Spain scraps health benefits for illegal immigrants

Spain scraps health benefits for illegal immigrants

Via AFP:

Spain takes pride in its universal health care but Europe's debt crisis has spurred tough budget cuts that will bring sometimes life-saving treatment for illegal immigrants to an abrupt end.

(...)

Among illegal immigrants, only children, pregnant women and emergency cases will qualify for free treatment.

"This will only put Spain on a par with other European Union countries," according to Health Minister Ana Mato.

The measure will leave half a million illegal immigrants who have been counting on Spain's health coverage with no safety net, and several organisations have been sounding alarm bells.


(source)

Athens: Immigrants squeak out living as scrap metal mongers

Athens: Immigrants squeak out living as scrap metal mongers

Italy: Deportees on Alitalia flight with taped mouths

Italy: Deportees on Alitalia flight with taped mouths

A photo of two Tunisian men being deported from Italy on an Alitalia flight, their mouths sealed with duct tape and their hands cuffed with plastic bands, was posted by Italian film director Francesco Sperandeo on Facebook Wednesday. (ANSA)

Greece: Immigrant detention centers

Greece: Immigrant detention centers

Via DW:

As elections approach in Greece, politicians argue that immigrants are behind higher crime rates and public health problems. But rights groups say the campaign rhetoric is a cheap ploy to win votes.

The so-called Integration Law, proposed by Minister for Citizen Protection Michalis Chrisohoidis, raised a furor by calling for illegal immigrants to be held in former military bases until deportation.

(source)

Greece: Most Greeks Support Clampdown on Illegal Immigration

Greece: Most Greeks Support Clampdown on Illegal Immigration

Via GreekReporter:

Ahead of May elections, more than six in 10 Greeks, or 61.7 percent, agree with recent government moves to clamp down on illegal immigration in the country, a poll showed.

A survey of 1,610 Greeks over the age of 18 by Kapa Research SA for To Vima newspaper published today found that 83.4 percent of interviewees believe illegal immigration is a major problem for Greece while 48.3 percent said that the main priority of any immigration policy should be to gradually remove all immigrants from the country, up from 19.5 percent in a similar poll in 2009.

(source)

Geneva: 'Project Maghreb' helps deport North African repeat offenders

Geneva: 'Project Maghreb' helps deport North African repeat offenders

Via TdG:

The police in Geneva estimates that 300-400 illegal North Africans are responsible for more than 6000 crimes over the past four years. In theory, once they serve their sentence, they can be deported back, but in practice Geneva is dependent on readmission agreements signed with other countries. The offenders usually hide their true identity which makes for a long process of identifying them, and then deporting them (either willingly or not). Many offenders claim to come from Algeria, which does not accept forced deportations.

Switzerland: Immigrant group pleas for legal status

Switzerland: Immigrant group pleas for legal status

EU: Ministers warn Greece to tighten border controls

EU: Ministers warn Greece to tighten border controls

Via Reuters:

EU countries have become increasingly critical of Greece's lax control of its border with Turkey, as the number of immigrants crossing it has risen due to political unrest in the Middle East.

A group of seven EU ministers of justice and home affairs urged Greece to improve border controls using available EU funds.

The asylum process in Greece proceeds slowly, if at all. Many refugees are leaving Greece and heading for other EU countries; something the interior ministers of Germany, Austria, Sweden, Belgium, France, the UK and the Netherlands want to prevent.

(source)

EU: Police bust Afghan migrant smuggling ring

EU: Police bust Afghan migrant smuggling ring

Via AFP:

Police have arrested six members of a ring suspected of transporting thousands of illegal migrants from Afghanistan to Europe via Greece, making millions of euros, the EU justice agency said Friday.

Police from Belgium, Britain, France and Greece took part in "Operation Pakoul", named after a traditional hat worn in Afghanistan, against the ring which smuggled an estimated 5,000 illegal immigrants over the last 10 months.

"The main organiser in Greece is estimated to have smuggled between 120 and 160 migrants each week into various member states," Eurojust said in a statement issued in The Hague.

(source)

Sweden: Website touts ruse to turn in illegal immigrants

Sweden: Website touts ruse to turn in illegal immigrants

Via the Local:

An anti-immigrant website has urged readers to infiltrate a group focused on helping undocumented immigrants in Sweden in order to turn them over to police.

The campaign by the Sweden Democrat-linked website Avpixlat (literally, "unpixelated", but also a Swedish colloquialism meaning to "reveal" or "unmask"), comes in response to a call for help in finding housing for a family of undocumented immigrants published on Facebook last week by asylum advocacy group Asylgruppen Lund.

(source)

EU: Italy, Austria team up against undocumented migrants

EU: Italy, Austria team up against undocumented migrants

Via the Times of Malta:

Italy and Austria plan to step up the fight against undocumented migrants and crime along their shared border, their interior ministers said after a meeting in Rome today. "Both ministers agreed on the need to intensify cooperation on cross-border operations and joint investigations in the fight against crime and illegal trafficking, including the exchange of information and data," a statement said. Italian Interior Minister Anna Maria Cancellieri and her Austrian counterpart Johanna Mikl-Leitner stressed their desire to "continue to work within the European Union to elaborate migration policies," it said.

