Britain
"Britain targets illegal immigrants" by Cassandra Vinograd | Associated Press, October 11, 2013
LONDON — The British government took another crack at curbing illegal immigration on Thursday, introducing a bill that would require immigration checks to accompany private housing applications and health care access.
The bill has been slammed by lawyers and human rights campaigners, who warn it will lead to discrimination.
Immigration is a sensitive political issue in Britain given the country’s struggling economy and cuts in public services.
Where isn't it? Where is this global economic phenomena not a problem? The world is an oyster for a certain cla$$ of people and a $hithole for the rest of us.
The conservative-led government of Prime Minister David Cameron wants to reduce net migration from non-European countries from 176,000 last year to fewer than 100,000 before the 2015 election.
Immigration Minister Mark Harper said Thursday that the new bill will stop migrants from using public services they are not entitled to and reduce the factors which encourage people to come to Britain.
That's racist. I know so because my agenda-pu$hing pre$$ screams it at people here.
Critics argued the proposals could lead to racial discrimination and hurt immigrants in the UK legally. For instance, private landlords will face fines for not carrying out the proper checks under the legislation.
Oh, so this is really another ca$h grab by another bankrupted government under the guise of immigration reform.
But ‘‘checking immigration status is complicated so landlords may shy away from [renting] to anyone who they believe not to be British,’’ said Gavin Smart, of the Chartered Institute of Housing.
Like, you know, a dark-skinned person who might be a Muslim or African terrorist.
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France
"France criticized for expelling Roma migrants" by Lori Hinnant | Associated Press, September 26, 2013
PARIS — France’s treatment of thousands of Roma migrants who have been expelled to Eastern Europe came under new scrutiny Wednesday from the European Commission and a leading rights group, after France’s top security official said the migrants had a ‘‘duty to return to their homeland.’’
Amnesty International said more than 10,000 Roma, also known as Gypsies, had been evicted from French squatter camps from January through August, with many forced to return home to Romania and Bulgaria, despite European Union rules requiring free movement for all EU citizens.
Many Roma in France live in makeshift camps set up on vacant lots, lacking running water or electricity. Without regular documentation of their residence, they have a hard time enrolling children in school, applying for subsidized housing, getting health care through the national system, or finding permanent work.
Amnesty International said those problems are compounded with each forced evacuation, pushing the Roma further out to society’s margins. In releasing its tally of evictions — including one as recent as Sept. 18 — Amnesty brought together a doctor and a teacher who had both cared for Roma from families they said wanted to join French society, contrary to the image of Roma as resistant to integration.
‘‘What we see on the ground is a break with the stereotypes of social and sanitary problems, and other clichés that are being invoked now,’’ said Jean-Francois Corty, a doctor with Medecins du Monde. ‘‘Most of the people we see want to integrate, want work, want their children in schools, and want the benefits of modern medicine.’’
Roma started arriving in Europe from India in the 14th century, and there are an estimated 8 million in Europe, with the largest population in Romania. Facing discrimination and poor prospects in Romania, many go west to France and other rich European countries.
Honestly, I find this all funny. Don't you?
There are an estimated 20,000 Roma in France, a population that has remained stable over several years despite repeated efforts by both Socialist and conservative governments to persuade them — sometimes forcibly — to return home.
Many French blame the Roma for a rise in petty crime and an influx of beggars, especially in tourist areas of Paris, where crime rings involving children have been broken up, and where subway announcements warn about pickpockets.
They can't even solve the big crimes and they are worried about pickpockets?
In Sweden, police this week acknowledged compiling a secret, illegal registry of more than 4,000 Roma, including children, coming under criticism from politicians who said it was unconstitutional to register people by ethnicity.
French Interior Minister Manuel Valls provoked anger Tuesday for saying the Roma migrants had a ‘‘duty to return to their homeland’’ — and despite a wave of criticism, refused to back down Wednesday.
He said the Roma had failed to integrate and that France had no responsibility to them.
‘‘We don’t have the obligation to welcome these populations, we need to say it clearly and calmly. It is not about stigmatizing a population, but facing the truth,’’ he said.
There needs to be a lot more of that on all levels.
John Dalhuisen, Amnesty’s Europe and Central Asia program director, offered a different interpretation. ‘‘The Roma have a duty to live in misery. That’s how the comments of the interior minister should be translated,’’ Dalhuisen said.
