RECENT NEWS AND VIEWS
Extracts of recent news and views in date order - latest first
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POLITICS IMMIGRATION CONTROL
UK immigration cap is 'stupid', says David Miliband Dipankar De Sarkar Hindustan Times, 1 September 2010.
Britain's former foreign secretary
David Miliband, frontrunner in the contest to be the leader of the
opposition Labour party, says British government plans to place a cap on
non-European migrants to the UK are "stupid" because current migration is
mainly fuelled by Europeans. "Prime Minister David Cameron says he wants to
build good relations with India and that's good but then he has this silly,
dangerous and misguided immigration cap. The cap doesn't fit," Miliband
told HT in an exclusive interview ahead of the September 25 leadership
vote. Miliband, whose main rival in the
contest is his brother and ex-climate change secretary Ed, described the
ruling Conservative party's immigration campaign before the May general
election as "disgraceful." "Immigration
was a real people's issue. But above all, it was an intra-European Union
issue. The A8 accession undoubtedly caused difficulties," he said.
'A8 countries' are the eight East
European countries that joined the EU in 2004 a move that allows
their citizens to move and work freely within the 27-nation EU bloc. ...
The Conservative proposal to impose a
limit on non-EU migrants, according to him, will be counter-productive as
the British economy emerges from its worst post-War recession. Net
migration taking into account the number of people leaving Britain
was 163,000 last year during Labour rule, but the Conservatives say
they want to bring it down "tens of thousands." The cap is also opposed by
Indian and British businesses as well as the Conservatives' coalition
partner, the Liberal Democrats. "The idea
that you want to keep out of the country highly-skilled tax paying people
is plain stupid. Either it's meaningless because the reduction is so small
or it's dangerous either way it sends a very bad message," Miliband
said. Miliband, backed by a many
Indian-origin politicians, added, "The big thing for me, and I've lived
this out in this campaign, is that I see Diaspora communities in Britain
are in the mainstream and not on the margins.
"And there's no better example of that
than the British community of Indian origin, because it's a wonderful
success story.
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MULTICULTURALISM ISLAM, EUROPE, LIBYA, TURKEY
Gadhafi angers Italy with call for Islam to become 'Europe's religion' Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Review [Turkey], 31 August 2010.
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's visit
to Rome has become mired in controversy after he said Europe should convert
to Islam and the conversion would "begin when Turkey becomes an EU member,"
daily Hürriyet reported Tuesday.
Gadhafi, who traveled to Italy to mark
the second anniversary of Libya's friendship treaty with its former
colonizer, made the comments Sunday during a lecture to a group of 500
young women hired and paid by an agency to attend his talk.
"Islam should become the religion of all
of Europe," one of the women quoted Gadhafi as saying in the Italian press.
... "Gadhafi's words show his dangerous
Islamization project for Europe," said Mario Borghezio, a member of the
European Parliament with the anti-immigrant Northern League, a junior
partner in the coalition, according to Il Messaggero.
Carlo Giovanardi, a government
undersecretary, tried to stem the criticism, saying Gadhafi's words were
simply "a remark made during a private meeting." ...
Speaking later alongside Berlusconi at a
closing ceremony, Gadhafi suggested the European Union pay Libya "at least
5 billion euros a year" to put a halt to illegal migration from its
Mediterranean shores. To do so would be in Europe's interest, he said, if
it wants to head off "the advance of millions of migrants" from Africa.
"There is also desirable immigration,"
Gadhafi added. "There are Libyans who have money and I encourage them to
come to Italy to invest." Berlusconi
credited good relations between Italy and Libya "for countering with
success the trafficking of illegal migrants from Africa to Europe
controlled by criminal organizations."
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MULTICULTURALISM GERMANY
German central bank chief under fire for Jewish jibe Martin Banks Daily Telegraph, 30 August 2010.
A senior German central bank official
has released an extract from his book in which he said Jews all have the
same genes and Muslim immigrants cannot integrate.
