Italy: Illegal immigrants top one million, says charity
Despite a tougher stance on immigration in Italy, immigrants have not been deterred from entering the country illegally. The Catholic relief organisation Caritas says the number of illegal immigrants now living in Italy has topped one million....
Lampedusa, another dramatic case of immigrants being driven back to where they came from
Lampedusa, July 29th, 2009.
After the 89 refugees sent back to Libya on Wednesday July 1st, 2009 and the 47 people sent back to Ghaddafi’s “concentration camps” on July 5th; yesterday, July 29th, 14 more immigrants - including two women and a child - were picked out of the sea in the Strait of Sicily and deported back to the port they had set out from.
LAMPEDUSA MIGRANT CENTRES MAY CLOSE: MARONI
(ANSA) - Palermo, July 29 - Migrant centres on the
Sicilian island of Lampedusa may be closed down at the end of
the year thanks to a new government immigration policy,
Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said Wednesday.
There are currently two migrant facilities on the
island, where landings have dropped significantly since Italy
began a controversial `push-back` policy in May.
Under the policy, migrants are intercepted in the
Mediterranean and immediately returned to Libya, the main
stepping-off point on the North African coast.
``We`ll make a decision at the end of the year,`` Maroni
said.
``Things are going extremely well in terms of landings,
the accord with Libya is working well and if things continue
to go on like this all summer we could think about a
different use for the structures,`` he said.
Since the policy came into effect more than 900 people
have been sent back to Libya as part of an accord between the
two countries.
Under the accord, asylum seekers can present their
claims from there.
The push-back policy has been heavily criticised by the
centre-left opposition in Italy, the Catholic Church,
humanitarian organisations and the United Nations, who say
Libya does not have a system in place to adequately deal with
asylum claims.
According to figures released by the Italian interior
ministry earlier this year, around 37,000 people landed on
Italian coasts in 2008 - a 75% increase on 2007.
This is over half the total number of migrants who
arrived in Europe by sea last year, which totalled around
67,000.
EU warned against sending would-be refugees to Libya < German news | Expatica Germany
Brussels -- Europe's refugee agency urged EU nations last month not to send would-be migrants from Africa back to Libya, warning they could face long periods of detention in a country with a poor rights record.
The warning, by the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE), came on the eve of talks between EU interior ministers in Luxembourg on ways to stem the flow of people across the Mediterranean Sea as summer approaches.
Early last month, Italian naval vessels escorted a boatload of around 500 people hoping to reach land in the EU to Libya and dropped them off without allowing them to apply for asylum, in a move slammed by the UN and NGOs.
"Libya cannot be considered a safe country for the disembarkation of persons intercepted by the member states in the high seas," ECRE said in a statement.
It noted that Libya is the only African country not party to the 1951 Refugee Convention, does not have any asylum procedures and often detains people seeking protection indefinitely in extremely poor conditions.
Both Malta and Italy are grappling with a sharp spike in illegal immigration from outside the European Union, with 36,900 arriving in Italy last year -- a 75 percent increase from 2007.
Malta, whose population is about 400,000, saw a record 2,775 would-be migrants land in 2008.
Most of those making the crossing from the Libyan coast to Europe come from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan, asylum experts said Wednesday. Italy acknowledges that 51 percent of them need protection, one expert said.
Christopher Hein, director of the Italian Refugee Council, the only international NGO working in Libya, said that Italy's new policy "could fundamentally undermine the international refugee framework."
UNHCR demands explanation from Italy over refugee abuse claims
he UNHCR (UN High Commissioner for Refugees) in Geneva has asked the Italian government for an explanation of how refugees who are returned to Libya are handled, following an incident that took place 1 July in the Mediterranean, about 30 km from the island of Lampedusa.
The Italian Navy intercepted a group of 82 people, 76 of them Eritreans, who were heading to Italy from Libya. The Italian ship transferred them to a Libyan ship, and they were returned to Libya and placed in detention. The UNHCR says that given the seriousness of allegations of mistreatment by Italian personnel during the transfer, Italy is being asked to respect international norms.
The UNHCR was able to visit and interview the group and says “it is clear that a significant number from this group are in need of international protection.” They told the UNHCR that personal effects, including vital documents, were seized by the Italian Navy during the operation and have not yet been returned to them and that although they were in a state of distress after four days at sea the Italian Navy did not offer them any food during the 12-hour operation to return them to Libya.
BBC NEWS | Politics | Sink immigrants' boats - Griffin
The EU should sink boats carrying illegal immigrants to prevent them entering Europe, British National Party leader Nick Griffin has told the BBC.
ANSAmed
(ANSAmed) - ROME - ''The massacre continues: 459 deaths in the first six months of 2009.'' This is the most recent figure from Fortress Europe, the online observatory on the victims of immigration. There is however some hope: ''the figure is falling for the first time in three years. In the first few months of 2008, there was a total of 985 victims.'' A report by Gabriele Del Grande published on the observatory's website claims that most migrants die in the Sahara: ''a route they are forced to take, which is more dangerous than the sea crossing''. According to a census carried out through international press, at least 1,691 people have died in the desert since 1996. On her journey in the footsteps of the migrants, Del Grande stopped at Agadez in Nigeria, the crossroads for all African migrants who want to reach Algeria or Libya across the Sahara. The final destination is either Spain or Italy, despite the policies of expulsion or immediate return undertaken by the two countries. Amongst the many resources available on the Fortress Europe website is a video by a Senegalese journalist, which was filmed on June 16 at Barajas airport in Madrid. It reports on violence perpetrated on a fellow countryman: ''feet and hands bound like an animal,'' a note on the website explains, ''whilst a plain-clothed policeman holds him to the ground, underneath an airplane bound for Dakar.'' An investigation into forced returns from Lampedusa that began some weeks ago reports that ''the passengers onboard the boat refused entry off the coast of Lampedusa on July 1 were Eritreans. Eritrean refugees who now risk being repatriated. Or else they risk long-term detention in Libyan prisons, where they are already under arrest.'' Fortress Europe also notes that Italy knows the dangers facing Eritreans who are sent back. ''Italy is well aware of the fate that awaits Eritreans. So much so that last year the authorities granted permits to stay to most of the 2,739 Eritreans who landed on the Sicilian coast.''(ANSAmed).