Don't we all so the bankers and wealthy elite can have more? I mean, why are we on this earth then? I'm re$igned to that fact becau$e of my new$paper, aren't you?
In Romania, Marian Mandache, director of rights group the Romani Criss, called the French minister’s comments a ‘‘populist ruse.’’
Whatever works, and watch it when the mouthpiece uses the word populist. History books don't like populists.
‘‘The French minister is discriminating against an ethnic group, it is a breach of the right to free circulation and a breach of other human rights,’’ she said.
It happens to Muslims all the time and no one bats an eye (if you can see it under the veil).
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Related: France's Gypsy Genocide Complete
Didn't really see much about it, did you?
Until now:
"France expels girl, 15, to Kosovo after class trip" by Nebi Qena and Angela Charlton | Associated Press, October 17, 2013
MITROVICA, Kosovo — Leonarda Dibrani was finishing up a field trip when French police showed up at the bus, detaining the 15-year-old schoolgirl in front of her classmates before authorities expelled her to Kosovo because her family’s asylum application had been rejected.
The incident this month, which was made public this week, has sparked outrage from immigrant groups and others who say police went too far in publicly shaming the teenager. It has also been an embarrassment for President Francois Hollande’s government, which has tried to portray a kinder France in a bid to distance itself from its conservative predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy.
See: Hollande Most Hated President in French History
And here comes the far right wing.
An investigation into the treatment of the girl has been launched.
Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault ordered the inquiry into how Leonarda was taken into custody and said that if any violations are found, the family will be brought back to France and their case will be further examined.
A check-up for the family car has been his alibi. He said he told his children that ‘‘it will take a few days until it’s repaired.
‘‘I don’t know how I will keep lying to them,’’ he said.
Call the newsrooms of AmeriKa's media. They'll tell you how.
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"Teenagers in Paris protest French government’s treatment of immigrants" by Milos Krivokapic | Associated Press, October 18, 2013
PARIS — Several hundred French teenagers erected barricades outside their schools and marched through Paris on Thursday to protest the police expulsions of immigrant families — including some of their classmates.
I've come to the conclusion that all protests given prominence in the paper are controlled opposition because they are being promoted. Be they gays, global-warmers, illegals, or agenda-pushing, coup-pressuring groups, it's part of an intelligence operation. The true protests are ignored or disparaged when they are forced to cover them. The truckers, Occupy, and antiwar folks fall into that category.
Police sprayed tear gas at a few students throwing projectiles but most marched peacefully, some climbing on bus shelters to call for the interior minister’s resignation.
Anger erupted this week about the treatment of a 15-year-old Kosovar girl who was detained in front of classmates on a field trip. The government says her eight-member family was denied asylum and could no longer stay in France.
But nobody really gives a s*** about the Roma, huh?
Such expulsions occur regularly across France as the government tries to limit illegal immigration. But the treatment of the girl touched a nerve, with critics saying police went too far.
The students, saying the expulsions are unfair to children, hope to pressure France’s Socialist-led government to allow the girl and a recently expelled Armenian boy to return.
At one high school in Paris, students piled green garbage cans in front of the entrance and hung a banner saying ‘‘Education in Danger.’’
‘‘Everybody should have a chance. Everybody should have a job, work, and have a family. When children try to achieve that, France refuses, and that is not my country,’’ said protester Romain Desprez.
The protesters tried to march to the Interior Ministry, but were blocked by riot police. They diverted the march and it dispersed peacefully.
The Kosovar girl, Leonarda Dibrani, told Associated Press from the northern Kosovo city of Mitrovica that she wants to return to France. Activists said her family fled Kosovo five years ago because they are Roma, or Gypsies, and faced discrimination.
‘‘My home is in France,’’ Dibrani said in French. ‘‘I don’t speak the language here and I don’t know anyone. I just want to go back to France and forget everything that happened.’’
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I think I will forget that story going forward.
Italy
"Another migrant ship capsizes off Italy; 27 drowned, 221 are rescued in effort with Malta" by Stephen Calleja and Nicole Winfield | Associated Press, October 12, 2013
VALLETTA, Malta — For the second time in a week, a smugglers’ boat overloaded with migrants capsized in the Canal of Sicily on Friday as it made the perilous crossing from Africa to Europe. At least 27 people drowned, but 221 people were rescued in a joint Italian-Maltese operation, officials said.