Thilo Sarrazin, a member of the six-man
board at the influential Bundesbank, has been condemned by German
government officials and immigrant leaders after excerpts from his new
book, Germany Does Away With Itself, said "all Jews share the same
gene". ... Regarding Muslim immigrants,
he continues: "I don't want the country of my grandchildren and forefathers
to be in broad swathes Muslim, where Turkish and Arabic is widely spoken,
where women wear headscarves and where the daily rhythm of life is set by
the call of the muezzins. If I want to experience that, I can just take a
vacation in the Orient." He theorises
that if the fertility rate of German "autochthons" remains at the same
level it has been for the past 40 years, then population will drop to 20
million, while the Muslim population "could grow to 35 million by 2100".
... Senior German politicians have
demanded that Mr Sarrazin step down from his Bundesbank post and resign his
party membership of the left-leaning Social Democrats. ...
A government survey last year found that
the Muslim population in Germany was between 3.8 million and 4.3 million,
meaning Muslims make up between 4.6 and 5.2 per cent of the population. The
overall number of Germans with immigrant roots stands at more than 16
million, almost one in five of the country's 82 million inhabitants.
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TERRORISM ISLAM
Britain faces new terror wave Duncan Gardham Daily Telegraph, 27 August 2010.
Britain faces a new wave of
home-grown terrorists as 800 radicalised Islamist prisoners are released
from jail, a leading security expert warns today.
Michael Clarke, a former government
adviser and the head of the Royal United Services Institute, says he
believes the security services could struggle to cope with a new generation
of extremists seeking to carry out "lone wolf" attacks.
In a report published today, Prof Clarke
says that, over the next five to 10 years, about 800 prisoners in
jail for non-terrorism offences are due to be released on to the
streets having been radicalised in jail.
They will be joined by convicted
terrorists serving short sentences who, once freed, are likely to be just
as committed to the cause of jihad as before they were jailed, the report
claims. ... In the Western world, Britain
has the "greatest to fear" from home-grown terrorists, the report says.
... "British prisons still house more
terrorists than in any other European country, though not for very long
periods," he warns. ... Britain's
"globalised society" makes it more vulnerable, says Prof Clarke. "In an
open society there is only so much that any government can do to protect
the public."
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IMMIGRATION NUMBERS, STUDENT VISAS
20pc rise in immigrants driven by student visa 'loophole' Tom Whitehead Daily Telegraph, 27 August 2010.
Immigration increased by a fifth last
year, driven by a sharp rise in the number of foreign students being
allowed into the country, figures show.
Some 196,000 more people moved to Britain
than left in 2009, compared with a net migration of 163,000 in the previous
year. The figures are for the last full
year of the Labour government and raise questions over the effectiveness of
its points-based system introduced to curb immigration. It also means that
more than three million foreign nationals were added to the British
population under Labour since 1997. Separate figures show student visas
have risen by a third, renewing fears that the route is being exploited for
illegal immigration. ... A total of
567,000 people migrated to Britain last year while only 371,000 emigrated,
leaving a net inflow of 196,000. If the
movement of Britons is removed, there was a net inflow of 226,000 foreign
nationals in 2009. That took the total of foreign migrants who moved to the
UK since 1997 to 3.2 million. In the 12
months to June, a total of 362,015 foreign students were allowed to study
here, an increase of 35 per cent on the previous year, according to the
ONS.
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MULTICULTURALISM NATIONAL IDENTITY
Births to migrant mothers reach record level Tom Whitehead Daily Telegraph, 27 August 2010.
The proportion of babies born to
foreign mothers is at a record high, with migrants accounting for three
quarters of births in some parts of the country.
One in four births in England and Wales
last year was to a mother born overseas, according to the Office for
National Statistics. They accounted for 174,174 births, representing almost
25 per cent of the 706,248 new arrivals in 2009.
That was the highest proportion since the
birthplace of mothers started being recorded in 1969 and the figure has
doubled in the past 20 years. ... Sir
Andrew Green, chairman of Migrationwatch, said: "This is crystal clear
evidence of the huge impact of mass immigration on not only the size but
the nature of our population. "It is
deeply worrying to a great many people but there is still a reluctance to
discuss it, let alone address it." The
three most common countries of birth of non-UK born mothers were Pakistan,
Poland and India, as has been the case since 2007.
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IMMIGRATION POPULATION
Immigration is more than an economic issue Daily Telegraph, 27 August 2010.
