Ireland: Immigrant council demands rights for migrant workers

from Ireland On-Line:

The Irish Immigrant Council is calling for rights for migrant workers to allow their families to stay here with them under their work permit.

It has accused the Government of treating immigrants as economic units rather than people with rights who deserve a family life.

The executive chairwoman of the council, Sister Stanislaus Kennedy, said many immigrants are suffering severe hardship because they are separated from their children and spouses.

read original story ...

Irish Immigrant Council

USA: family faces deportation after lawyer errs

from the Des Moines Register:

Washington residents are shocked that a family of eight who have lived in southeast Iowa for 13 years is being deported due to an error in paperwork by a now-disbarred attorney.
...
Four of Olegario Lopez's six children and his wife are being forced to leave the United States by March 2005 after former attorney Rufino Villarreal filed for political asylum for the family even though they hadn't requested it.
...

read full story ...

UK: Protest at Deportation of Zimbabwe Asylum Seekers

from the Scotsman:

Protesters gathered at Gatwick Airport tonight to demonstrate against the deportation of Zimbabwean asylum seekers who came to Britain to escape President Mugabe’s brutal regime.

Members of the Zimbabwean Association, a support group for asylum seekers from the country, planned to disrupt the six o’clock flight to Malawi.

They claim two activists who were tortured and another woman who Mugabe’s men tried to force into his youth militia were being deported wrongly.

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UK: Gay Algerian Refugee Must Stay

from UK Gay News:

A gay Algerian refugee is at risk of deportation back to his home country, where there is a serious danger he would be murdered by Islamic fundamentalists.

“I fled Algeria because the Islamists beat me and threatened to kill me,” said Isalam – not his real name, as he fears the persecution of his family in Algeria.



“Being deported back to Algeria would be a nightmare. It is a very dangerous place for lesbians and gay men. People like me get killed. I could not cope with always looking over my shoulder, fearful of being murdered because of my sexuality,” he added.

Gay rights group OutRage! is backing Isalam’s claim for refuge in the UK.

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Australia: 3 asylum seekers attempt suicide, others on hunger strike

from The Australian:

FIVE inmates at the Baxter detention centre have attempted suicide in the past three weeks, refugee advocates said today.

One of the detainees had tried to kill himself by inserting wires into a power point in his room, while another tried to hang himself with a bed sheet, Asylum Seeker Resource Centre campaign coordinator Pamela Curr said.

A third detainee shaved his head and eyebrows and had climbed onto a roof for six hours to talk to God, later threatening to jump from the roof.
....
Meanwhile, the department today confirmed a number of detainees were taking part in a hunger strike at the Baxter centre, in South Australia's north.

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UK: refugee in 10th day of hunger strike

from Doncaster Today

A DESPERATE asylum seeker was yesterday starting his tenth day without water or food after apparently losing hope over a bid to stay in Doncaster.

Iranian Ali Avishli, 37, has sewn his lips together and is refusing medical help, despite his condition worsening by the day.

Friends say homeless Mr Avishli, whose last bid for asylum was turned down, wants to die in the town rather than return to the country where he was tortured by police before fleeing two years ago.

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USA: Immigrant Advocacy Center to close due to lack of funding

from The Perry Chief:

... "The center is currently in the red $39, 817 with no bale out," said Lloyd DeMoss, CEO. He also commented that the center had been partially funded by United Way and that that funding has ended.

The Immigrant Advocacy Center can now find no additional funding although they have been seeking it from a number of places. However, if funding were to again become available they would consider re-opening.
...
According to DeMoss, the advocacy for immigrants "is just not a high priority with the government right now."

read full story ...

USA: children 'orphaned' by deporation

from International Herald Tribune:

NEW YORK When her mother dropped by a federal immigration office here to complete some paperwork in April last year, 8-year-old Virginia Feliz became part of a growing tribe of American children who have lost a parent to deportation.
.
Her mother, Berly Feliz, 47, who migrated to the United States illegally a decade ago, went to the immigration office on a routine visit to renew her work authorization. But because an old deportation order had resurfaced, she was quickly clapped into handcuffs, and within hours placed on a plane to her native Honduras, unable to say goodbye to her husband and little girl.
.
Virginia declared that she hates her last name, which means happy in Spanish. "I'm not happy; I'm sad," she said. "Because it's not fair that everybody else has their mom except me." She dropped onto a couch next to her father, Carlos Feliz, a U.S. citizen who was born in the Dominican Republic.
.
No one keeps track of exactly how many American children were left behind by the record 186,000 noncitizens expelled from the United States last year, or the 887,000 others required to make a "voluntary departure."
.
But immigration experts say there are tens of thousands of children every year who are U.S. citizens and lose a parent to deportation. As the debate over immigration policy heats up, such broken families are troubling people on all sides and are challenging schools and mental health clinics in immigrant neighborhoods.
.
Officials at the Department of Homeland Security say they are simply enforcing laws adopted in 1996, which all but eliminated the discretion of immigration officers to consider family ties before enforcing an old order of removal.
.
"There are millions of people who are illegally in the United States, and it's unfortunate, when they're caught, seeing a family split up," said William Strassberger, a spokesman for federal immigration services. "But the person has to be answerable for their actions."
.
Federal officials said they leave time for parents to make arrangements for their children, and refer them to a social service agency if necessary. Many parents arrange to leave U.S.-born children with relatives or friends; others, especially those who have no one to assume responsibility for a child, take the children along when they are expelled.
.
"People refer to that as a 'Sophie's Choice' situation," he said. "Where the child is going to be, is left up to the parent."
.
As a practical matter, arrangements for a child left behind may be hasty at best, said Janet Sabel, who directs the immigration law unit of the Legal Aid Society. One mother about to be deported to Nicaragua last year was told to leave her four children with her husband, Sabel said. But the husband was an abusive drug user, and finally the mother persuaded the immigration officer to give her a few days to make other arrangements. A priest referred her to Legal Aid, which reopened the case, stopping the deportation.
.
"There's a happy ending to this story," Sabel said, "but the fact is, there was total luck in her finding her way to us."
.
Similar cases cause concern for Birdette Gardiner-Parkinson, clinical director at the Caribbean Community Mental Health program at Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center. In one, she said, an outgoing, academically gifted 12-year-old began failing classes, mutilating herself and having suicidal thoughts after her Colombian father disappeared into removal proceedings.
.
In another case, nightmares and school failure plague the youngest of six children whose father, a cabdriver with 20 years' residence in the United States, was deported to Nigeria six hours after he reported for a green card interview. He had unpaid traffic fines, she said.
.
"The impact is very devastating," Gardiner-Parkinson said. "When children lose a family member this way, even though they may have a phone conversation with them, the physical separation feels like death."
.
The distress of children left behind in the United States echoes that of children left on the southern side of the border, say scholars of transnational migration like Leah Schmalzbauer, a social anthropologist who recently conducted a two-year research project on families split between Honduras and the United States.
.
The numbers are expected to swell, said Schmalzbauer, now an assistant professor of sociology and anthropology at Montana State University. Families in poor countries like Honduras can no longer manage without remittances from the United States, and women are beginning to replace men as the primary migrants, filling growing demands in the United States for low-cost elder care, domestic work and other service jobs.
.
"There's no protection for that undocumented labor, and even though we speak of family values, there's also no protection for the children," she said. "The research shows the emotional impacts are huge, whether they're separated from parents on this side or on the other side of the border."
.NEW YORK When her mother dropped by a federal immigration office here to complete some paperwork in April last year, 8-year-old Virginia Feliz became part of a growing tribe of American children who have lost a parent to deportation.