Related:
[Long before the Obama/Hillary State Dept. managed to generate these regime-change wars, disguising them as "democratic-revolutions," "Boat People" were fleeing from other US-generated wars, the terror wars in Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea. At that time, most of these people choosing to leave Africa left from the ports of Libya, seeking "the good life" in Europe. Obviously, those refugees were all "people of color," most likely Muslims, making them the least-wanted out of all the refugees who have been flooding Europe, seeking asylum. Whenever wars are generated in civilian areas, floods of refugees are certain to follow. ANY FOOL KNOWS THIS. In the case of Obama and Hillary's wars "for democracy," overwhelming flows of refugees were the INTENDED EFFECT. All of the American and British studies on the civilian effects of their wars against enemy cities, have focused upon manipulating refugees as a terror weapon, to be used to influence the strategic decisions made by the enemy leadership. In WWII, agitating the civilian populations had the direct effect of forcing undesired actions upon the high command. This is the SAME POLICY being followed by the Obama Administration as they put the squeeze upon targeted leaders, like Bashar Assad. More refugees, the louder the public outroar over the "bad guys" who produce them.
The ongoing “Boat People” issue is merely the same terror policy, being followed upon a liquid medium, the Mediterranean. Forcing helpless women and children onto the choppy Mediterranean waters has the desired indirect effect of forcing European leaders to accept American neo-liberal multiculturalism, as well as US-designated security roles for the individual govts. in the EU. Italy has been the primary target in this particular manipulation, because of their far-flung possession, Lampedusa Island, the site of two recent boat people tragedies. Malta is next in line after Italy, owing to its own proximity to the N. African coast.
The FRONTEX agreements are an excuse for the Imperial power to intervene between the govts. of Southern Europe and those of N. Africa. Nothing more…issues like responsibility for refugees, in particular, the right to “Non-refoulement,” for the refugees from war zones, not being forced to go back to the wars. We are facing a diabolical plan, which treats human beings as nothing more than cattle, “useless eaters” to be stampeded, or forced into dangerous waters, whenever it suits the Imperial will. This plan requires a level of callous cruelty, which is unimaginable to the normal or sane person. This is why most humans cannot even understand that there is a plot against the Nation and against the entire human race, which defies normal logic, even though it is completely “logical” from a pathological point of view. What kind of megalomaniacal genius did it take to foresee, and plan for, this little Boat People confrontation, turning it into the cornerstone of international humanitarian policies, known as “R2P,” or “responsibility to protect”?] -- Obama’s War-Generated Tsunami of Dark-Skinned People Turning Mediterranean Into Massive Watery Cemetary
Certainly is a different view than the one being given by the mouthpiece media that helped create the conditions.
Helicopters ferried the injured to Lampedusa, the Italian island that is closer to Africa than the Italian mainland and the destination of choice for most smugglers’ boats leaving Tunisia or Libya. It was off Lampedusa that a migrant ship from Libya capsized Oct. 3 with some 500 people aboard. Only 155 survived.
Related: Ship Full of Immigrants Sinks Near Sicily
Also see: Death toll in Italy boat sinking at 194
Friday’s capsizing occurred 65 miles southeast of Lampedusa, but in waters where Malta has search and rescue responsibilities.
The two shipwrecks were the latest grim reminder of the extreme risks that migrants and asylum-seekers often take in an effort to slip into Europe every year by boat. Facing unrest and persecution in Africa and the Middle East, many of the migrants think the Lampedusa escape route to Europe, which is barely 70 miles from northern Africa, is worth the risk.
‘‘They do know that they are risking their lives, but it is a rational decision,’’ said Maurizio Albahari, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Notre Dame. ‘‘Because they know for a fact they will be facing death or persecution at home — whatever remains of their home, or assuming there is a home in the first place.’’
What drives them is the hope that they’ll have a better life in Europe for themselves and their children, he said. ‘‘It’s either perish or go somewhere.’’
Why would that be?
In the latest case, the Italian coast guard said it received a satellite phone call from the boat that it was in distress and was able to locate it based on the satellite coordinates, said coast guard spokesman Marco Di Milla.
A Maltese aircraft was sent up and reported that the boat had capsized and that ‘‘numerous’’ people were in the water. The aircraft dropped a life raft, and a patrol boat soon arrived at the scene, according to a statement from the Maltese armed forces.
Late Friday, Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat reported that 27 bodies had been recovered, three of them children.