[Leading article]
The public pressure for more rigorous
immigration controls is far less to do with xenophobia or racism (we remain
one of the most tolerant countries in Europe) and far more to do with the
intolerable pressures imposed on our public services and infrastructure,
and therefore on our quality of life. The Coalition proposes to address
this problem by imposing an annual cap on economic immigration from next
April, a move that is being resisted by employers who say it could inhibit
the recovery by depriving them of specialist skills. ...
To a great extent, however, the focus on
economic migration misses the real target, which is the number settling
here through family reunion and marriage. The largest single non-EU element
in net immigration comprises spouses and family members from the Indian
sub-continent. This raises difficult social and cultural questions that
politicians are reluctant to engage with hence their concentration
on economic migration. But the political classes are lagging far behind the
general public: it took the intervention of Gillian Duffy, "that bigoted
woman", to shoe-horn immigration into the last general election campaign.
Such political timidity does the country a disservice. Immigration raises
serious and potentially divisive problems that must be addressed. We ignore
them at our peril.
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EMPLOYMENT TRADE, POLITICS, INDIA
Britain's pledge on Indian migrants Dean Nelson Daily Telegraph, 26 August 2010.
Britain's immigration minister has
offered supplementary immigration arrangements to India in a move designed
to entrench the special relationship promised by David Cameron during last
month's visit to New Delhi. Senior
British business leaders in New Delhi said Damian Green consulted local
officials on exclusions to immigration rules that would guarantee that
employees of top Indian firms would be able to work freely in Britain. The
arrangements would make the smooth transfer of key staff to British offices
much easier. The Government is unlikely
to restrict "intra-company transfers" to Britain of key Indian staff, while
Mr Green, speaking in New Delhi yesterday, said new annual quotas would be
flexible to allow more Indian businessmen and professionals to move to
Britain as trade between the two countries increased. He said Britain's new
immigration quotas were not "about erecting barriers and closing doors".
... In 2009, 97,000 non-EU migrants
arrived in Britain, including more than 40,000 Indian visa holders and
their dependants. The Government is committed to reducing these numbers by
at least five per cent, but is struggling to persuade Indian ministers and
business leaders that it will not affect trade.
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REPATRIATION/DEPORTATION FRANCE, GERMANY
France seeks EU backing over Roma expulsions Leigh Phillips Daily Telegraph, 25 August 2010.
France is to seek support for its
drive to expel ethnic gipsies to eastern Europe at a summit of carefully
selected interior ministers next week. ...
Political opponents and the Roman
Catholic Church have condemned President Nicolas Sarkozy's action against
the Roma as a cynical populist ploy to boost his falling popularity
ratings. Francois Fillon, the French
prime minister, yesterday defended the deportation policy from the
criticism, claiming that it was in line with French and EU legislation.
Eric Besson, the French immigration
minister, has invited Italian, British, German and Spanish interior
ministers to Paris on Sept 6 to seek support for a common position that
penniless can be sent back to their country of origin within EU borders.
... Italy declared a state of emergency
and expelled thousands of Roma in 2008, while this year, Germany is
evicting about 12,000 Roma, including 6,000 children, to Kosovo.
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EMPLOYMENT EUROPEAN UNION
Safety tests for foreign nurses are scrapped Richard Alleyne Daily Telegraph, 23 August 2010.
Thousands of foreign nurses will be
allowed to start work in Britain without safety checks because they could
be deemed discriminatory under European Union law.
Until now the Nursing and Midwifery
Council has insisted that new recruits must have worked at least 450 hours
in the last three years or take a refresher course.
But it has stopped administering the
tests after being told it could be sued by the European Commission for
breaking the law on "freedom of movement" for workers. Now all foreign
recruits will need is a diploma from their country showing they are
qualified. The more stringent requirement
still applies to British nurses and those from outside the EU. ...
The House of Commons health committee
plans to investigate the change.
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BENEFITS AND COSTS GIPSIES
One gipsy caravan set up per day under Labour Rebecca Lefort and David Harrison Sunday Telegraph, 22 August 2010.
The number of travellers living in
caravans rose sharply during labour's 13 years in power, government figures
have shown. ... At the start of 1997,
there were 12,796 travellers' caravans at sites across England, both
official and illegal. By the start of this year the number had risen to
18,355, an increase of more than one caravan per day over the 13 years.