Her mother, Berly Feliz, 47, who migrated to the United States illegally a decade ago, went to the immigration office on a routine visit to renew her work authorization. But because an old deportation order had resurfaced, she was quickly clapped into handcuffs, and within hours placed on a plane to her native Honduras, unable to say goodbye to her husband and little girl.
...




See more of the world that matters - click here for home delivery of the International Herald Tribune.
< < Back to Start of Article NEW YORK When her mother dropped by a federal immigration office here to complete some paperwork in April last year, 8-year-old Virginia Feliz became part of a growing tribe of American children who have lost a parent to deportation.
.
Her mother, Berly Feliz, 47, who migrated to the United States illegally a decade ago, went to the immigration office on a routine visit to renew her work authorization. But because an old deportation order had resurfaced, she was quickly clapped into handcuffs, and within hours placed on a plane to her native Honduras, unable to say goodbye to her husband and little girl.
.
Virginia declared that she hates her last name, which means happy in Spanish. "I'm not happy; I'm sad," she said. "Because it's not fair that everybody else has their mom except me." She dropped onto a couch next to her father, Carlos Feliz, a U.S. citizen who was born in the Dominican Republic.
.
No one keeps track of exactly how many American children were left behind by the record 186,000 noncitizens expelled from the United States last year, or the 887,000 others required to make a "voluntary departure."
.
But immigration experts say there are tens of thousands of children every year who are U.S. citizens and lose a parent to deportation. As the debate over immigration policy heats up, such broken families are troubling people on all sides and are challenging schools and mental health clinics in immigrant neighborhoods.
.
Officials at the Department of Homeland Security say they are simply enforcing laws adopted in 1996, which all but eliminated the discretion of immigration officers to consider family ties before enforcing an old order of removal.
.
"There are millions of people who are illegally in the United States, and it's unfortunate, when they're caught, seeing a family split up," said William Strassberger, a spokesman for federal immigration services. "But the person has to be answerable for their actions."
.
Federal officials said they leave time for parents to make arrangements for their children, and refer them to a social service agency if necessary. Many parents arrange to leave U.S.-born children with relatives or friends; others, especially those who have no one to assume responsibility for a child, take the children along when they are expelled.
.
"People refer to that as a 'Sophie's Choice' situation," he said. "Where the child is going to be, is left up to the parent."
.
As a practical matter, arrangements for a child left behind may be hasty at best, said Janet Sabel, who directs the immigration law unit of the Legal Aid Society. One mother about to be deported to Nicaragua last year was told to leave her four children with her husband, Sabel said. But the husband was an abusive drug user, and finally the mother persuaded the immigration officer to give her a few days to make other arrangements. A priest referred her to Legal Aid, which reopened the case, stopping the deportation.
.
"There's a happy ending to this story," Sabel said, "but the fact is, there was total luck in her finding her way to us."
.
Similar cases cause concern for Birdette Gardiner-Parkinson, clinical director at the Caribbean Community Mental Health program at Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center. In one, she said, an outgoing, academically gifted 12-year-old began failing classes, mutilating herself and having suicidal thoughts after her Colombian father disappeared into removal proceedings.
.
In another case, nightmares and school failure plague the youngest of six children whose father, a cabdriver with 20 years' residence in the United States, was deported to Nigeria six hours after he reported for a green card interview. He had unpaid traffic fines, she said.
.
"The impact is very devastating," Gardiner-Parkinson said. "When children lose a family member this way, even though they may have a phone conversation with them, the physical separation feels like death."
.
The distress of children left behind in the United States echoes that of children left on the southern side of the border, say scholars of transnational migration like Leah Schmalzbauer, a social anthropologist who recently conducted a two-year research project on families split between Honduras and the United States.
.
The numbers are expected to swell, said Schmalzbauer, now an assistant professor of sociology and anthropology at Montana State University. Families in poor countries like Honduras can no longer manage without remittances from the United States, and women are beginning to replace men as the primary migrants, filling growing demands in the United States for low-cost elder care, domestic work and other service jobs.
.
"There's no protection for that undocumented labor, and even though we speak of family values, there's also no protection for the children," she said. "The research shows the emotional impacts are huge, whether they're separated from parents on this side or on the other side of the border."
.NEW YORK When her mother dropped by a federal immigration office here to complete some paperwork in April last year, 8-year-old Virginia Feliz became part of a growing tribe of American children who have lost a parent to deportation.
.
Her mother, Berly Feliz, 47, who migrated to the United States illegally a decade ago, went to the immigration office on a routine visit to renew her work authorization. But because an old deportation order had resurfaced, she was quickly clapped into handcuffs, and within hours placed on a plane to her native Honduras, unable to say goodbye to her husband and little girl.
.
Virginia declared that she hates her last name, which means happy in Spanish. "I'm not happy; I'm sad," she said. "Because it's not fair that everybody else has their mom except me." She dropped onto a couch next to her father, Carlos Feliz, a U.S. citizen who was born in the Dominican Republic.
.
No one keeps track of exactly how many American children were left behind by the record 186,000 noncitizens expelled from the United States last year, or the 887,000 others required to make a "voluntary departure."
....
... immigration experts say there are tens of thousands of children every year who are U.S. citizens and lose a parent to deportation. As the debate over immigration policy heats up, such broken families are troubling people on all sides and are challenging schools and mental health clinics in immigrant neighborhoods.

read full story ...