He said 150 survivors were rescued aboard a Maltese ship. An Italian patrol boat had another 56 survivors, while a fishing boat had 15, said Commander Marco Maccaroni of the Italian navy. Between the Italian and Maltese ships, the total of survivors came to 221, though it wasn’t clear if the injured who were flown by helicopter to Lampedusa were included in that figure.
The incident occurred as recovery operations continued Friday off Lampedusa for victims of the Oct. 3 shipwreck. The death toll stood Friday at 339, including a newborn recovered with its umbilical cord still attached, Di Milla said.
The recent deaths prompted renewed calls for the European Union to do more to better patrol the southern Mediterranean and prevent such tragedies — and for countries like Libya to crack down on smuggling operations.
That's why I posted blogger commentary above. It's deeper insight than this slop.
‘‘We cannot allow the Mediterranean to become a cemetery,’’ Muscat told a news conference in Valletta, the Maltese capital.
Seems like I saw that somewhere else already.
Lampedusa is the destination of choice for smugglers who usually charge more than $1,355 a head and cram the migrants onto boats that routinely run into trouble and require rescue. Fortress Europe, an Italian observatory that tracks migrant deaths reported by the media, says about 6,450 people died in the Canal of Sicily between 1994 and 2012.
Why are they fleeing again?
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"Migrant deaths prompt calls for safe passage; Concerns follow 3 shipwrecks in Mediterranean" by Colleen Barry | Associated Press, October 13, 2013
VALLETTA, Malta — Three deadly Mediterranean shipwrecks that claimed the lives of hundreds of would-be asylum seekers fleeing war and repression sharpened calls Saturday for humanitarian corridors to allow safe passage to Europe.
At least 34 people drowned in Maltese waters south of the Italian island of Lampedusa when a boat packed with hundreds of Syrians and Palestinians capsized on Friday, the same day another 12 migrants died in a shipwreck off of Egypt.
Those tragedies came just eight days after at least 339 Eritreans died when their boat sank within sight of Lampedusa, in one of the worst verified migrant sea tragedies on the Mediterranean.
Facing unrest and persecution in Africa and the Middle East, many migrants risk the often perilous journey to Lampedusa, a gateway to Europe just 70 miles from Africa, in rickety boats procured by people smugglers who charge more than $2,200.
Wow, prices went up nearly $900 in a day! And who created the unrest and persecution?
Most are asylum seekers, fleeing civil war in Syria or repression and mandatory conscription in Eritrea, unlike the waves of economic migrants a decade ago.
It's all those and more.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres expressed concern that Syrians fleeing conflict have sought to reach Europe by such a perilous route, calling it “inhumane.”
So are the policies that forced them into those boats, policies his members support.
“They escaped bullets and bombs only to perish before they could ever claim asylum,” he said, adding that there had been reports that the vessel had been fired on shortly after departing Zwara, Libya.
Why would Libyans want to leave after being liberated by the U.S.?
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called for action to prevent tragedies “that places the vulnerability and human rights of migrants at the center,” while Pope Francis lamented that “too often we are blinded by our comfortable lives, and refuse to see those dying at our doorstep.”
None more so in history than the Catholic Church -- and I'm a member!
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"Italy to receive $40 million to ease refugee crisis" by Nicole Winfield and Paolo Lucariello | Associated Press, October 10, 2013
LAMPEDUSA, Italy — The head of the European Commission announced Wednesday during a visit to Lampedusa that Italy will get an additional $40 million in EU funds to help settle and receive new refugees, after the sinking of a migrant boat off the Sicilian island killed at least 297 people.
Officials also announced that migration would be on the agenda of the European leaders’ summit Oct. 24-25 and would have a priority place in the 2014 EU agenda, which Greece and Italy will spearhead during their presidencies.
‘‘The EU cannot accept that thousands of people die at its borders,’’ Jose Manuel Barroso, European Commission president, said. ‘‘The challenges that Lampedusa and Italy are facing are European challenges.’’
It can accept thousands dying in faraway lands in wars of western aggression.
The European Union has long taken a back seat regarding border security and asylum policies, leaving the problem primarily to its member states. But last week’s sinking of a smuggler’s boat carrying 500 migrants came as a bitter wake-up call to European officials that more cooperation will be needed to avert further tragedies of that scale. That will include more assistance to the countries most affected by the influx of refugees from Africa, specifically Italy, Greece, and Spain.
Prime Minister Enrico Letta stressed that unlike the economic migrants who flocked to Italy in the 1990s, the new arrivals are primarily political refugees fleeing persecution — and that shift requires a change in mentality on how they should be received and integrated in Europe.
