Immigration and asylum - new material (5)
01 January 2010
Derechos humanos en la Frontera Sur 2009. Asociación Pro Derechos Humanos de Andalucía, March 2010, pp. 64. This year’s issue of the annual report on the human rights situation at the southern border, while providing in-depth analysis on Spanish immigration policies and practices, a wealth of statistical data and its customary chart detailing all the incidents relating to immigration into Spain that have resulted in people dying, has the added input of examining this phenomenon from the southern shore of the Mediterranean. Analysis on the issue of migration into the EU, the policies to counter it and EU countries’ policies in countries of origin is featured, from Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali and Morocco. 2009 was marked by 206 documented deaths, an improvement on 2008, when 581 people died, but which is nonetheless deemed an “intolerable” situation by the authors. There was an intensification in maritime controls and in cooperation with African countries to stop “illegal” immigration, Spain will receive 90m euros to fight this phenomenon between 2009 and 2010 from the EU, it will expand its border surveillance system (SIVE), Frontex’s involvement is increasing, and the immigration law was modified, while figures are provided as to the number of expulsions and returns, and decreasing numbers of arrivals. Available at: www.apdha.org
Stop Forced Evictions of Roma in Europe. Amnesty International April 2010 (EUR 01/005/2010). This paper discusses the forced eviction of Roma from their homes in Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Romania and Serbia. “Across the region, Romani communities are often denied equal access to adequate housing, education, health, water and sanitation. This widespread discrimination makes them an easy target for forced evictions. Discrimination in the labour market makes it difficult for them to rent homes. Being effectively excluded from access to social housing schemes leaves them no choice but to find accommodation wherever they can – often in informal settlements. Without security of tenure, they are vulnerable to forced evictions and other human rights violations.” Available as a free download: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/EUR01/005/2010/en
Voces desde y contra los centros de internamiento de extranjeros (CIE). Para quien quiera oír, Ferrocarril Clandestino, Médicos del Mundo, SOS Racismo, October 2009, pp. 192. Three organisations with different backgrounds (anti-racist, medical and migrant support activity from social movements) that have been visiting detainees in Aluche detention centre in southern Madrid over the last few years, have put together this detailed report to document the conditions that exist there. It is divided into sections on judicial safeguards and guarantees during proceedings; detention conditions; the right to family intimacy, and regimes for visits and communication; cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment; the right to health; social care and the experiences of foreign families; the access of NGOs to detention centres, and expulsions, transfers and returns. The report seeks to explain the conditions in the centre through the testimony of 40 people detained there, because: “The situation we discovered behind the centre’s walls made us consider the need to criticise its existence in public and make people aware of the daily life of the people enclosed there through this document”: http://transfronterizo.at.rezo.net/IMG/pdf/CIESmaqueta.web.bajareso.pdf
‘One Day we will be Reunited’: experiences of refugee family reunion in the UK, Judith Connell, Gareth Mulvey, Joe Brady and Gary Christie. Scottish Refugee Council (April) 2010, pp 60. This report marks the winding down of the Scottish refugee Council’s Family Reunion Service through lack of funding in May 2009, and is designed to “capture the family reunion needs and experience of refugees and the views of professionals working in this area.” Sections 4 and 5 set out the international and European context of family reunion and how family reunion currently operates in the UK. A short review of the literature is presented in Section 6, while Section 7 presents the findings from questionnaires sent to professional respondents. Section 8 sets out findings from interviews with refugee respondents who have engaged to different extents with the family reunion process. Available: http://www.scottishrefugeecouncil.org.uk/pub/Family_Reunion_Apr10
Failing the Grade: Home Office initial decisions on lesbian and gay claims for asylum. UK Lesbian & Gay Immigration Group (April) 2010, pp 16. The UK Lesbian & Gay Immigration Group (UKLGIG) conducted a review of 50 Home Office Reason for Refusal letters issued from 2005 to 2009 to claimants from 19 different countries who sought asylum on the basis of their sexual identity, of which “a staggering 98-99% were rejected at th[e] initial stage.” The report notes that: “The poor quality of initial decision making has been a long-standing concern of groups monitoring refugee claims in the UK. The number of lesbian and gay claims being rejected suggests that this lack of quality is even more pronounced in decisions on cases relating to sexual identity.” The report concludes with a number of recommendations to improve the process. Available as a free download at:
http://www.uklgig.org.uk/docs/Failing%20the%20Grade%20UKLGIG%20April%202010.pdf
Rapport de la ligue grecque des droits de l’homme sur les structures de détention des immigrants sans documents de voyage et de séjour, dans les départements frontalières de Rodopi et d’Evros en Grèce, Hellenic League of Human Rights, Thessalonica, 11.12.09, pp. 20. This report stems from a visit by a Hellenic League of Human rights delegation to Evros and Rodopi on 25-29 November 2009 which visited a number of detention facilities. Conditions in all of them are described as “below the standards envisaged by law”, with border police detention facilities in Venna (Rodopi) and the border police station of Tyhero (Evros) singled out for their “shameful” conditions for a country that claims to respect basic human rights. The shortcomings highlighted include a lack of light and ventilation, little possibility of walking in the open air due to overcrowding and lack of personnel, the detention of men, women, children and unaccompanied minors in the same cells, inadequate nourishment, a lack of knowledge by detainees of their rights, of translators and of information about asylum procedures, incomplete application of legislation concerning unaccompanied minors, a disrespectful attitude by officers towards detainees, and a lack of coordination between FRONTEX and Greek authorities. It includes detailed reports on their visits to centres, the conditions found therein and the people they interviewed. The filthy conditions, skin disease among many detainees and the presence of rats and cockroaches in the Venna centre are mentioned, with detention conditions deemed reminiscent of “cages from the Middle Ages”. The worst conditions were found in the Tyhero detention facilities, the presence of children in cells in the different centres appeared to be commonplace, and in the Fylakio-Kyprinos detention centre (Evros), detainees reportedly complained about their treatment by the police and the lack of medical care .Full report in Greek:
http://www.hlhr.gr/papers/adetentioncenter-rapport2009.pdf
English Summuary:
http://www.hlhr.gr/papers/report-hlhr2009-detention.pdf
Controles de identidad y detención de inmigrantes. Prácticas ilegales, INMIGRAPENAL, Grupo Inmigración y Justicia Penal, 10 March 2010, pp. 13. This report by a group of university professors and researchers highlights that: “One of the main goals of the current immigration policy is the expulsion of all those foreigners whose stay in Spanish territory is illegal”. This leads many sans-papiers to be subjected to a cycle of deprivation of freedom that contravenes constitutional guarantees for personal freedom (art. 17). Its different stages include the systematic identification checks by the police in the streets for the sole purpose of finding “irregular” immigrants. The second stage is being taken to a police station, which is followed by detention in a Centro de Internamiento de Extranjeros (CIE). The report analyses the legal and constitutional problems that this “cycle” entails, drawing upon recent legislative amendments and orders for its implementation, particularly law 2/2009 and circular 1/2010, which are deemed to encourage racial profiling by the police and an excessive use of preventative custody (in application of norms allowing “precautionary detention”) by defining illegal residence a “serious offence”. The report also mentions concern expressed by four police trade unions about the “police practice of large-scale indiscriminate identification checks in public spaces”, and analyses its legal implications in relation to the principle of non-discrimination that is enshrined in Spanish law. Available at:
http://www.inmigrapenal.com/Areas/Detenciones/Documentos/INFORMEREDADASDETENCIONES01032010.pdf