Australia: Asylum seekers clash with guards

from news.com.au:

ASYLUM seekers have clashed with guards at the Baxter Detention Centre in South Australia as refugee support groups maintain that tensions within the outback facility are running high.
...
A department spokesman said the incident was sparked by concerns among detainees over recent changes to the dispensing of medication, although he would not detail what the changes were.
read full story ...

UK: flawed report used to send Algerian refugees back to face an uncertain fate

from the Guardian:

A pile-up of shameful contradictions: A report ignoring Algeria's appalling human rights record is being used to send refugees back to face an uncertain fate
...
The offending line in the Algerian country report was written by Brian Davis, a Canadian diplomat, for his country's immigration services after a trip to Algeria in 2001. "To the knowledge of the persons I met," he wrote, "and to the local UNHCR office, there has never been any problem encountered by persons returned to Algeria."
....
Hassan couldn't believe that the Algerian UNHCR would say deportees encounter no problems. He was told by the Geneva headquarters: "Only the HQ in Geneva is responsible for establishing UNHCR's position related to refugees worldwide". So had Geneva sanctioned the statement from the Algiers office? The man in Geneva wouldn't say.

When questioned, he did acknowledge that "it would seem the statement would be too strong because we are rarely informed of what happens when cases are returned". The official position is that "there is a re-emerging concern that persons who are returned to Algeria may face hostile treatment".
...
Last month, Immigration Advisory Services (IAS) published an analysis of 15 CIPU reports, including the one on Algeria. They expressed "serious doubts" about their validity, said they suffered from "unbalanced representation, serious breach of objectivity, inclusion of blatant political opinion and unattributed statements". Of the Algeria report, IAS said the "use of out-of-date material is particularly problematic".
...
By the time this is in print, Hassan may have been deported. He can't bring himself to articulate his fears.

read full story ...

UK: spy who saved Jews remembered

from the BBC:

A British agent who saved thousands of Jews from the Nazis is being remembered with a plaque being placed outside the British embassy in Berlin.

Frank Foley was based in Berlin in the 1930s, working as a passport control officer, and using his position to provide papers for Jewish people.
...
He not only interpreted the rules on visas loosely, enabling Jews to escape to Britain and Palestine, but he also helped to forge passports.

And, despite not having diplomatic immunity, he gave shelter to some people in his own home.

read full story ...

Mr Foley should indeed by honoured for what he did. But the fact that he had to subvert the system in order to help refugees flee Nazi Germany exposes the myth that Britain has ever offered a 'safe haven' for refugees.

USA: Juan Cruz-Suarez, another death by detention

from Green Bay News-Chronicle:

A 46-year-old inmate who apparently hanged himself at the Brown County Jail on Friday was an illegal immigrant waiting to be deported to El Salvador, the Brown County Medical Examiner's office said.

Juan Cruz-Suarez was a Green Bay Dressed Beef employee who had family in Green Bay and in El Salvador. He was in jail on a hold for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, according to the examiner's office.
....
Jail staff performed CPR and other methods of resuscitating the victim. Gossage said Cruz-Suarez had been under special observation less "invasive" than a suicide watch. He said he could not disclose the reason for the special observation.

read full story ...

Belgium: Thousands of asylum seekers in limbo

from Expatica:

Some 12,000 asylum seekers and other migrants have been waiting for more than three years for their application to stay in Belgium to be dealt with.

According to an article in Tuesday's edition of Flemish daily, De Standaard, the Forum for Asylum seekers and Migrants are calling for all those in such circumstances to be issued with papers.
...
Applicants' lives are extremely restricted, with many not allowed to work.

Around 400 protesters recently gathered outside the headquarters of all of Belgium's major political in a bid to improve the situation.

Another demonstration is planned in a couple of weeks.

read full story ...

Malaysia: Human rights group warnings over crackdown on illegal workers

from INQ7.net:

An imminent crackdown on hundreds of thousands of illegal workers in Malaysia could result in widespread abuses, Human Rights Watch warned Tuesday.

Refugees, victims of human trafficking and workers abused by their employers could be caught up in the sweep and deported instead of receiving protection, the US-based group said in a statement.

It pointed out that Malaysia's Human Rights Commission had noted that many foreign women in Malaysia's prisons were victims of trafficking for prostitution.
....
"When Malaysia conducted mass deportations two years ago, dozens of migrant workers died of dehydration and disease while stranded in transit areas for months," said LaShawn R. Jefferson, executive director of the group's women's rights division.

read full story ...

Japan: 12,000 Filipino entertainers face deportation

from Philstar.com:

Some 12,000 Filipino overseas performing artists (OPAs) overstaying in Japan are now facing stiff fines or even deportation when the Japanese government finally implements the newly amended Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act starting next week.
...
The US State Department report said entertainer visas are being abused and holders of such are forced into sexual exploitation, prostitution or forced labor.
...
There are about 250,000 overstaying aliens in Japan, immigration statistics show. Last year, about 130,000 foreigners entered the country on entertainer visas, with 60 percent of them, or 80,000. coming from the Philippines. Of this number, 12,000 are believed to be overstaying.

read full story ...

UK: Activists criticise UK's resumption of forced repatriation to Zimababwe

from IRIN news:

Zimbabwean human rights activists have criticised the British government for its decision to end a two-year suspension of the forced repatriation of failed asylum seekers.
...
Maeve Sherlock, the chief executive of the UK-based NGO, the Refugee Council, which works with asylum seekers, has called on the British government to monitor "what happens to those who are sent back. No one should be sent back to Zimbabwe before monitoring procedures are in place".

read full story ...

Australia: Minister To Deport Sick Man Against Medical Advice

from ABC:

The Department of Immigration has denied claims that a Sri Lankan man in detention tried to take his own life last time it attempted to remove him from the country.

Refugee advocates say the man, who is currently in Sydney's Villawood Detention Centre, is suffering depression and is too ill to travel.

But department spokesman Andrew Gavin says claims the man tried to harm himself are false.

read full story ...

USA: Volunteers help save lives of migrants crossing desert

from The Arizona Republic:

TUCSON - Isela Cisneros wishes the rescue crew could have been here sooner. Her father, Luis, died two months before volunteers such as James Seaman started saving illegal immigrants from desert death.

