| Submit your comments on this article |
| Europe |
| European Parliament Passes Stringent Immigration Guidelines |
| 2008-06-19 |
| The European parliament has passed tough new immigration guidelines that sparked protests on the part of human rights groups and some lawmakers. European governments had already approved the new immigration measures, but they still awaited passage by the European parliament. That happened Wednesday. The guidelines allow the European Union's 27 members to hold illegal immigrants for up to 18 months in special detention centers before deporting them. That is considerably longer than current detention policies in most EU countries - but members are not required to adopt the longer limits. Those expelled also face a five-year re-entry ban applicable for the entire bloc. But governments must first give the immigrants a chance to leave the country voluntarily - and they are required to offer those detained free legal advice and other basic rights. Those supporting the measures, including EU Commissioner Jacques Barrot, argue they safeguard rights for legal immigrants while setting common European standards for illegal ones. Barrot says Europe does not want to be a closed fortress. It will continue to welcome immigrants from elsewhere - just as it does now - and remain faithful to offering asylum to those needing it. But he says the European Union cannot accept illegal immigration, which he argues is not fair to anyone. But critics like Nicolas Berger, director of Amnesty International's Brussels office, Amnesty is also worried that the five-year re-entry ban could hurt those who truly need asylum. 'Europe is for us going in the wrong direction here quite a bit in terms of continuing this discourse of scapegoating immigrants, of putting immigrants and asylum seekers in the same box as criminals and connecting them to terrorism without looking at reality and individual cases,' Berger said. About eight million illegal immigrants reside in the European Union, according to the bloc's estimates. More than 200,000 were arrested in the first half of last year - but less than 90,000 were expelled. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #3 Very unpleasant, pavlovian, associations that are by the way the everyday bread of the various orgs opposed to any kind of control over the massive immigration flooded Europe, and that at least partly fuel a renewed antisemitism from the ethnic europeans, because this associate the european jewry (which by large is not concerned by that) to this guilt-racket. The infamous "this reminds of the Darkest Hours Of Our History" (meaning Vichy, not meaning the 20% of an age class killed in WWI) and the assorted WWII vocabulary used by the usual suspects... because any half-hearted effort to control immigration is Racism and Nazism. So, really, G(r)om, a big, deep yawn to your europeanophobia, as it is really tired and overused here. |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2008-06-19 09:26 |
| #2 Very unpleasant, pavlovian, associations. Yawn. |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2008-06-19 09:20 |
| #1 special detention centers Very unpleasant associations. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2008-06-19 02:51 |