I send this clippings list out weekly.
Purgatory in Provincial Germany:- Life Behind Bars Drives Asylum Seekers to Desperation
Germany Europe Spiegel Dialika Krah 27.1.11
Asylum seekers come to Germany hoping to find freedom and prosperity. Instead, they often end up in soul-destroying detention camps in the middle of nowhere, with nothing to do except wait to be deported. But the system suits many in Germany very well.~
~Asylum seekers have become the subject of public debate in Germany again, ever since people began fleeing from war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan and visa requirements were lifted for countries like Serbia and Macedonia. It is fuelled by the fact that the number of asylum seekers in Germany has gone up again, by 49.5 percent in 2010. The public debate revolves around issues like appropriate housing for asylum seekers, the amount of space a refugee should have, the quality of meals and whether detainees should have access to lockable cupboards.
The central questions are how long can people be expected to stay in camps, and what should be done with those people Germany does not want: Can they be deported, and if so, to which countries? For example, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière recently decided that refugees can no longer be sent back to Greece, because the asylum procedures there do not conform to German human rights standards.
It is also about two worldviews that collide with each other. The first is that of the asylum seekers, who argue that Germany has so much of everything — security, prosperity, human rights — that it can afford to be generous. The second is that of those who say that Germany can only preserve its security and prosperity if it only accepts those people who can be useful to the country. Everyone else should be housed in detention centers, deported or “tolerated” (a term that refers to those foreigners who do not have the right to stay in Germany, but whose deportation has temporarily been suspended).
These views lead to two opposing conclusions: Either the asylum seekers expect too much of the country, or Germany deals with them too harshly.~
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,741691,00.html#ref=nlint
What’s New – Recent changes to the Australian Parliamentary Library’s site.
Australia – Links at pdf’s hyperlink
21 January 2010 -Seeking Asylum: Australia’s humanitarian program [PDF 723KB]
14 January 2011 -Asylum seekers and refugees: what are the facts? [PDF 302KB]
13 January 2011 -Ways forward in the population and environment debate [PDF 1.45MB]
8 December 2010 -Population growth and sustainability [PDF 177KB]
Iraq refugee returns fell in 2010: UNHCR
Iraq AFP Jacques Clement 19/1/11
BAGHDAD — Fewer Iraqis displaced inside and outside the country returned to their homes in 2010 than in the previous year, largely as a result of Iraq’s prolonged political deadlock, the UNHCR said on Friday.
The UN refugee agency said in its December 2010 statistical update that a total of 118,890 Iraqi refugees and internally displaced persons returned to their country and homes, a 40 percent drop compared with 2009.
“It was a year on hold,” Daniel Endres, Iraq representative for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, told AFP by telephone. “People wanted to wait and see a bit — before you take such an important decision, you want to be sure” that the situation in the country is stable, he added.
According to UNHCR figures, the number of Iraqis returning to their home country peaked in March, with a total of 17,080 returns in the same month Iraq held its second parliamentary polls since dictator Saddam Hussein was ousted~
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hjA6XbiJKx2XKgtdg_Hn0A59sorA?docId=CNG.1b324d261b1d70e46050b731e6c7d0f3.6f1
Urban sprawl threatens lifestyle
Australia Ben Packham, The Australian January 25, 2011
JULIA Gillard’s vision for a sustainable Australia is under threat from immigration-linked urban sprawl that will more than double the size of the nation’s capital cities by 2050.
Research for the Department of Immigration and Citizenship has warned of dramatic effects on quality of life and cuts to food production unless immigration levels are reduced.
The National Institute of Labour Studies report finds that Sydney and Melbourne will each require more than 430,000ha of new land for housing if net overseas migration remains above 260,000 a year.
The loss of productive land will slash agricultural output under higher immigration scenarios, forcing the import of key staples including fruit, nuts, oil and pigmeat.
“Even for dairy, lamb and vegetable categories, net imports are required by 2050 for the 260,000 net overseas migration level,” the report says.~ Even without any immigration, the state capitals will grow in size by roughly 50 per cent, costing residents an extra $1000 a year from added congestion within two decades.