Isela believes her father died alone after he fell behind a group of illegal immigrants being guided into the United States through this rough terrain. Isela said her father was on his way to California to visit her children - his grandchildren - despite her objections.

Two months later, Seaman and others started staging rescues 24 hours a day, seven days a week from an old recreational vehicle parked about 50 miles south of Tucson.
...
Cisneros is one of 221 illegal immigrants known to have died crossing the Arizona border in the fiscal year, the highest Arizona toll on record.

Since volunteers with the No More Deaths campaign started patrolling in Tucson and in Douglas, they've encountered more than 800 people sneaking across the desert, No More Deaths spokeswoman Mimi Edmunds said.

They've dished out thousands of pounds of foods, thousands of drinks and thousands of pounds of clothing.

read full story ...

No More Deaths campaign

UK: remember Sergey Baranuyck 1973-2004

from NCADC:

Did the conditions of immigration detention contribute to his death?

"It is not uncommon for detainees to react aggressively to the death of a fellow detainee and to suspect foul play by staff. Staff might have been expected to anticipate this and to have taken action to defuse the situation." Sue McAllister, Head of Security Group H M Prison Service

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USA: Immigration hurdles separate man, ailing wife

from Newsday:

Abu Paher, a bricklayer supervisor for a small Bronx construction company, desperately wants to visit his wife, who's been hospitalized in Bangladesh with kidney disease for more than five months.

But Paher himself is trapped. He can leave the United States but with no guarantee of being allowed to return. His employer-sponsored application for a green card, in limbo for 3 1/2 years now, is part of a backlog of 310,000 pending cases nationwide. More than 32,000 of them were filed on behalf of immigrants living in New York State.
...
Paher's case is typical. In 1998, he says, he traded the prospect of a life in poverty in Bangladesh for the challenge of immigrating to New York, hoping to earn enough to support his wife, children and relatives back home, become a legal resident and send for them. If his application is approved, his family would be permitted here on a renewable six-month visa and then apply, with comparatively few hindrances, for legal residency.

Since Paher applied for the green card in April 2001 under the sponsorship of SM Construction Co. of the Bronx, his father-in-law has come down with cancer, his mother has died, and, more recently, his wife became ill, he said.

Meanwhile, his three children have grown up without their father in his homeland.

For now, Paher has no way of knowing when he will hear about his application; his letters to the state have yielded no new information. Because he has had to wait so long, he predicts a decision could be close, and doesn't want to blow his chances by leaving the country. He might not be permitted to return, he said, noting his visa's limitations and tighter restrictions on travel since Sept. 11, 2001.

read full story ...

Spain: Immigration surge fuels racism

from the Guardian:

Official condemnation of the racist barracking suffered by England footballers in Spain this week cannot hide the fact that xenophobia is on the rise in a country now Europe's biggest magnet for immigrants, Spanish anti-racism campaigners warned yesterday.

"A few years ago it was bad to be a racist ... now there is more impunity," complained Begona Sáñchez, a spokeswoman for the SOS Racismo group. "This is not an isolated incident. It is a signal that, although the vast majority of Spaniards are not racists, this is something that is consolidating here."
...
Amnesty International ... dedicated a report two years ago to racial abuse and torture by Spanish police.

The report detailed cases of deaths, rape, sexual assault and violence against foreigners while in custody, and lamented the impunity enjoyed by those responsible.

read full story ...

Canada: failing refugee children: report

from CBC:

The Canadian government frequently overlooks the best interests of the child when processing immigration and refugee cases, an advocacy group says.

The Canadian Council for Refugees, meeting this weekend in Victoria, has released a report that's critical of how the government applies immigration and refugee law.
...
The report suggests thousands of children are suffering prolonged separation from their families and the denial of some basic rights as cases are considered.
read full story ...

Canadian Council for Refugees

Ireland: Campaigners demand end to migrant parents' deportations

from IOL:

The Coalition Against the Deportation of Irish Children called on justice minister Michael McDowell to respect the rights of the children under the UN Convention.
...
“Several Irish children have been forced to leave Ireland, others remain here alone, their parents having been deported.

“Their right to retain contact with their parents, guaranteed under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, has been ignored.

“We are calling on the Irish Government to halt this policy of deportations now – to respect the rights of the children under the UN Convention – to treat all children equally irrespective of the race or nationality of their parents, and to act in the best interest of the children.”

read full story ...

Coalition Against the Deportation of Irish Children

Bangladesh: Three die in clash at refugee camp

from Reuters AlertNet:

At least three people were killed and 50 others were injured in a clash between Muslim refugees from Myanmar and police at a refugee camp in southeastern Bangladesh, officials said on Friday.

"The dead were refugees and their bodies bearing gunshot wounds were retrieved from Kutupalong Refugee Camp early today," said Police Inspector Abdul Mannan.

Police on Thursday said at least 50 people, including 10 policemen, were injured in a clash at the camp 450 km (281 miles) from the capital Dhaka.
...
The clash erupted after a group of Rohingya refugees attacked a police post at the camp, trying to free one of their community leaders who had been detained for sheltering illegal people.

read full story ...

USA: Judge finds evidence that asylum seekers were abused

from Newsday:

Evidence shows political asylum seekers were abused and harassed while detained at a privately operated facility that lacked clean food, clothes and bedding, a federal judge found as he refused to dismiss a lawsuit by nine immigrants.
...
The judge said the evidence showed that detention center administrator Willard Stovall was "fully aware" of abuses, and listed 21 examples, including the beatings of detainees and the sexual assault of one female detainee.

Other examples cited by the judge were sexual harassment that included guards watching women detainees take showers, broken toilets, defective heating, and lack of access to supplies such as toothbrushes and toothpaste.

In addition, guards interfered with detainees' efforts to practice their religions, whether they were Christian, Hindu or Muslim, the judge said.

read full story ...

UK: Migrant workers' housing probed

from BBC News:

A council and the fire service are investigating how a group of migrant workers came to be living in overcrowded flats in East Lancashire.
...
Lancashire Fire Service served a restriction notice on the landlord because of the fire safety fears, limiting tenant numbers in the flat.

Twelve people - all Polish - were sharing a bathroom and some had no bed.
...
Among the conditions found, they were three people sharing a room that had only two mattresses, investigators said.

read full story ...