Guilt feelings for creating them in the first place?
Lampedusans have long complained that they have been forgotten by Italy and the EU, left to cope alone with thousands of migrants each year.
Barroso acknowledged that Italy and other southern Mediterranean countries have borne the brunt of the arrivals, but noted that northern European countries such as Germany, France, Britain, Sweden, and Belgium actually get the bulk of asylum-seekers for permanent settlement. Those countries took 72 percent of the 330,000 asylum applications in the EU in 2012.
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No one is applying for asylum in Russia?
Russia
"Putin targets migrants as Moscow mayoral race heats up" by Ilya Arkhipov and Stepan Kravchenko | Bloomberg News, August 16, 2013
MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin has opened Moscow’s first detention camp for illegal immigrants as migrants become the main concern among voters preparing for the city’s first mayoral election since 2003.
Yeah, bad Russians!
The tarpaulin tents for 600 people, surrounded by a 26-foot fence, signal the campaign for the Sept. 8 vote is heating up as Putin seeks to show he is in control of Europe’s largest city, the center of Russia’s opposition. His protege, acting Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, is pulling out all the stops to beat challengers, including protest leader Alexei Navalny.
See: Moscow Mayoral Race
As the Russian economy grows at the slowest pace since a 2009 recession, Moscow has become the main battlefield between Putin, who last year returned to the Kremlin for a third term as president, and his opponents. Tens of thousands turned out for antigovernment rallies, the biggest against the Russian leader’s 13-year rule, with Navalny among the organizers.
‘‘The Kremlin needs a rematch here in order to strengthen its power,’’ said Valery Fedorov, head of the state-run VTsIOM research center in Moscow. ‘‘Muscovites see migrants as a threat. Politicians make use of that.’’
Ours take advantage of the Jewish propaganda regarding Muslims.
While the city upgraded Moscow’s highways, rebuilt parks, and introduced a rent-a-bike network, the focus has shifted to migrants as the campaign enters its stretch run.
I sure as hell hope it is not a Citibike, otherwise it is going to be a long ride. Be better off just parking it.
Officers have detained at least 5,750 migrant workers from the Caucasus, central Asia, and nations including Vietnam since the end of July in what Sobyanin says is a drive to clean up markets and rid the city of criminal gangs. More than 2,000 migrants have been rounded up in the rest of the country, according to the Interior Ministry. The government is drafting a plan to create a network of 83 detention centers across Russia.
While the migrant camp may help Sobyanin get votes, some experts say it leaves the main problem unsolved.
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"Russian police target migrant workers" by Laura Mills | Associated Press, October 15, 2013
MOSCOW — Russian police on Monday swept through a vegetable warehouse earlier targeted by rioters, rounding up about 1,000 migrant workers, checking their documents, and loading them onto vans to be investigated for criminal activity.
The raid came the day after demonstrators angry over the stabbing death of an ethnic Russian man broke into a covered market and descended on the warehouse where they believed the killer was working, throwing bottles and trash, smashing windows, and turning over cars. Police detained hundreds of rioters.
Men who worked at the warehouse in Biryulyovo, a working-class neighborhood on the outskirts of Moscow, were marched outside by police.
Dozens of people gathered nearby to pledge their support to the rioters, venting their anger at the migrants from the predominantly Muslim Caucasus region, whom many Russians accuse of pushing up the crime rate and taking badly needed jobs.
Who benefit$ from all this divi$ion and mobility of labor?
Tensions between ethnic Russians and natives of the Caucasus have long simmered, but standoffs are becoming more common.
Caucasus natives work at many markets and warehouses around the city, but even though they are from the same country, they are required to register in order to live in Moscow and face regular discrimination.
Andrei Galiakberov, spokesman for the Moscow police, described the roundup of some 1,200 people as part of a ‘‘preemptive raid’’ and said some detainees are being investigated for possible criminal connections. Police also said that they found a car full of cash and unlicensed arms.
There was no sign in Biryulyovo of the crushed watermelons and overturned cars from the night before.
Marina Ivanova, who runs a candy stall at the market, turned up for work despite the chaos of the day before. She had been helping customers on Sunday evening when she heard the rioters smashing glass and chanting racist slogans. Ivanova said she did not take sides, but worried that the conflict could escalate.
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Then there are those that would like to join but are being denied for the obvious and not so obvious reasons, although why they would want to be part of the rotten economic structure based on private central banking is beyond me.