According to gipsy rights campaigners,
causes of the increase include a high birth rate among travelling families
and a trend for members of the community who had been living in houses to
revert to their travelling roots. ...
Matthew Knight, a senior partner at
Kent-based Knights Solicitors, who has more than 25 years' experience
dealing with legal cases involving gipsy and traveller disputes, said: "I
think the gipsy and traveller activity is really a form of property
speculation. "If you buy a plot of land
outside a village or town, where no one else would get planning permission,
you pay a lot less for it. Then if you compromise the planning status you
have a chance to get what ultimately becomes planning permission on the
land, thereby multiplying its value ten times or more."
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REPATRIATION/DEPORTATION FRANCE, BORDER CONTROLS
France starts to 'return' Roma Daily Telegraph, 20 August 2010.
France yesterday flew out the first
93 of around 700 Roma it has pledged to "return" to their country of origin
this month. But EU rules mean they can
legally come back today. ... The
government insisted they all agreed to return in exchange for money. But
human rights groups said the "requests are signed usually in a deliberately
induced state of panic".
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EMPLOYMENT UNEMPLOYMENT
Migration linked to youth jobless levels Daily Telegraph, 19 August 2010.
Youth unemployment is linked to high
levels of immigration, according to figures from a campaign group.
Migrationwatch UK found that in areas
with large numbers of immigrants, youth unemployment was also high.
For every 1,000 migrants in the 50 local
authorities in England most affected by immigration, an average of 700 more
young people were out of work, the group said.
Taking out the 21 London boroughs, the
figure was 900 higher. In London 200 more young people were unemployed for
every 1,000 migrants.
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EMPLOYMENT PROSTITUTION
12,000 prostitutes are migrants Daily Telegraph, 19 August 2010.
Up to 12,000 foreign women are being
forced to work as "sex slaves" in British brothels by gangmasters running
multimillion pound rackets, police said yesterday.
A report by the Association of Chief
Police Officers showed that at least 2,600 women were trafficked into
England and Wales and made to become prostitutes. ...
A further 9,200 women at brothels were
considered to be "vulnerable migrants" working unwillingly in the sex
trade, but whom researchers could not be certain had been trafficked.
Police found that 17,000 of the 30,000
women involved in the off-street sex trade were foreign born, with half of
the women Chinese.
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IMMIGRATION ABROAD FRANCE, DEPORTATION
Sarkozy expels 700 Roma from France Daily Telegraph, 18 August 2010.
Hundreds of Roma will be expelled
from France tomorrow as part of President Nicolas Sarkozy's summer
crackdown on gipsies living illegally in the country.
In all, about 700 Roma would be taken
back to their home countries before the end of the month, said Brice
Hortefeux, the interior minister. Police
had dismantled 51 illegal Roma camps, he said, adding that two flights
would take the Roma to Romania and Bulgaria on Aug 19 and 26, with a third
flight set for the end of September.
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POPULATION PRESSURE EDUCATION
Pupils forced to use mobile classrooms as city is flooded by 20,000 migrants Daily Mail, 13 August 2010.
Schools in a city flooded by more
than 20,000 immigrants are at 'breaking point', education chiefs warned
yesterday. Peterborough City Council is
planning to build emergency mobile classrooms to ease pressure on its
primary schools, which have seen a steep rise in applicants.
Every class in every year group is
already full, and it has struggled to find places for all 2,438 pupils due
to start classes in September. ... The
city's population has leapt from 165,000 to 185,000 in the last six years
as immigrants look for casual factory and farm work.
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BORDER CONTROLS EDUCATION, CRIME
Exposed: college where 'migrants get an English pass in 15 minutes' Daily Express, 13 August 2010.
A college that appears to have no
qualified teachers is under investigation after allegedly selling English
language certificates to Asian immigrants, it was reported last night.
Students at the Oxford College of
Management and Sciences appeared to have little or no knowledge of what,
where and when they had studied to get their certificates, it was claimed.
One student said he was told he had
gained a pass less than 15 minutes into his first lesson.
Another allegedly paid a £50 deposit
and was asked to speak in English "about my life". After 15 minutes, he
says he was told the college would be in touch and he would just need to
pay £200 to collect his certificate.