Americas: Two dead, 22 missing after migrant boat capsizes

from The Jamaican Observer:

A boat carrying illegal migrants to Puerto Rico capsized, killing at least two people and leaving 22 missing, officials said yesterday.

The Dominican Republic navy rescued seven migrants at sea. Survivors said the small wooden boat carrying at least 30 people left late Monday from Puerto Plata, a town 224 kilometres (140 miles) north of the capital of Santo Domingo, said navy Captain Viviano Rodriguez.

read full story ...

USA: Immigrant Detainees Tell of Attack Dogs and Abuse

from National Public Radio:

... These immigrants have been jailed for months or years while Homeland Security officials obtained a court order to deport them. Some have allegedly experienced brutal and violent conditions while in detention.

In a two-part series, NPR's Daniel Zwerdling investigates allegations that guards have beaten up detainees and mistreated them in other ways at two jails in New Jersey used by Homeland Security.

read full story & listen to the programmes ...

USA: Haitian AsylumSeeker Dies in Immigration Custody

from US Newswire:

Caught in the terrifying crossfire of the political violence and lawlessness that has gripped Haiti since September, 81-year old Joseph Dantica ran away to the United States, seeking shelter and comfort in the arms of his family. Instead, he faced the hellish nightmare Haitian refugees before him have confronted when seeking asylum in the US: held overnight at Miami International Airport, placed in detention at Krome North, isolated from family, friends and legal help, facing an Immigration bureaucracy that from the top down has been hostile to Haitians' claims of fear of persecution. He arrived in Miami on Oct. 29, and was pronounced dead on Nov. 3.

read full story ...

National Coalition for Haitian Rights

UK: Blair intervened in deportation process

from The Guardian:

Tony Blair repeatedly intervened in a bid to deport asylum seekers to Egypt despite being told that they might be tortured and sentenced to death, the Guardian can reveal.
...
When Mr Blair was warned by the home secretary in a private letter that there was "ample evidence from a range of sources of serious human rights abuses in Egypt", and that there was "little scope for pushing deportations any further", he replied: "This is crazy. Why can't we press on?"

read full story ...

USA: Agents find body of pregnant migrant

from Arizona Daily Sun:

The body of a pregnant migrant was discovered by authorities near Lyle Canyon, south of Sonoita.
Hunters encountered the body of the woman Friday afternoon. She appeared to be about six or seven months pregnant and likely suffered hypothermia.

Cochise County sheriff's deputies and Border Patrol agents recovered her body.

Sheriff's spokeswoman sheriffs spokeswoman Carol Capas said the Mexican Consulate received information that a group of illegal immigrants left her behind because she couldn't keep up.

read original story ...

Malaysia: Former Prime Minister Hits Out at Whipping of Migrant Workers

From IPS Africa:

PENANG, Malaysia, Nov 15 (IPS) - Former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim, an icon of Malaysia's pro-reform movement, has hit out at the Malaysian government's threat to whip undocumented workers if they fail to take advantage of a current amnesty period to return to their home countries.
...
... Anwar, who was recently freed from prison after six years' imprisonment, argued that if the nation did not want migrant workers without permits, they should be arrested and sent back properly.

''What happens now? They are caught, their money and hand-phones are stolen, they are whipped,'' he told a crowd of 2,000 during a visit to his home-state of Penang on Nov. 5. ''If you don't need them, fair (enough); arrest them and send them back but don't do such things."
...
''Whether they are from Bangladesh, Indonesia or Myanmar (Burma), they are human beings. And we have been taught to respect human beings.''

read full story ...

Slovakia: asylum system "discourages" refugees

from The Slovak Spectator:

PIERFRANCESCO Maria Natta, who is head of the local Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Bratislava, believes that Slovakia has much to improve about its asylum policy.
...
"This system discourages refugees and helps smugglers abuse them. ... "

read full story ...

UK: UN criticises Blunkett over Iraqi refugees

from The Independent

David Blunkett was accused last night of imposing "punitive" measures against Iraqi asylum-seekers by the United Nations' refugees agency.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees accused the Home Secretary of using coercion to force refugees to leave Britain to face life in the midst of the worsening violence in Iraq.
...
The UNHCR wrote to the Government last month warning that Iraq was so unstable that it could not protect Iraqis who returned to their country from European states.

The warning notice said: "UNHCR asks states to postpone the introduction of measures which are intended to induce voluntary returns, including of rejected cases. This includes financial or other incentives and particularly deterrent or punitive measures."

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Japan: Immigration center refuses to open medical record of ex-detainee

from Japan Today:

OSAKA — An immigration detention center in Osaka Prefecture has refused to release the medical record of a man even though he needs it to receive medical treatment after being released from the facility, his supporters said Thursday.

The 38-year-old man from the Middle East arrived in Japan in 1990, and was taken into custody and detained in June last year at the Nishi-Nihon Immigration Center in Ibaraki, Osaka Prefecture, on suspicion of overstaying his visa, the supporters said, adding that he later told center authorities he was having trouble sleeping and was examined by a doctor, who gave him sleeping pills. The doctor asked to see his medical record from the immigration center but was rejected. (Kyodo News)

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Europe: Nine drown after migrants' boat sinks off Turkey

From Reuters AlertNet:

ANKARA, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Nine people drowned and four were rescued after a boat carrying suspected illegal immigrants sank off Turkey's Aegean coast, Turkish television said on Wednesday.

Quoting the Dogan news agency, CNN Turk said the boat was believed to have sunk two days ago but bodies were only sighted on Wednesday morning near the coastal resort of Kusadasi.

The survivors were quoted as saying 21 people were on board the boat before it sank. The coast guard was using boats and helicopters to track the eight people still unaccounted for, CNN Turk said.

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UK: bishop 'scandalised' by treatment of asylum seekers

from Ekklesia:

The Bishop of Lancaster has said that asylum seekers are "living in appalling circumstances" and that he was "scandalised" upon his recent visit to one asylum centre.

Patrick O’Donoghue's comments came as he welcomed a report which says that refugee children are suffering distress and health problems in Government detention centres.
...
Bishop O’Donoghue said: “I welcome this timely report which reveals a situation that is all too common. Asylum seekers in detention and in the community are living in appalling circumstances. Only last week I visited a church-run centre in Liverpool for refugee mothers waiting to hear the results of asylum appeals.

“I met about 25 women. Some of them had young children and some were pregnant. I was scandalised hearing some of the stories they had to tell of the poverty and pressures they are living under.

