Italy: Asylum seekers' voyages of hell

From The Observer:

Up to 1,000 exhausted, hungry, illegal immigrants arrive on the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa each day

The smell is awful. Sour and overpowering, it rises from two wooden boats and two rubber dinghies tied up in a far corner of the picturesque harbour on the Italian island of Lampedusa. In these small craft some 300 people arriving from North Africa in search of new lives in Europe have endured dangerous journeys at sea, crammed together for hours without adequate water, food, shelter or toilets.

Still scattered on the decks is what was left behind by those who made it ashore: odd shoes, discarded clothes and empty water bottles sloshing about in dirty, oily water. According to local fishermen, the migrants in these boats were brought in by the coastguards 10 days previously.

The terrible stench gives some idea of the ordeal they must have endured. 'When they arrive they are suffering from nausea, vomiting, sunburn, dehydration, hypoglycaemia, diarrhoea,' says Dr Claudia Codesani from the charity Médecins Sans Frontières.

'They have been at sea for 17 hours or for as long as five or six days and they are desperate to eat and drink. Everyone is shocked and frightened. Many of them say to me: "Where is the train station for Milan"?'

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Italy: Probe launched into migrant centre

From Ansa.It

Investigators have opened a probe into a series of alleged abuses at a holding centre for migrants in this Sicilian city, a local prosecutor said on Tuesday .
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Critics have complained of a lack of legal advice, defective asylum application procedures, chronic overcrowding, poor medical care and physical and psychological abuse by staff .

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USA: Human Rights Workers Arrested by Border Patrol

From IMC Colorado:

On Saturday, July 9th two human rights workers with the No More Deaths coalition (www.nomoredeaths.org) were arrested while medically evacuating two Mexican migrants from the southern Arizona desert.

This came following a weekend in which 15 migrants were confirmed killed due to the scorching desert heat. This number adds to the 3,000+ migrant deaths that have occured since 1998 due to militarized border policies.


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South Africa: Two Zimbabwean refugees die in detention

from SW Radio Africa:

Two Zimbabweans refugees died in a South African detention centre last week whilst awaiting deportation to Zimbabwe, our Botswana correspondent has revealed.

One was a pregnant woman who died of complications after allegedly failing to get proper medical attention. The other was a man who had been ill for just a few days.
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Faced with often crowded conditions and little contact with the outside world, he said the mental well-being of detainees deteriorates very quickly. Still suffering from a bad cough he contracted during his three week ordeal in detention, Mafingenyi told us how spending even one night in a detention centre can be a harrowing and frustrating experience for refugees. 'You are subjected to beatings by the immigration officers. Fifteen people are forced to share a cell meant for 3 people. During the night all you hear are screams of people being tortured. It's just horrific. In life I never thought I would experience such a thing.'

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UK: Halt Zimbabwe removals says judge

From BBC News:

A senior UK judge has urged the government to halt all removals of failed asylum seekers to Zimbabwe pending a further High Court hearing.

The call comes after a Refugee Legal Council representative said there was evidence to suggest asylum seekers faced being abused in Zimbabwe. They were in danger because they had claimed asylum in the UK, he said.

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In a statement to Parliament on Wednesday, Mr Clarke said 33 failed Zimbabwean asylum seekers were on hunger strike, although campaigners say it is many more.

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During the case, the judge condemned the deportation of a Zimbabwean woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons and who was now "in hiding" after being flown to Harare. ... The judge said: "How anyone could fail to appreciate the significance of a fax from the Home Office telling them removal directions had been cancelled frankly escapes me.

"Even a half-wit would understand. All I can say is that I sincerely hope nothing like this ever happens again."

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Europe: 'Migrant air' to speed deportations

with apologies for the long hiatus

from the Guardian:

Britain is to take part in a plan to organise joint charter flights to deport illegal immigrants across Europe, the home secretary, Charles Clarke, confirmed yesterday.

Interior ministers from France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK, agreed to organise charter flights that will pick up illegal migrants in each country before flying them home.

The scheme will effectively set up a discrete charter airline, already dubbed "migrant-air", that will cut the cost of deportations and reduce the need to send those being deported back home on commercial airlines.

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