MNS Summary July 2008:
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EU-related developments: Plans to revive the decades-old ambition to elaborate a common EU immigration and asylum policy are once again on the agenda of the EU presidency, now held by France. There is not only a French initiative on this subject but also another one of the European Commission. These issues, as well as the draft directive on the return of unlawfully residing migrants and the European Court of Justice hearing of two cases of considerable importance, one concerning several EU spouses residing in Ireland and married to third country nationals under threat of expulsion, and the other on the first series of questions for a preliminary ruling concerning the EU's qualification directive on asylum, are the main topics covered extensively in the July issue.
The first section on migration policies and practices also includes a double jeopardy case before the European Court of Human Rights and the resulting Chamber judgment that unanimously concluded that Switzerland had violated Article 8 when it expelled a young Turkish man who had spent almost all his life there. Another news item concerning Switzerland is the campaign of the Swiss People's Party against granting free movement to Bulgarian and Romanian workers. If successful, this would trigger the guillotine clause of the EU-Switzerland bi-lateral agreements, thus putting an end to this Alpine country's special relationship with the EU.
Other news items in this section include the announcement in France of nine countries where DNA testing will be carried out on applicants for family reunion; generous return premiums offered to unemployed third-country nationals in Spain; the UK authorities' determination to expel a university staff member of Algerian citizenship because he had an Al Qaeda manual in his computer, downloaded freely from a US Government website; green light given by the London High Court for the extradition of a Jordanian Muslim cleric to the USA.
With the return of favourable weather conditions and calm seas, an increasing number of irregular migrants are making the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean Sea as well as off the coast of West Africa to head for the Canary Islands. Consequently, there have been more reports of deaths by drowning, the worst incident in June being the one off Libya which could have claimed the lives of up to 150 irregular migrants.
Other items of interest in this section include the positive outlook given by the French Immigration Minister on attaining the expulsion target for this year; complaints by doctors in France that it is more difficult for seriously ill irregular migrants to stay for treatment; different attitudes of judges in Italy when required to hand down stiffer sentences on irregular migrants; Norway's easing of conditions for issuing residence permits to victims of trafficking and forced prostitution; Bern's bilateral agreements with Bulgaria and Romania to facilitate the repatriation of their nationals; a renewed attempt by sub-Saharan migrants to storm the border of the Spanish enclave city of Melilla.
On asylum, Germany continues to urge its EU partners to offer protection to certain groups of Iraqis, dropping the reference to Christians and referring only to religious and ethnic minorities, but it is obvious that the offer is meant for Christians. Also on the subject of Iraqi asylum-seekers is the announcement that the repatriation of those denied protection in Denmark will take place "in a matter of months", and the rounding up of a group of failed Iraqi asylum-seekers in the UK for expulsion.
Other articles in this section include asylum-seekers "in transit" in Belgium; forced expulsion of two more Iraqi refugees convicted of crimes in Denmark; demand in Italy by the Opposition that the Government explain its role in the "extraordinary rendition" of six Tunisian asylum-seekers falsely accused by the US authorities of being "terrorists"; the failure of a Uighur refugee, another victim of the US policy of "extraordinary rendition", to obtain a residence permit in Sweden; the reported death under torture of a Libyan asylum-seeker denied protection in Sweden; criticisms of the new provisions in Switzerland governing asylum-seekers who arrive by air.
The main items concerning racism and discrimination are the particularly violent and brutal beating of a 17-year old Jewish person in Paris, reported by the national and international media as an anti-Semitic attack but could very well have been the settling of accounts between rival gangs, and further evidence that a video showing the execution of two Central Asians by a group of Russian neo-Nazis, publicised last August, was for real.
There is also news coverage of former actress Brigitte BARDOT's fifth conviction for racism; the long-awaited verdict finding the multinational firm Bosch guilty of ethnic and sex discrimination; the controversial and disputed results of tests of discrimination carried out on 20 French companies; the first ever protest march against discrimination by members of Italy's Roma community; social tensions in the UK relating to the influx of migrants from Eastern Europe, particularly Poland.
Most miscellaneous items once again cover matters related directly or indirectly to Islam, such as the developments concerning the Mohammed cartoons, in Denmark, Jordan, the Netherlands and Pakistan; the uproar in Belgium when a woman clad in a burqa-like outfit provided a TV presentation of the weather report; the pronouncement by a French court of an annulment of marriage following the complaint by the husband that his newly wedded wife had lied about her virginity; appeal by a French Minister that municipalities refrain from having time slots for women-only in public swimming pools, and the fine imposed by a French court on a Muslim couple who opposed the vital presence of a male doctor during the wife's childbirth.
Coverage is also provided on the new rule in Flanders, Belgium, where immigrants risk being fined for refusing to follow an integration course; the arrest of a Danish couple of Sudanese origin for forcing genital mutilation on two of their daughters; the lawsuit by a German citizen of Lebanese origin against his Government for failing to pursue those US agents who abducted and tortured him; further electoral successes for the far-right in the German State of Saxony; new citizenship test in Germany; the counting of Roma people in Italy; new code of conduct for the media in Italy when reporting on foreigners; increasing support for the far-right Sweden Democrats; failure of the anti-immigration Swiss People's Party to bring back the naturalisation procedure by referendum.
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