“One mother described how immigration authorities had swooped on her home in the middle of night, taking away one member of her family in handcuffs.”

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UK: Kenny Peter - another death by detention

from National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns:

Kenny Peter died on Sunday 7th November 2004 in Charing Cross Hospital. There is some dispute as to wether he is from Liberia or Nigeria, there is no dispute that he was seeking asylum in the UK.

Kenny had been in Colnbrook Removal Centre and was in the Health Care Unit on or about the 19th October. While in the care of the Home Office he made a serious suicide attempt on his own life. He was taken to a local hospital but transferred to Charing Cross Hospital as he had suffered severe brain damage. Despite the best care of staff at the hospital they were unable to sustain Kenny's life.

Kenny was given Temporary Admission in July this year but not allowed to work and had no access to benefits. He was detained by Immigration in early October for working in breach of his entry conditions.

No dignity in life, No dignity in death

The HOPO have to date refused requests from NCADC for confirmation of the names and manner of deaths of two others who have recently died in removal centres:

Sergey Barnuyck, a Ukrainian , who allegedly died from selfharm in Harmondsworth Removal Centre on July the 19th 2004

and

Tung Wang, a Vietnamese, who also allegedly died from selfharm in Dungavel Removal Centre on July 24th 2004 .

NCADC would like to know if Kenny was on suicide watch as it is believed this was not his first attempt at selfharm. The standard response of the Home Office, that it does not comment on individual cases, is unacceptable. The deaths of people in their care is a matter of public concern, and if they refuse to respond to legitimate requests for information from concerned bodies such as NCADC , they should nonetheless put such information in the public domain.

Rosy Bremer from Bail for Immigration Detainees South, who work closely with detainees, and familiar with the case, on hearing of the death of Kenny said, "David Blunkett & Co. are directly responsible for this man's death'"

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Malaysia: UNHCR pleads case for refugees

from Reuters AlertNet:

The United Nations refugee agency asked Malaysia on Tuesday not to arrest and expel thousands of refugees in the country when authorities launch a crackdown on illegal immigrants in January.
....
"We in the UNHCR care for people who cannot go back," said Volkder Turk, Malaysia representative for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

"Obviously for people who are refugees, we think there's very good reason for them not to be arrested," he told reporters.
...
UNHCR said there are about 28,000 refugees in Malaysia, about 10,000 of them from Indonesia's war-torn Aceh province, and another 10,000 are members of Myanmar's Rohingya Muslim minority.
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USA: Marchers call for amnesty, reforms in wake of recent immigration raid

from The Princeton Packet:

Over 200 people called for reforms of immigration law by marching in downtown Princeton Borough on Saturday.
...
Many participants carried hand-painted signs with slogans in both English and Spanish including "We are all immigrants" and "Who's cooking for you?"

The Latino community in Princeton Borough and Princeton Township was rocked by an Oct. 13 early morning immigration raid at a Witherspoon Street apartment house that led to the arrests of eight males, all undocumented aliens. Maria Juega, one of the organizers of the immigration march, said all but one individual have since been deported.

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Australia: authorities compensate refugee wrongly locked up for 2 years

from The Age:

ASIO has been made to pay $200,000 to a refugee who was mistakenly classified as a security risk and locked up for two years in a detention centre.
...
The man spent two years in the Maribyrnong detention centre on the basis of the reports, attributed by intelligence sources to Kuwaiti intelligence although one legal report on the case said the information came from the Iraqi secret service.

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USA: How Gay Do You Have To ‘Act’ for Asylum?

from Gay Financial Network:

Growing up gay in Mexico, 35-year-old Jorge Soto Vega faced severe harassment and violence from the community and his family from an early age, even beaten by police. So he snuck into the United States, fell in love and ran a flower and interior design shop in Los Angeles.

Now he wants asylum so he can legally remain. But the U.S. government is trying to send him back.

Last year, a Southern California immigration judge ruled that there was credible evidence that Soto Vega was persecuted in Mexico because of his sexual orientation, but rejected his application for asylum in the U.S., saying Soto Vega didn't appear gay to him and could keep his sexual orientation hidden if he chose to.

"I don't see anything in his appearance, his dress, his manner, his demeanor, his gestures, his voice, or anything of that nature that remotely approached some of the stereotypical things that society assesses to gays, whether those are legitimate or not," wrote Judge Taylor last year in denying asylum.

Soto Vega has appealed, and soon it will be up to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to decide how gay is gay enough - or whether that should even be an issue.
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Bahrain: two held over alleged rape of migrant domestic worker

from Gulf Daily News:

TWO men have been arrested in connection with the alleged repeated rape of a Bangladeshi housemaid, an official from the Bangladesh Embassy said yesterday.
...
The 25-year-old woman was allegedly raped by her sponsor's nephew on the way to his house on Thursday, then twice more by the sponsor's son in the early hours of Friday and Saturday morning.

Sources earlier said the men were thought to have been released, but an officer at Budaiya Police Station would neither confirm nor deny this.

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China: N.Koreans sent back to possible death

from Reuters AlertNet:

...
Suzanne Scholte, president of the Defense Forum Foundation, told reporters outside the Chinese embassy in Seoul that China had recently deported 62 North Koreans back to their country.

"China knows that they will be executed or they will be put in political prisoner camps for the crime of leaving the country," she said.
...
More than 100,000 North Koreans, and possibly twice that number, are in China, activists estimate. About 5,000 North Koreans have reached the South since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

Scholte said China was violating international agreements by returning the North Koreans and should allow the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees access to them.
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UK: asylum centre fails children

from The Guardian:

Children detained in the Oakington asylum reception centre in Cambridgeshire are not being cared for properly, with some found to be suffering distress, according to the chief inspector of prisons.
...
She tells ministers that the detention of children should only be done in exceptional circumstances and only for very short periods.

The chief inspector's report also discloses that the agreed procedures for detaining the children of asylum seekers had not been followed.
....
The chief inspector's report says that social services did not carry out an assessment of children staying longer than a few days, even though "files showed that some children were suffering distress".
....
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UK: immigration appeals face 'no win, no fee' rules

from The Guardian:

Rules for asylum appeals that would grant or refuse legal aid only once the appeal was over were unveiled yesterday by the lord chancellor, Lord Falconer.

