales actuales y venideras. Sólo podrán aspirar a inscribir a sus hijos en un Libro de Extranjería a título, exclusivamente, de constancia de nacimiento.
En la inauguración de la conferencia internacional mencionada, el presidente dominicano, Leonel Fernández, planteó "un ordenamiento, una forma de regularización al fenómeno migratorio que tiene que partir de la idea siempre del respeto a los derechos humanos". El ministro Franklin Almeyda está decidido a seguir esa línea. Pero no todos en el Gobierno lo ven así. El ministro de Relaciones Exteriores, Carlos Morales Troncoso, cree que las regularizaciones "envían a quienes aspiran a inmigrar ilegalmente el mensaje de que pueden apostar a que ellos, con el tiempo, y tras una extendida permanencia, también le tumbarán el pulso a la ley". Además, "no resuelven el problema de la inmigración ilegal para siempre, y no impiden que la situación que corrigen vuelva a repetirse una y otra vez".
Pour dénoncer l'aide d'urgence, ils occupent un centre de requérants :: Le Courrier :: Quotidien suisse indépendant
Paru le Lundi 15 Juin 2009
MICHAËL RODRIGUEZ
Vaud VEVEY - Des militants du droit d'asile ont occupé un centre de requérants vendredi soir, avant d'être délogés par la police. Ils réclament l'abolition de l'aide d'urgence.
Les militants du droit d'asile haussent le ton contre le régime de l'aide d'urgence. Vendredi soir, sept membres du collectif «Droit de rester» ont occupé le centre de requérants de Vevey, alors qu'une trentaine de personnes manifestaient devant le bâtiment. Tous réclament la fin du rationnement des prestations sociales frappant les recalés de l'asile. «Aide d'urgence = torture», pouvait-on lire sur une banderole et sur les tracts des manifestants. Une autre action devrait avoir lieu cette semaine.
Paisible évacuation
Les visiteurs surprise avaient l'intention de prendre leurs quartiers deux ou trois jours dans le centre. Finalement, ils n'y seront restés qu'une poignée d'heures. Appelés par la direction du centre, cinq ou six agents de Police Riviera ont sommé les occupants de quitter les lieux. Il était alors un peu plus de 22 h, heure à laquelle le centre ferme ses portes aux visiteurs. Après avoir parlementé un moment avec la police, les militants ont accepté de sortir du bâtiment vers 23 h. L'Etablissement vaudois d'accueil des migrants (EVAM) ne portera pas plainte contre les occupants. «Nous n'allons pas mettre de l'huile sur le feu», explique sa porte-parole, Emmanuelle Marendaz Colle. Si elle juge «très bien que des citoyens suisses prennent la défense des migrants», la porte-parole de l'EVAM est en revanche irritée par les nombreuses «erreurs» contenues dans les tracts du collectif. Elle réfute notamment les critiques formulées sur l'accès aux soins médicaux et la nourriture dans les centres d'aide d'urgence.
Pétition lancée
Le collectif «Droit de rester», membre de la Coordination asile Vaud, a lancé dans la foulée une pétition en faveur des requérants déboutés et des personnes frappées de non-entrée en matière (NEM), qui sont au nombre de 600 environ dans le canton. Le texte demande l'abolition du régime précaire imposé à ces migrants, l'octroi de permis de séjour et la suppression de l'interdiction de travailler. Sur ce dernier point, le Conseil d'Etat vient de montrer qu'il est déterminé à ne rien faire (lire ci-contre).