Under current migration rates, each capital would grow up to 1 1/2 times bigger within 50 years, causing massive gridlock-induced costs. “The magnitude of the impacts at all net overall migration levels suggests that, unless substantial and timely actions are taken to address these impacts, some impacts have the potential to disrupt Australia’s economy and society,” the paper warns. Creating a “sustainable Australia” became a Labor mantra at the last election after the Prime Minister veered sharply from Kevin Rudd’s “Big Australia” plan. The tactic helped to sandbag crucial western Sydney seats amid a storm over asylum-seeker arrivals, but the government is yet to flesh out the detail of its plan.
The 335-page Long-term Physical Implications of Net Overseas Migration: Australia in 2050 report was quietly posted on the Immigration Department’s website before Christmas.
Population Minister Tony Burke released a discussion paper about the same time on creating a sustainable population strategy, which did not refer to the NILS report.~
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/urban-sprawl-threatens-lifestyle/story-fn59niix-1225993921622
NZ Press report http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10701997
Actual Report 345 pdf
http://www.immi.gov.au/media/publications/research/_pdf/physical-implications-migration-report-1.pdf
Unions fear spread of civil unrest to Europe
Europe Matthew Allen, swissinfo.ch in Davos 28/1/11
The current wave of social unrest in North Africa may spread to Europe unless more jobs are found, according to the international trade union umbrella organisation. Philip Jennings, secretary-general of the Nyon-based UNI Global Union, told swissinfo.ch that a chronic shortage of work was one reason behind the so-called Jasmine Revolution that recently unseated the Tunisian president.
With unemployment rates around ten per cent in the European Union, European governments should rethink austerity policies and form a new social contract with workers, Jennings said.
Speaking at the 41st World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Jennings also praised Switzerland’s labour relations model as a system to be “treasured”.~
http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss_news/Unions_fear_spread_of_civil_unrest_to_Europe.html?cid=29353862
People smugglers operate as ‘open secret’
Australia Afghanistan Sydney Morning Herald Russell Skelton January 29, 2011
SOPHISTICATED people-smuggling syndicates charging clients about $12,000 for a one-way trip from Afghanistan to Australia are preying with apparent impunity on Hazara communities in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide. The syndicates, which use GPS tracking and mobile-phone messaging systems, boast they can reunite family and friends with relatives living in Australia within months, if not weeks.
A well-placed source within the Afghan community told the Herald this week: ”The syndicates are an open secret within the Hazara community; everybody knows who runs them, who to approach and who makes the money. It is astonishing they can operate so openly.”
It is claimed the top smugglers move around with ease, have Australian citizenship and travel unimpeded between Australia and Afghanistan. This week Indonesian police detained an Australian citizen, Haydar Khani, allegedly responsible for smuggling almost 100 asylum seekers on board the ill-fated SIEV 221 which broke up on rocks off Christmas Island in December.
The biggest smuggling operation in Australia is believed to be run from a series of nondescript shopfronts in Dandenong, in Melbourne’s south, home to thousands of Afghan refugees, many of them Hazaras. It is believed to have generated tens of millions of dollars in profits in the past two years.
Inquiries by the Herald have revealed: – ~
http://www.smh.com.au/national/people-smugglers-operate-as-open-secret-20110128-1a8ds.html
A waxing crescent Islam is growing. But ageing and slowing. That will change the world
UK World The Economist 29/1/11
ARE Muslims taking over the world, or at a minimum, transforming Europe into Eurabia? Whatever your hopes or fears for the future of the world’s religions, a report published this week has plenty to stoke them. “The Future of the Global Muslim Population”, produced by the Pew Research Centre, a non-profit outfit based in Washington, DC, reckons Muslim numbers will soar from 1.6 billion in 2010 to 2.2 billion by 2030. In other words, from 23.4% to 26.4% of the global total.