The rules, which will be discussed by interested parties during a six-week consultation period, will govern high court challenges to the decisions of the new asylum and immigration tribunal.
...
Richard Miller, of the Legal Aid Practitioners' Group, said that lawyers would be "very reluctant" to take such cases on what was effectively a no-win, no-fee basis

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USA: enforcement is focused on border, not business

from Sign On San Diego:

The U.S. government has spent billions of dollars during the past decade trying to deter illegal immigration along the Southwestern border, installing fencing, setting up sophisticated surveillance equipment and hiring thousands of Border Patrol agents.
...
Yet U.S. employers across the country continue to hire undocumented immigrants in violation of federal law, providing an economic incentive that undermines efforts to curb illegal immigration through border enforcement. Some employers do so knowingly, taking advantage of workers' illegal status to keep wages low and costs down. Others are duped by job applicants with fraudulent documents or turn a blind eye when presented with them.
...
Politically, enforcement is skewed heavily toward the border, not business. Although talk of national security dominated the presidential campaign this year, there was scant mention of enforcing immigration laws in the workplace.
...
At least 800,000 people are estimated to enter the country illegally each year. They readily find work in labor-intensive industries such as agriculture, where, according to a federal Department of Labor survey, at least half the work force in the late 1990s was unauthorized to work. They also flock to jobs in construction, manufacturing, meat packing, cleaning, hotels and restaurants, all industries that depend on low-wage help.
...
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USA: transgender Man's Case Tests U.S. Immigration Law

from LA Times:

Saying his sexual identity may put him in peril in El Salvador, Luis Reyes-Reyes seeks refuge under the Convention Against Torture.
...
But Reyes-Reyes, 42, is not looking for traditional political asylum. As he and his lawyers put it, he fears returning to his homeland because, for much of his life, he has lived as a woman.
...
Before coming to Los Angeles in 1979, Reyes-Reyes testified, he suffered intolerable cruelty in El Salvador because of his sexual identity. He was only 13, he said, when he was kidnapped, raped and beaten by a gang of men.
...
Whether Reyes-Reyes is allowed to remain here or not, lawyers said, the federal court's decision to return his case to the immigration board sets an important precedent that could help embolden other illegal immigrants to apply for asylum if they come from countries where gay-bashing or other abuse is tolerated or officially sanctioned.
...
"When it comes to transgender people, even though they are legally eligible [for asylum], as a practical matter, their chances of obtaining it are practically zero," said Shannon Minter, legal director at the San Francisco-based National Center for Lesbian Rights, an advocacy group.

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UK: UN concern at plans to deport refugees

from the Guardian:

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees said it has "serious concerns" about legislation which could see someone convicted of a relatively minor crime deported from Britain.

The UNHCR's representative to the UK, Anne Dawson-Shepherd, said that the Specification of Particularly Serious Crimes Order, to be discussed in the House of Lords, could put refugees' lives at risk.
...
Ms Dawson-Shepherd said the legislation includes "an overly sweeping interpretation of what is considered to be a 'particularly serious crime' as well as disproportionately severe consequences for a refugee should the order be implemented - return to face persecution in the country of origin or removal to a territory where he or she may be subject to torture or death".

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USA: migrant workers strike at dairy farm

from The Beacon Journal (Ohio):

MARSHALLVILLE, Ohio - About 40 workers, mostly immigrants from Mexico, are on strike over the firing of a co-worker and poor treatment they say they've received at a northeast Ohio dairy farm.

They walked out this week to support Caesar Lopez, the eighth worker fired at Stoll Farms in less than two months, the workers said. Lopez was fired on his second day back after he broke his arm because he was unable to work fast enough.
...
The workers have formed their own union, United Dairy Workers of Ohio, Local 1. They plan to stand along rural Coal Bank Road outside the farm in Marshallville, about 15 miles southwest of Akron, until their demands are met.
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USA: activists call for better migrant death counts

from SFGate.com:

Flying low over the Sonoran Desert, Border Patrol agents spotted a skeleton sprawled in the brush.

The harsh terrain just inside Arizona is a busy trafficking corridor for illegal immigrants; the person could have died while trying to sneak into the United States. But busy Interstate 8 runs nearby -- the person could have been a slain U.S. citizen, a suicide, a runaway.

The Border Patrol is grappling with just how to count the dead found along the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border. "It's rarely a cut-and-dry decision," said Joe Brigman, spokesman for Yuma Border Patrol. "In some cases, you just don't know."
....

Human rights activists say it's in the government's interest to keep that number low. They contend the agency tries to shave its count by excluding many skeletal remains, car-accident victims and bodies discovered by local law enforcement agencies.

Claudia Smith, a San Diego attorney with the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, says the ad hoc counting methods lack consistency from one government agency to the next -- and even sometimes from one Border Patrol sector to another.

read full story ...

UK: plight of the forgotten million of Irish migrant workers

from The Guardian:

... many of the elderly men who built London's underground, the motorways, the railways and the women who served as "domestics" sending home an estimated €3.5bn (£2.4bn) during Ireland's darkest days - are growing old in subhuman conditions in the UK.

When Ireland's state broadcaster, RTE, showed footage of Mr Scully and other destitute Irish with no running water, no sanitation and no hope, the country was horrified.
...
[Irish people] are the only ethnic minority group to have shortened their lifespan by coming to Britain. They have the highest rate of mental illness and are 50% more likely to commit suicide and nine times more likely to suffer from alcoholism than British people.

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related story: 'We worked from 4am to 9pm, sending all our wages home'

USA: new Arizona law sends fear through immigrant community

from SFGate.com:

Latino leaders offered assurances Friday to immigrant parents who have been flooding Hispanic community leaders with calls, wondering if an Arizona ballot issue approved by voters Tuesday means they should keep their children in school or avoid going out.
...
Phoenix-area Head Start leaders said attendance dropped dramatically Wednesday as worried parents kept their children home from the federally funded preschool program. In one classroom, only two children showed up instead of the usual 20.

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South Africa: Immigrants Protest Ill-Treatment

from allAfrica.com:

Scores of immigrants from five Southern African countries marched to a deportation centre in South Africa this week to protest against the alleged abuse of foreigners on the premises.
...
"The problem is that the South African authorities do not check whether the immigrants, particularly the Zimbabweans, are genuine asylum seekers - they merely arrest them and deport them,"
...
Gabriel Shumba, the legal advisor of the NGO, Zimbabwe Exiles Forum, said that of the 5,000 Zimbabwean immigrants in South Africa, only 11 had been given asylum. "We have received reports of torture in the centre, and that the immigrants do not have access to adequate sanitation."
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USA: Immigration prisoners allege abuse and sexual harassment

from Seattle Post Intelligencer:

Two people are suing a private corrections company, saying one was viciously beaten and the other sexually harassed while they were being held in Tacoma on federal immigration charges.