The revelations come after fears last
year rose that hundreds of students from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh
were studying at poorly-regulated private colleges which had found ways to
exploit weaknesses in Britain's immigration controls.
It is alleged that the Oxford College,
which has sites in Burnley, Bradford, Blackburn, Bolton, Rochdale and
Oldham, is rigging its English for Speakers of Other Languages course to
help immigrants to cheat their way to getting UK citizenship.
A pass means those who meet other
requirements can apply for a passport or indefinite leave to remain.
Lin Homer, UK Border Agency chief
executive, said the: "We have referred details of this college to Ofqual
[the exams regulator] to investigate urgently."
Rizwan Ahmed Kiyani, who allegedly runs
Oxford College, has denied all allegations of fraud or criminal behaviour.
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IMMIGRATION ABROAD USA, DEPORTATION, CRIME, ILLEGAL
Immigration chief: 'We're going to get this right' Amanda Lee Myers Google News / AP, 13 August 2010.
The federal government has deported
more illegal immigrants from the U.S. than ever before, the director of
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Thursday as part of an effort
to push back on the suggestion Washington isn't doing enough.
"For those who doubt the federal
government's resolve in the enforcement of immigration law, let me say
this: We are committed to strong, effective immigration enforcement, and
the facts speak for themselves," ICE Director John Morton said.
He said his agency removed a record
380,000 illegal immigrants from the U.S. last fiscal year, and about a
third of them were convicted criminals. So far this fiscal year, ICE
removed 136,000 illegal immigrants who are convicted criminals, also a
record, Morton said. "Is there more work
to be done? Absolutely. Is the problem a significant one, a challenging one
for the nation? Absolutely," he said. But "we're in this for the long haul.
... We're going to get this right." ...
Morton spoke specifically about ICE's
efforts in Arizona, and said that during an average week, his agency
removes 1,500 illegal immigrants from the state, arrests five human
smugglers, investigates three drop houses, inspects the employment records
of 526 people working for state companies and seizes a ton of marijuana.
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CRIME BORDER SECURITY
Lincolnshire footballer admits deception case BBC, 12 August 2010.
A Lincolnshire semi-professional
footballer has admitted a string of immigration and deception offences.
Romanian Lorand Borbely took the identity
of Hungarian Laszlo Lovas when he came to the UK in 2004.
The 29-year-old, of Green Road, Fishtoft,
admitted a total of 13 charges at Lincoln Crown Court.
Borbely, who played for Deeping Rangers
and Boston Town in the United Counties League under his false name, was
remanded into custody. He is due to be
sentenced on 10 September. Borbely
admitted entering the UK by deception on 22 March 2004.
He also admitted three charges of
obtaining a mortgage by deception, obtaining employment by deception,
removing criminal property from the UK, five charges of fraud, a further
charge of deception and perverting the course of justice.
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EMPLOYMENT JOBS
Employment rise 'down to foreign workers' Wesley Johnson The Independent, 11 August 2010.
The largest rise in employment for
more than 21 years was mainly down to the influx of foreign workers,
campaigners said today. Sir Andrew Green,
chairman of think-tank Migrationwatch UK, said the employment figures were
"further evidence that immigration really does affect the job prospects of
British-born workers". The Office for
National Statistics (ONS) figures showed the number of employed rose by
184,000 to 29 million, marking the largest quarterly hike since the three
months to May 1989, and about three-quarters of this increase was due to
workers born outside the UK. Sir Andrew
said: "An astonishingly high proportion of the increase in employment is
down to foreign workers getting jobs in Britain."
The quarterly rise in non-UK born workers
was 145,000, compared with an increase of just 41,000 UK-born workers. The
overall figure is adjusted to take account of how the labour market is
affected by seasonal factors, such as school leavers starting work in June,
the ONS said. The figures also showed a
total of 25.08 million people born in the UK were in employment in the
three months to June 2010, down 15,000 on a year earlier.
But the number of people born outside the
UK who were in employment was up 114,000 to 3.85 million, compared with the
same time last year. The ONS added the
employment rate for UK-born people aged from 16 to 64 was 70.9% in the
three months to June 2010, down 0.5% on a year earlier, while the
corresponding rate for non-UK born people was 66.5%, up 0.5% on this time
last year.