At the heart of its analysis is the ongoing effect of a “youth bulge” which peaked in 2000. In 1990 Islam’s share of the world’s youth was 20%; in 2010, 26%. In 2030 it will be 29% (of 15-to-29-year-olds). But the Muslim world is slowly heading towards paunchiness: the median age in Muslim-majority countries was 19 in 1990. It is 24 now, and will be 30 by 2030. (For French, Germans and Japanese the figure is 40 or over.) This suggests Muslim numbers will ultimately stop climbing, but later than the rest of the world population.
The authors call their calculations demographic, not political. Drawing on earlier Pew research, they say conversion is not a big factor in the global contest between Islam, Christianity and other faiths; the converts balance out. Nor do they assess piety; via the imperfect data of the United Nations, the European Union and national statistics, they aim simply to measure how many people call themselves Muslim, at least culturally, if asked.~
http://www.economist.com/node/18008022
Holy cow! Indian AP students get cattle tags in US
India USA Hyderabad, Jan. 29 2011
The fate of hundreds of Indian students enrolled in various programmes at Tri-Valley University seem to be getting from bad to worse. According to a federal complaint filed in a California court, the University, which was raided and shut down last week, helped foreign nationals illegally acquire immigration status.
The Tri-Valley University in Pleasanton, a major suburb in San Francisco Bay Area, has been charged by federal investigating authorities with being part of an effort to defraud, misuse visa permits and indulge in money laundering and other crimes.
Now as if that was not bad news, the latest one is that some students have been RFID-tagged (radio frequency identification) so as to keep track of their movements by the US federal authorities. These microchip-embedded tags are used for pets like cats and dogs so that they don’t go missing. They are also used in some western countries to keep a tab on prisoner-movements.
Human Rights supporters have called the move “degrading and inhuman.~
http://news.oneindia.in/2011/01/29/indian-students-rfid-tagged-in-us-aid0113.html
Hundreds protest cuts to immigration services
Canada Toronto Sun TOM GODFREY, January 27, 2011
A frustrated Simon Zhong is one of hundreds of Toronto settlement workers being laid off or affected by funding cuts to 24 GTA organizations that help newcomers and immigrants.
Zhong was emotional at Toronto City Hall on Thursday as he voiced his anger against a federal immigration $40,000 cut to the budget of Toronto Community and Culture Centre that he operates.
“We don’t know what to do,” Zhong told hundreds of immigrant aid workers at a meeting. “We have all these people and don’t have the money to help them.”
He and about 300 others, including some high-profile politicians, urged immigration minister Jason Kenney to stop the $53 million cuts, of which $43 million is aimed at the Toronto area.
Tibetan monk Nawang Choedon said hundreds of young people from his community will be left out in the cold if the programs are axed.
“We have hundreds of young people in our community who are receiving assistance,” Choedon said. “The newcomers of our community are the ones who will suffer the most.~
http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2011/01/27/17061081.html
Immigration fuelled Canada’s population growth in Q3
Canada Daily Commercial News JOHN CLINKARD January 27, 2011
Driven by a net inflow of international immigrants (+84,200), Canada’s population increased by an estimated 129,300 (1.5% quarter over quarter at annual rates) in the third quarter of 2010.
Following a sharp drop in the second quarter of 2009, and coincident with the recovery of the economy, Canada’s rate of population growth has steadily accelerated since the third quarter of 2009.
As a result of the latest gain, the largest since the first quarter of 2009, Canada’s population reached 34,238,000 in Q3/2010, up 1.2% from the third quarter of 2009.
Across the country, Prince Edward Island recorded the fastest population growth in the third quarter (+2.8% q/q at annual rates). In the quarter, PEI’s population increased by 975 to 143,200.~
http://dcnonl.com/article/id42646
Our population problem requires sustainable plans
Uganda Sunday Monitor Anthony Bugembe January 27 2011
As the elections draw closer, several pledges and promises are being made to the electorate.
This year’s elections come at a time when the country is grappling with the challenges of a rapidly growing and largely youthful population amid limited resources. Uganda’s population stands at about 33 million with at least 1.2 million people added to it every year. About 56 per cent of our population is under the age of 18 and therefore largely dependent on the small working populace.