La pétition a déjà circulé samedi à Vevey, où 200 signatures ont été récoltées en une journée, affirme le collectif. Accompagnés d'une quinzaine de requérants, les militants se sont installés dans un parc de la ville. «Nous avions demandé de pouvoir y camper pendant deux ou trois jours, relate Graziella de Coulon, membre de la Coordination asile. Mais le municipal de police (le socialiste Lionel Girardin, ndlr) ne nous a pas donné l'autorisation.» Le collectif envisage de mener d'autres actions dans le courant de la semaine. Au départ, il aurait souhaité occuper une église plutôt qu'un centre de requérants, mais les négociations avec les responsables protestants et catholiques ont avorté. Graziella de Coulon leur reproche d'avoir d'abord accepté, puis de s'être rétractés. «Nous avons donné une réponse positive, rétorque Pascale Gilgien, conseillère synodale de l'Eglise évangélique réformée. Mais nous voulions qu'un groupe de travail commun soit créé, afin de savoir où et comment se ferait cette occupation. Or la Coordination asile n'a pas donné suite à notre demande.» I
Management of asylum applications report | Parliament News
16 June 2009
Public Accounts Committee today publishes a report looking at the UK Border Agency's management of asylum applications.
* Report: Management of Asylum Applications by the UK Border Agency
* Public Accounts Committee
Edward Leigh MP, Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts, today said:
"It is in the interest of neither applicants for asylum nor the taxpayer that applications for asylum take a long time to be concluded. The new programme for managing applications, the New Asylum Model, has brought a lot of improvements to the management of new cases. But the process of coming to decisions on whether to grant asylum is still too slow. Following a surge in applications in 2007, the backlog of cases where a decision had not yet been made doubled in a year, to 8,700 in the second quarter of 2008.
"Over and above this backlog, there is the one of existing ‘legacy’ cases which predated the New Asylum Model. It is welcome that the Home Office has given a firm commitment to this Committee that it will meet its target of concluding all of these legacy cases by 2011, especially since some of these old cases might be difficult to resolve.
"Giving priority to the removal of foreign national prisoners has reduced the amount of detention space available for failed asylum applicants. The result is that few failed asylum applicants are yet being removed from the UK under the New Asylum Model. The Home Office is certainly finding it difficult to achieve the tipping point, where more failed applicants are removed than there are unfounded applications.
"In order to free up detention spaces, the Home Office must review all foreign national prisoner cases at the start of their sentences, to prepare for the immediate removal of those recommended for deportation on their release from custody. The enforced removal of a failed asylum applicant is also often made very difficult by obstacles outside the Home Office’s control. The Department needs to work with the Courts, foreign government and other bodies to make the process of enforced removal more tractable."
Mr Leigh was speaking as the Committee published its 28th report of this Session which, on the basis of evidence from the Home Office, examined its progress to date, and on the obstacles to faster, more accurate completion of cases.
In 2006, our predecessors published a critical report on the shortcomings in the removals system, making wide-ranging recommendations. Revisiting the subject of asylum applications and removals some three years on, we are pleased to note that the Home Office (the Department) has responded positively and progress has been made. The Department has implemented the New Asylum Model, whereby a Case Owner manages all new asylum cases from application to conclusion, at which stage the applicant is either allowed to stay in the UK or returned to their country of origin. We are also pleased to note that, as a direct result of implementing our recommendations, the Department also established a separate process to clear the backlog of 400,000–450,000 legacy cases unresolved at the introduction of the New Asylum Model.
The New Asylum Model has resulted in the Department reaching an initial decision more quickly and in cases being concluded faster than in 2006. We also have the Department’s firm assurance that the legacy cases will be cleared by 2011.
Amongst the many cases awaiting completion, there are undoubtedly many people who genuinely need humanitarian protection because they are fleeing oppression, as well as those with more tenuous claims to asylum. The Department still faces significant challenges, however, in bringing these cases to a prompt conclusion. Faster, more accurate completion of cases reduces both uncertainty for the applicant and the cost to the tax payer. The Department is halfway through its programme of stepped improvements in the time taken to conclude cases. Removal poses a challenge. It will be another four years before the Department has the total of 4,000 detention spaces that it needs to increase removals to optimum levels, and before its new IT system is fully operational. The Department also needs to work with the Courts, foreign governments and other bodies to bring about the legal changes and diplomatic solutions needed to resolve obstacles to removal that lie outside its control.
timesofmalta.com - Refugees leave for the USMonday, 15th June 2009 - 14:34CET
A group of 10 refugees from Somalia and Eritrea left Malta today to begin a new life in the United States. Since the U.S. Embassy began its permanent refugee resettlement programme in May 2008, over 260 refugees have been resettled to the U.S.