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IMMIGRATION ABROAD USA, BIRTHS, ILLEGAL
Illegal Immigrants Account for 8% of U.S. Births Miriam Jordan The Wall Street Journal, 11 August 2010.
One in twelve babies born in the U.S.
in 2008 were the offspring of illegal immigrants, according to a new study,
a statistic that could inflame the debate over birthright citizenship.
Undocumented immigrants make up slightly
more than 4% of the U.S. adult population. However, their babies
represented twice that share, or 8%, of all births on U.S. soil in 2008,
according to the nonpartisan Pew Research Center's report.
"Unauthorized immigrants are younger than
the rest of the population, are more likely to be married and have higher
fertility rates than the rest of the population," said Jeffrey Passel, a
senior demographer at Pew in Washington, D.C.
The report, based on Census Bureau data
and analysis of demographic characteristics of the undocumented population,
also found that the lion's share, or 79%, of the 5.1 million children of
illegal immigrants residing in the U.S. in 2009 were born in the U.S. and
therefore citizens. About 11 million
undocumented immigrants live in the U.S. Latinos account for 75% of
undocumented U.S. immigrants and about 85% of the births among that
population.
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IMMIGRATION ABROAD CANADA
Tamil migrant ship nears B.C. CBC News, 11 August 2010.
Government sources have told CBC News
a Thai cargo ship with an estimated200 Tamil migrants on board is now
inside Canada's "exclusive economic zone" off the B.C. coast.
The exclusive economic zone is 200
nautical miles, or about 370 kilometres.
At its present rate of speed, the MV Sun
Sea is expected to arrive inside Canadian territorial waters which
extend about 12 nautical miles (or 22 kilometres) off the coast by
late Thursday or early Friday, the CBC's national affairs editor Chris Hall
reported. ... It is thought to be
carrying Tamil migrants from Sri Lanka. Officials have said there is reason
to believe members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, known as the
Tamil Tigers, are on the ship. The Tamil Tigers have been outlawed in
Canada as a terrorist group since 2006. ...
Government sources say this ship's
arrival, along with reports of other vessels ready to get underway, are a
signal that Canada is becoming a target for human traffickers, the CBC's
Hall reported.
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POPULATION PRESSURE
Britain's migrant squatter shambles David Pilditch Daily Express, 11 August 2010.
Unemployed migrants refusing to
return home have flooded a British city with more than 15 squatter camps
including a site in the middle of a busy roundabout.
The impact of uncontrolled immigration on
the fabric of British life was graphically laid bare yesterday by the sight
of the tented communities in Peterborough, Cambs.
Dozens of rough-sleeping Eastern European
migrants have set up elaborate camps in nature reserves and parks around
the city and some have even taken to squatting in homeowners' garden sheds.
Tents, fires, shacks and shelters have
been set up across the city with an immigrant community that now accounts
for 64 per cent of local population growth the fastest in Britain.
... Immigration Minister Damian Green
last night said the situation was "shocking" and promised to try to tackle
the problem. ... Around 15 per cent of an
estimated population of 163,000 are now migrants mainly from former
Communist countries in Eastern Europe which are now part of the EU.
Many lost their jobs following the
economic downturn or at the end of farming contracts but decided to stay on
in Britain to claim benefits and cash-in-hand work. ...
The influx has led to schooling, housing,
healthcare and police protection being stretched to breaking point.
At the housing office, 95 per cent of
people seen by officials do not speak English and interpreters are paid
£30 an hour to be on hand to help.
Fulbridge Primary School in Peterborough
has 675 pupils but 27 different languages are spoken with only 200 of the
pupils having English as a first language.
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CRIME USA, DISCRIMINATION
Some job-screening tactics challenged as illegal Sam Hananel Yahoo News, 11 August 2010.
Companies using criminal records or
bad credit reports to screen out job applicants might run afoul of
anti-discrimination laws as the government steps up scrutiny of hiring
policies that can hurt blacks and Hispanics.
