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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.”
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