Our population is growing rapidly mainly because of the high fertility levels. On average, a mother in Uganda gives birth to seven children. At the same time, 41 per cent of married women are not using contraceptives.
Candidates at all elective levels must prioritise population issues. Politicians have always considered a big population as a potential source of votes, paying little attention to improving its quality to make it more productive. Time has come for our leaders to work closely with population and development experts to find ways of managing the ever increasing population.~
http://www.monitor.co.ug/OpEd/Commentary/-/689364/1096522/-/13qvbpsz/-/
Overpopulation and Climate Change – The Deadly Duo
Australia Woodford Folk Festival Kelvin Thomson MP Speech 29 December 2010
http://www.kelvinthomson.com.au/editor/assets/pop_debate/101229%20speech%20woodford%20folk%20festival%20overpopulation%20and%20climate%20change.pdf
Greek asylum mess stops return of refugee
Pakistan Europe Pakistan Daily Times 28.1.11
BRUSSELS: A growing number of European states have stopped sending asylum seekers back to Greece after a top human rights court denounced the squalid conditions they endure in the Greek immigration system.~
~Europe’s rights court ordered Belgium to pay the equivalent of a comfortable annual salary in damages to the Afghan migrant, saying that by returning him to Greece, “Belgian authorities knowingly exposed him to detention and living conditions that amounted to degrading treatment.” Asylum seekers are systematically placed in detention facilities and often face police brutality, the court charged, while failures in the Greek system for dealing with them meant they could be arbitrarily deported. The ruling created a legal precedent opening the door for asylum seekers to challenge their deportation back to Greece. “Governments are scared because thousands of complaints could be filed,” said a European official who requested anonymity. Greece welcomed the decisions of countries to stop returning asylum seekers to its hands as a “positive” development on “the question of lifting Dublin II.” Afp
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011\01\28\story_28-1-2011_pg4_8
Home Office explains cuts to asylum charities
UK CivilSociety.com.uk Tania Mason 27 Jan 2011
The Home Office has issued a Q&A to explain the reduction of funding to voluntary sector agencies that support refugees and asylum-seekers.
Q. Why have these grants to the voluntary sector been reduced so significantly?
A. Given the seriousness of the financial situation, it is not possible for us to make the voluntary sector organisations (funded by UKBA to provide advice & support to asylum seekers and refugees) exempt from the cuts that are facing the UK Border Agency. We also believe it is important to look at how we can refocus the advisory services to ensure they support the Government’s wider objectives, especially in the context of a much reduced intake of asylum seekers.
Q. Why is UKBA imposing a significantly greater cut on the voluntary sector partners than it is facing as a result of the Comprehensive Spending Review outcome? ~
http://www.civilsociety.co.uk/finance/news/content/8147/home_office_explains_cuts_to_asylum_charities
Which countries match the GDP and population of America’s states? US equivalents
World Jan 13th 2011 by The Economist online
IT HAS long been true that California on its own would rank as one of the biggest economies of the world. These days, it would rank eighth, falling between Italy and Brazil on a nominal exchange-rate basis. But how do other American states compare with other countries? Taking the nearest equivalent country from 2009 data reveals some surprises. Who would have thought that, despite years of auto-industry hardship, the economy of Michigan is still the same size as Taiwan’s?
http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2011/01/us_equivalents
Govt to cut population growth to below one percent
Indonesia IndonesiaViews.com January 25, 2011
Jakarta (ANTARA News) – The government will make efforts to reduce population growth to below one percent from currently 1.5 percent, Coordinating Minister for People`s Welfare Agung Laksono said here on Monday.
“The government is striving to cut population growth to below one percent,” he said adding it had so far been quite high, namely 1.5 percent.
He said the efforts to be made by the government would be among other things revitalizing the family planning program. “There must be revitalization of the family planning program. There must be special efforts to control population growth,” he said.~
http://www.indonesiaviews.com/govt-to-cut-population-growth-to-below-one-percent.html
UAE to draft population strategy to address ‘imbalance’
Emirates The National Kareem Shaheen Jan 26, 2011
Abu Dhabi // The government is close to completing a population strategy that may define an ideal demographic mix between Emiratis and expatriates in the UAE’s population, according to the Minister of Interior.