Dozens of inmates witnessed the allegedly unprovoked beating in July of Jose Mancilla Gutierrez, 22, at the Northwest Detention Center, according to his attorney, Gwynne Skinner.
...
McIntyre is alleged to have taken Mancilla into a hallway still visible to many cells, where he "violently threw plaintiff (Mancilla) to the ground." Then, joined by a guard identified only as Portillo, both officers "attacked plaintiff, beating and kicking him and repeatedly hitting his head against the floor," the lawsuit says.

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UK: Bodies of dead cocklers returned to China

from BBC News:

The bodies of the 21 cockle pickers who drowned in Morecambe Bay earlier this year have been repatriated to China.
...
In February 23 Chinese workers drowned when they were trapped by the incoming tide. Two bodies are still missing.

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report from June 2004: Cockle pickers died from drowning

Europe: Amnesty Concern over Asylum Policy

from IPS News:

BRUSSELS, Nov 2 (IPS) - The EU is being urged to address the human rights content of its asylum and immigration policy due to be adopted later this week.

Amnesty International is appealing to the European Union (EU) to ”match its ambition to promote fundamental rights with concrete policies that are coherent and properly resourced.” Amnesty is being backed by Human Rights Watch (HRW).
...
The group says the fact that asylum is principally a human rights issue ”seems to be lost amid all the discourse” surrounding what it calls migration management.

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World: Poor Increasingly Pay Own Way

from IPS News:

... the United Nations is predicting a dramatic increase in remittances of earning from migrant workers worldwide homeward.

Although numbers vary, both the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) estimate that migrant earnings sent home will soon rise to over 150 billion dollars annually.
...

... in several countries, remittances are now the largest single source of foreign exchange, topping tea exports in Tajikistan, and amounting to over 30 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in Tonga.

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South Africa: Human Rights groups slam S.Africa over migrant treatment

from Reuters AlertNet

Human rights groups have criticised South Africa for what they say is appalling treatment of foreigners in the country illegally, many of whom are held for weeks in brutal conditions before being shipped home.
...
Many are deported before they are able to apply for asylum, or simply because they do not have their papers with them.
...
Zimbabweans make up the bulk of illegal foreigners deported by South Africa, and Ramjathan-Keogh said the process is often brutal with migrants taken by train to the Zimbabwe border and then held in outdoor pens pending repatriation.

Escape attempts, which involve trying to leap from the train, often end in death, she said. "This shows how desperate they are not to be sent back," she said.
read full story ...

UK: rights, safety and pay remain questionable for Chinese migrant workers

from The Guardian:

Chinese migrant workers have gone from cockles to crackers, but despite the Morecambe Bay tragedy and changes in the law, Hsiao-Hung Pai finds their rights, safety and pay remain questionable
...
No Sweat, a campaigning organisation fighting against poor working conditions worldwide, says the failure of British trade unions to organise migrant workers allows them to be exploited by large companies.

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Europe: High Commissioner calls on Europe to "Make asylum fair, not fast"

Ruud Lubbers, UN High Commissioner for Refugees in The Guardian:

We need to step back from the notion that Europe is being flooded with asylum seekers. In 1992, around 680,000 people claimed asylum in the 25 states that now make up the EU. Last year, the number was under 350,000. This is manageable, but still the crisis rhetoric continues - often fuelled by thinly disguised xenophobia and political opportunism.
...
Everyone pays lip-service to the notion that genuine refugees deserve protection. The reality is that Europe's asylum systems do not always afford refugees even the chance to state their claim.
...
We also need a system to manage economic migration sensibly. By legitimising those we want - instead of secretly profiting from their illicit labour in our orchards and hospital wards - we can take back control from people traffickers.

A policy built on exclusion is not only morally reprehensible, it is also impractical: it will simply push all forms of migration, including refugees, further underground.

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Nepal: Insurgency fuels desperate exodus

from BBC Newsnight:

Nepal is slowly losing its people. Each year, thousands of them try and escape the increasingly brutal civil war between the government and the Maoist rebels who are trying to bring about a communist revolution.

Added to that is the fact that Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world. The average annual income here is around $230 a year. No wonder so many people are trying to get out.

Three months ago, 12 young men left the country in hope of finding jobs as waiters and cleaners in the Middle East. ... But the 12 men who headed to the Gulf this summer ended up in Iraq. As they crossed the border from Jordan they were captured by an extremist Islamic group and murdered in the desert.

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South Africa: illegal detention of migrants

from SABC News:

Foreigners are regularly detained at the Lindela Detention Centre outside Krugersdorp for longer than the permitted 30 days, the SA Human Rights Commission hearings on xenophobia heard today. Kaajal Ramjathan-Keogh of Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) said non-compliance with the Immigration Act seemed to be the norm at the centre, run by a private company on behalf of the department of home affairs.
...
At the Beit Bridge border post between South Africa and Zimbabwe, people were regularly detained for between one hour and three days under a tree surrounded by a fence. Men, women and children were held together and there were no toilet facilities.
...
These people were held in windowless offices with no furniture, water or toilets. She lauded a recent Pretoria High Court ruling that in future children must be treated under the Child Care Act with access to all the relevant services, whether they were South African or not. Previously, children were treated as adults and deported.

She said the government has all the necessary legislation in place, but is not living up to its own laws.

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Malta: Iraqi refugee released after 14 months in detention

from di-ve.com:

VALLETTA, Malta (di-ve news) ... A court on Monday ordered the release of Iraqi migrant from the detention centre and to be given a refugee status.

Karim Barboush has been locked up at Hal Far detention centre for 14 months, waiting to be granted a refugee status.

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Italy: kurdish immigrant has been found dead on ferry

From meanwhile at the borders:

a kurdish immigrant has been found dead, apparently of suffocation, on a Greek ferry that docked in the Italian port of Ancona. italian authorities discovered the corpse on Friday. The victim had been packed into a Dutch truck with another 12 migrants, two of whom had suffered severe dehydration, and brought to Ancona by ferry from Igoumenitsa

read full story at ekathimerini.com