A blanket refusal to hire workers based
on criminal records or credit problems can be illegal if it has a disparate
impact on racial minorities, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission. The agency enforces the nation's employment discrimination
laws. "Our sense is that the problem is
snowballing because of the technology allowing these checks to be done with
a fair amount of ease," said Carol Miaskoff, assistant legal counsel at the
EEOC. With millions of adults having
criminal records anything from underage drinking to homicide
a growing number of job seekers are having a rough time finding work. And
more companies are trying to screen out people with bankruptcies, court
judgments or other credit problems just as those numbers have swollen
during the recession. ... Justice
Department statistics show that 38 percent of the U.S. prison population is
black, compared with about 12 percent of the general population. In 2008,
African-Americans were about six times more likely to be incarcerated than
whites. The incarceration rate for Latinos was 2.3 times higher than
whites. If criminal histories are taken
into account, the EEOC says employers must also consider the nature of the
job, the seriousness of the offense and how long ago it occurred. For
example, it may make sense to disqualify a bank employee with a past
conviction for embezzlement, but not necessarily for a DUI.
Most companies tend to be more nuanced
when they look at credit reports, weeding out those applicants with bad
credit only if they seek senior positions or jobs dealing with money. But
if the screening process weeds out more black and Hispanic applicants than
whites, an employer needs to show how the credit information is related to
the job.
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BENEFITS AND COSTS HOUSING
Migrants given one in 15 new council houses Jack Doyle Daily Mail, 10 August 2010.
The number of council houses given to
immigrants has increased by 10 per cent in only a year to nearly 10,000.
Official figures show nearly one in every
15 newly-available homes let by a council or housing association went to a
foreign national. The revelations
highlight the pressure immigration has put on housing and public services.
They have also prompted calls for a
review of the rules on how social housing is allocated amid fears
long-standing UK residents could be losing out.
Tory MP James Clappison, who uncovered
the statistics, said: 'This is one more aspect of the pressures created by
immigration, at a time when people are waiting many years on a waiting list
for tenancy. 'The system surely must be
ripe for review. I think it will strike a lot of people as strange when UK
citizens are waiting up to ten years for a home.
According to research by the House of
Commons Library, foreign nationals were given the keys to 9,979 social
houses in 2008/9. That is up 905 from the 2007/8 figure of 9,074.
A total of 147,739 new social lettings
were made in 2008/9. That means nearly 7 per cent of homes went to
migrants. Nearly three quarters of the
increase was attributed to houses let to immigrants from EU countries. The
total is made up of houses and flats let by councils and housing
associations. Rents in such properties are subsidised by taxpayers.
It is estimated the cost of providing
social housing averages £133,941 a home. The Government contributes
£62,000 with the rest coming from developers or social landlords.
Taxpayer-subsidised housing is in short
supply nationwide with nearly two million people on the waiting list.
EU immigrants who are working can apply
for social housing immediately. Other foreign nationals are legally
entitled to social housing after spending more than four years in the UK or
successfully claiming asylum. Once
immigrants are on the list, they are considered at the same time as
long-standing residents on the basis of who has the greatest 'need'.
Labour pledged to introduce new powers to
allow local families to be given preference, but then backed down from
changing the law amid fears that it could breach human rights laws.
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MULTICULTURALISM DIVERSITY, NATIONAL IDENTITY
Tenth of new mothers are white Britons in some NHS regions Daily Telegraph, 9 August 2010.
Fewer than one in 10 women giving
birth is of white British origin in some parts of the country, NHS figures
disclose. On average, 68 per cent of new
mothers are white and British. ... ...
Out of 150 NHS Trusts, white British
women are in the minority in 27, while in 19 areas they account for 93 per
cent or more.
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MULTICULTURALISM DIVERSITY, NATIONAL IDENTITY
Revealed: The UK maternity units in which only 1 in 10 mothers is of white British origin Jack Doyle Daily Mail, 9 August 2010.
Just one in ten babies is born to a
white British mother in some parts of the country, figures reveal.
The statistics - based on NHS monitoring
of the ethnicity and nationality of patients - show a sharp contrast in the
backgrounds of new mothers in urban and rural areas.
While white British mothers accounted for
just 9.4 per cent of all births in one London health trust, the figure was
97.4 per cent of all births in Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Trust.
The birth statistics reflect how mothers
described themselves, not the ethnicity of the fathers or the babies.