In a letter to the Federal National Council, Sheikh Saif bin Zayed, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, who also heads the Federal Demographic Council, said a strategy to address the imbalance was nearly ready. It would be presented to the FNC when complete, he said.
His statement came in response to a question by Sultan Saqr al Suwaidi, a member from Dubai, on what proportion of the population should be Emirati under the government’s 2021 strategy.~
http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-news/uae-to-draft-population-strategy-to-address-imbalance
91 boat people heading to Australia stranded in Indonesia
China Indonesia Australia English.news.cn xinhuanet.com 2011-01-26
JAKARTA, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) — Ninety-one illegal immigrants from the Middle East heading to Australia for seeking asylum have been stranded in eastern Indonesia as their boat was hit by huge waves, according to Wednesday’s media report.
The immigrants had been stranded since Tuesday evening on Naikliu village of Kupang district of East Nusa Tenggra province and then they were brought to a local police station of Amfoang Utara and being taken care by International Organization of Migration (IOM), said the Tempointeraktif online.
Rindang Napitapulu, an immigration official, said 68 of the immigrants were from Afghanistan, 14 from Iraq, six from Pakistan, and three from Iran. Indonesian water has been a favorable way for those illegal migrants from the Middle East, Afghanistan and other Asian countries~
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-01/26/c_13707857.htm
Berlin Aims to Attract Unemployed Europeans
Germany Spiegel Online 25/1/11
With Germany facing a lack of skilled workers, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government is looking into ways to attract the unemployed from Southern and Eastern Europe. The plan would stop short of recruiting workers from too far afield.
With the German economy recovering rapidly from the recent crisis, employers have once again begun voicing concerns about finding enough qualified workers to fill their needs. Indeed, Klaus Zimmermann, head of the German Institute for Economic Research, recently forecasted that Germans may soon face a 45-hour work week if the situation doesn’t improve.
Ulrich Blum, president of the Halle Institute for Economic Research, agreed. He said that the only way to address the problem would be to increase immigration to Germany.
That, it would seem, is exactly what Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives are now looking to do. Specifically, her Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), are looking into ways to entice young people to move to Germany from debt-burdened European Union countries like Portugal and Spain. Both countries are experiencing high unemployment, with Spain’s jobless rate currently over 20 percent~
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,741201,00.html#ref=nlint
Jordan, PLO clash on refugee issue
The PLO appears to be vigorously defending its right to solely decide on the refugee issue with Israel.
Jordan Israel Palestine Aljazeera Ali Abunimah 24 Jan 2011
Leaked documents reveal that Jordan had a serious disagreement with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) over the latter’s approach to negotiating with Israel over the rights of Palestinian refugees. Jordanian officials felt the PLO’s approach could compromise Jordan’s and the refugees’ rights to seek full remedies under international law.
In early September 2008, the Jordanian government drafted a letter, to be sent to Israel, expressing objections to the potential solutions to the refugee issue that were being discussed between Israel and Palestinian negotiators.
Jordan was concerned that the “international mechanism” which Israel and the PLO had agreed on to act as the sole forum for handling refugee claims would prejudice Jordan’s rights to pursue claims for the costs it says it has borne as a host country, and potentially damage the ability of Palestinian refugees living in Jordan to exercise their individual rights as refugees.
Under proposals whose major outlines were agreed between Palestinian and Israeli negotiators, refugees’ options would be limited to financial compensation, with the right of return for refugees to homes now in Israel limited to all but a symbolic handful of individuals~
http://english.aljazeera.net/palestinepapers/2011/01/2011124122125339673.html
Immigration raid nets dozen at Glen Waverley restaurant
Australia Waverley Leader (Melbourne) 24/1/11
DINERS at a Glen Waverley restaurant witnessed an immigration raid last Friday night during which 12 of the 14 staff were arrested.
The Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) compliance officers, with Victoria Police, raided the unnamed eatery and took away 12 illegal workers during the busy Friday night dinner rush.
In a statement, a DIAC spokesman said the haul was believed to be the largest number of illegal workers yet located during a single-restaurant compliance operation in Victoria. “Of the eight men and four women detained, 11 were Malaysian nationals and one a Chinese national,” the spokesman said.~
http://waverley-leader.whereilive.com.au/news/story/immigration-raid-nets-dozen-at-glen-waverley-restaurant/
Canada’s decision on Tamil refugee claims, unrealistic
Sri Lanka Sri Lanka Guardian 24/1/11
Canada rushed to take its stance on Sri Lanka just days before the Canadians were preparing for their holidays in December. Tamils, now, no longer have the right to seek refugee status in Canada. Canada no longer considers the Sri Lankan government a threat to the Tamil people. The Canadian government feels the human rights situation on the island has improved since mid-2010, just a year after the Sri Lankan armed forces claimed to have eliminated the Tamil Tigers’ war for an independent Tamil State.
Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) introduced the new policy on Tamils who seek political asylum in Canada on the grounds that although the refugee board adjudicators are not forced to follow the new guidelines, for the IRB such notes “are offered to members as models of sound reasoning that may be adopted in appropriate circumstances.” This is really a frightening decision of the IRB as it demonstrates that the Canadian government led by Stephen Harper has made such a hasty decision without knowing what is really happening on the ground in the Tamils areas in Sri Lanka. ~
http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2011/01/canadas-decision-on-tamil-refugee.html
Refugee and Asylum Policy Reform
USA FairUS Organisation JACK MARTIN, DIRECTOR NOVEMBER 2010
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY : Refugee and asylum law is overdue for reform. It has strayed far from its original and altruistic intent of offering protection to those who face a credible fear of persecution at the hands of their governments, based on reasons of race, religion, ethnicity, or political belief. That commitment to helping others in distress, that is understood and supported by the public, has been hijacked by political interest groups seeking to advance their own narrow agendas and by non-governmental organizations with lucrative government contracts that pay them to resettle refugees in the United States.
The U.S. refugee program has been expanded to admit persons who were already protected in U.N.-supported refugee camps. The U.S. asylum program has been expanded through judicial advocacy of immigration lawyers who represent asylum claimants. These activists relentlessly seek to expand the definition of asylum to include people who live in failed or dysfunctional nations to the extent that the definition of asylum is now distorted. It now includes people who simply live in nations experiencing social and political turmoil; people who face social ostracism; people in dysfunctional and violent personal or marital relationships; people who live in nations facing environmental degradation or natural disasters; and other circumstances that have little or nothing to do with government repression. All of these people face compelling situations of human misery, but such a broad expansion of the grounds for political asylum could, quite literally, make billions of people around the world eligible for protection in the United States.~
42 page pdf report http://www.fairus.org/site/DocServer/RefugeeAsylum_final.pdf?docID=5362
Resolution Calling to Amend the Constitution Banning Corporate Personhood Introduced in Vermont
USA Alternet Christopher Ketcham 24/1/11
On the anniversary of the Citizens United decision, Vermont politicians are moving to deny corporations the rights that humans enjoy. A year ago today, the Supreme Court issued its bizarre Citizens United decision, allowing unlimited corporate spending in elections as a form of “free speech” for the corporate “person.” Justice John Paul Stevens, writing for the dissent, had the task of recalling the majority to planet earth and basic common sense.
“Corporations have no consciences, no beliefs, no feelings, no thoughts, no desires,” wrote Stevens. “Corporations help structure and facilitate the activities of human beings, to be sure, and their ‘personhood’ often serves as a useful legal fiction. But they are not themselves members of ‘We the People’ by whom and for whom our Constitution was established.”
Fortunately, movements are afoot to reverse a century of accumulated powers and protections granted to corporations by wacky judicial decisions~
http://www.alternet.org/story/149620/resolution_calling_to_amend_the_constitution_banning_corporate_personhood_introduced_in_vermont
Geoff Dickinson