Jason Davis, Chargé d'Affaires at the U.S. Embassy, said that the refugee resettlement programme showed the continuing commitment of the United States to help ease the burden that migration had placed on Malta, as well as its recognition of the enormous challenges and dangers that many of the migrants had faced.
"The Programme's success is a tribute to continued hard work on the part of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Organization for Migration, and the United States government, as well as many others here in Malta who have dedicated themselves to improving the lives of refugees in need of humanitarian assistance," Mr Davis said.
He explained that refugees are assigned a sponsor agency in the U.S. that provides initial services such as housing, food, and clothing, as well as referral to medical care, employment services, and other support services during the transition period to self-sufficiency. These services are provided in order to facilitate refugees with the process of integration and cultural assimilation.
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
allAfrica.com: Angola: Over 50 Illegal Immigrants Repatriated
8 June 2009
At least 51 immigrants from the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, who entered illegally the northern Uíge Province, were repatriated over the last weekend.
They were repatriated via Kimbata, Maquela do Zombo District, by the Migration and Foreigners Services (SME) of Uíge Province, said Monday a source with the institution.
According to the provincial director of SME, Manuel Miguel, out of the mentioned number, 39 foreigners were residing illegally in Uíge City, whereas the remaining ones were staying in Maquela do Zombo District.
ANGOP also learnt that 14 other citizens of various nationalities (west Africa) were also detained in Maquela do Zombo and sent to Luanda Sunday, for repatriation process to their respective countries of origin.
allAfrica.com: South Africa: Rethink on Special Visas for Zimbabwean Migrants
Wilson Johwa
9 June 2009
Johannesburg — Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma is reviewing the dispensation that allows undocumented Zimbabwean migrants to live and work in SA
HOME Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has referred back to the drawing board the proposed special dispensation giving undocumented Zimbabwean migrants already in SA the right to live and work for up to a year.
Her department is also reviewing the recently introduced visa-free entry facility that allows Zimbabwean passport holders the right to work in SA for 90 days .
Home affairs spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said yesterday Dlamini- Zuma was reviewing all processes in the department.
The proposed special dispensation for Zimbabweans was among the measures sent back for discussion on the "nature, scope and implication of the decision".
Government insiders said that in some quarters it was believed there had not been enough consultation before announcing the measures.
Other concerns were that neighbouring countries did not have renewable visa-free entry for Zimbabweans, and visitors to SA from countries such as Mozambique qualified only for a limited period during the year, and had no right to work.
Set to be rolled out from the department's new refugee reception centre in Pretoria, the facility was aimed at addressing the humanitarian situation in Zimbabwe, where many now live off foreign remittances.
Registration of border jumpers was also meant to improve the security situation. In addition, the special permit for undocumented Zimbabwean immigrants would have saved money spent on deporting people who almost always returned to SA.
Loren Landau, head of the Forced Migration Studies Programme at the University of the Witwatersrand, suspects that any change of plans by home affairs was for the sake of short- term domestic interests.
During an "economic downturn and job losses, there will always be sentiments against immigration", he said yesterday.
Shortly before the elections, then Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula announced that the department would introduce a special permit meant for undocumented Zimbabwean migrants in SA.
Valid for 12 months, the proposed document would have given the holder access to services such as health and education.
In April, home affairs suspended deportations while granting Zimbabwean passport holders reciprocal visa- free entry into the country with the option to work. Such a provision was unusual in the region. While Mozambican, Lesotho and Swazi nationals enjoy visa-free access into SA, they do not have an automatic right to work.
The government was keen on implementing a uniform policy for all neighbouring countries but it was under pressure from local and international rights groups to accommodate Zimbabweans fleeing the crisis.
Last week Medecins Sans Frontieres called on the government and United Nations agencies to urgently address the humanitarian needs of Zimbabweans refugees.
"Every day, despite claims that Zimbabwe is 'normalising', thousands of Zimbabweans continue to cross the border into SA, fleeing economic meltdown, food insecurity, political turmoil and the total collapse of their health system," said the medical group's SA head, Rachel Cohen.
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