Tens of thousands of undocumented migrants and refugees have arrived in Italy so far this year -- mainly Tunisians and African workers from Libya, but also Afghans, Egyptians, Pakistanis and Sri Lankans.

(source)

Switzerland: Thousands sign petition for illegal immigrants

Switzerland: Thousands sign petition for illegal immigrants

Via the Local:

The Swiss government has received a petition calling for it to regularize the status of undocumented foreigners living in the country.

A coalition of more than 100 non-governmental organisations is behind the campaign, with the petition -- signed by 20,000 people -- presented to the government on Thursday. Led by the Sans Papiers movement, the campaign has been underway since last May and also includes trade unions, and centre-left parties such as the Social Democratic Party and the Green Party.

Headlined ‘Stop hypocrisy’, the petition calls for an end to forced expulsions and for undocumented migrants to be given legal status and issued work permits.

(source)

Paris: Interior minister decries illegal immigration after 6 die in fire

Paris: Interior minister decries illegal immigration after 6 die in fire

Sweden: Forced deportations expected to increase

Sweden: Forced deportations expected to increase

Via the Local:

Forced deportations of rejected asylum seekers are expected to increase by 30 percent compared to last year due in part to Sweden's new asylum policies.

Earlier this year, the centre-right Alliance government and the Green Party reached an agreement to overhaul Sweden's immigration and asylum policies.

One of the key elements of the agreement was a promise to ensure that asylum seekers who had their applications rejected would leave the country quickly.

In an effort to come up with new ways to carry out deportation orders more quickly, police in Skåne have implemented a special surveillance team to track down rejected asylum seekers, the Dagens Nyheter (DN) newspaper reports.

(source)

Libya: Refugees heading back in attempt to reach Europe

Libya: Refugees heading back in attempt to reach Europe

Via Geneva Lunch:

The UNHCR (UN High Commissioner for Refugees) in Geneva says it is seeing a disturbing new trend as growing numbers of refugees who fled Libya are heading back into the country in a desperate attempt to reach Europe.

One large group at risk for making the treacherous sea journey from Libya to Malta or Italy includes members of the Somali, Ethiopian and Eritrean communities in the camps at Shousha near Tunisia’s border with Libya.

(source)

Berlusconi: Right to build mosques is reciprocal

Berlusconi: Right to build mosques is reciprocal

Via AKI (Italian):

Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi said in a speech in Milan on Saturday that he has nothing against other religions, but that the right to build mosques depends on the reciprocal right to build churches in Muslim countries.

Regarding immigration, Berlusconi attacked the Left and said they have a strategy of letting in as many illegal immigrants as possible, in order to change the electoral balance.

Paris: Police arrest Tunisian migrants

Paris: Police arrest Tunisian migrants

Via AFP:

French police arrested 60 mostly Tunisian immigrants in Paris, officials said Wednesday, accusing them of entering the country illegally, as France pushes to tighten the EU's open-border rules.

A Paris police source said the suspects, who included some Egyptians, Libyans and Algerians, were in custody after being arrested in Paris and Pantin, a suburb of the capital, for "breaking the residency laws".

(source)

Italy: Berlusconi, Sarkozy call for changes to Schengen

Italy: Berlusconi, Sarkozy call for changes to Schengen

Via AKI:

Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and French president Nicolas Sarkozy together called for a revision of the Schengen treaty which removes border controls among the 25 European members.

"We both believe that in exceptional circumstances there should be variations to the Schengen treaty on which we have decided to work together," Berlusconi said, echoing comments by Sarkozy at a joint news conference after a summit in Rome.

Berlusconi and Sarkozy said they have signed a letter to be sent to European Commission, the EU's executive body to propose changes to the treaty allowing individual states to temporarily suspend the free movement of people under certain circumstances.

(source)

Moscow: 'Underground city' of immigrants found in bomb shelter

Moscow: 'Underground city' of immigrants found in bomb shelter

Via the Moscow News:

An “underground city” of migrant workers has been uncovered in an abandoned Moscow bomb shelter.

But while the makeshift home was designed to withstand an air raid, it fell victim to FMS officers – and most of the 110 people found there are facing deportation.

A further 16 residents face criminal investigations over involvement in crimes in Moscow, while the owners of the factory which hired the illegal labourers could also face a legal probe.

With no residence documents for Moscow the migrant workers – mostly from Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan – had little choice but to hunker down in the bunker near the Mostochlegmash plant on Dorogobuzhskaya Ulitsa in western Moscow.

Some of them said they had not left their workplace or makeshift home for about a year, Interfax reported.

(source)

Tunisia: Berlusconi arrives to negotiate immigrant stop

Tunisia: Berlusconi arrives to negotiate immigrant stop

"We just want Europe to welcome us"