Across all of England's 150 NHS Trusts
there were 652,638 deliveries last year, around six out of ten of them to
women who called themselves white British.
But in some trusts serving rural areas
more than 95 per cent of mothers fell into that category.
These included Northern Devon with 97.4
per cent, Co Durham and Darlington with 97.1, and Northumbria with 96 per
cent. At the other end of the spectrum,
in North West London Hospitals NHS Trust, which covers Harrow, just 9.4 per
cent of mothers were white British. Another inner city trust - Sandwell and
West Birmingham - had 16.5 per cent. And a little over one in four new
mothers were white Britons at Guy's and St Thomas' hospital in central
London. The proportion of mothers of
white British origin at Bradford Teaching Hospitals trust was 34 per cent.
Even some NHS trusts in the home counties
reported fewer than six in ten deliveries were to white British mothers.
In West Hertfordshire NHS Trust, which
covers St Albans, just 57 per cent of women giving birth were white
British. Across England 62 per cent of
all births last year involved a white British mother.
The largest other single ethnic groups
were 'other white' - including Eastern Europeans - which made up 7 per cent
of births, black (5 per cent), Pakistani (4 per cent) and Indian (3 per
cent). Of the rest of the mothers 8 per
cent described their ethnicity as 'other' (including mixed-race women) and
the remainder were listed as 'not known'.
Backbench Tory MP Douglas Carswell said:
'I think we have to face reality and that is if you continue to have mass
immigration it's going to have a very significant impact on the demography
of our country - and it's going to have a significant impact perhaps on the
sort of country that we are.'
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IMMIGRATION ABROAD SINGAPORE
Singapore PM: We won't let in too many foreigners Japan Today / Associated Press, 9 August 2010.
Singapore's prime minister sought
Sunday to ease concerns that the city-state is allowing in too many foreign
workers who will undermine national unity.
The surge of foreigners living in
Singapore has become a hot topic in the lead-up to the next general
election, which the government must call by February 2012. Many of the
newcomers are from China, India and other Asian countries.
"We will control the inflow, to ensure
that it is not too fast and not too large," Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong
said during a speech ahead of Monday's National Day. "And we will make
clear that citizens come first." About
150,000 foreign workers have entered Singapore per year since 2007, and
they now make up about a third of the island's 3 million work force and
about a fourth of the total population of 5 million, up from 10 percent in
1990. ... "It's no secret that a record
influx of foreigners in recent years has led to discontent among
Singaporeans, who feel crowded out of their own country," wrote Straits
Times reporter Radha Basu in a recent editorial. "New immigrants are being
blamed for a host of ills, from the squeeze in trains to the tussle for
jobs." Lee reiterated that foreign
workers were necessary for economic growth, which the government expects to
be as much as 15% this year. Lee said last month the government would allow
more than 100,000 foreigners into Singapore this year to help keep the
economy from "overheating" and inflation in check. ...
"We cannot do without a proportion of
foreign workers," Lee said Sunday. "With new arrivals living and working
harmoniously with those born here, we will keep Singapore dynamic,
cosmopolitan, and successful." ... "There
are a lot of jobs Singaporeans wouldn't do anyway," said Gillian Koh, a
senior research fellow at Singapore's Institute of Policy Studies.
Koh helped conduct a poll last year that
found 63% Singaporeans surveyed believed the government's immigration
policy was weakening national unity.
However, two-thirds of respondents also
said they supported bringing in more foreigners if it helped the economy.
Singapore also tries to attract what is
known locally as "foreign talent" - - educated professionals from abroad to
work in the finance industry and other high-paying sectors.
The government's immigration policy has
provided cheap labor for companies and depressed wages for Singaporeans,
Kenneth Jeyaretnam, secretary general of the opposition Reform Party, said
in a statement Sunday. "The government
continues to treat Singapore as a business rather than a country,"
Jeyaretnam said. "As long as the government permits a relatively elastic
supply of labor from abroad while the cost of other domestic inputs, like
land, continue to rise, then the real wages and salaries of our own workers
will get squeezed, and this has indeed happened."
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BENEFITS AND COSTS TRANSLATION, BENEFITS, UNEMPLOYMENT
£6M bill to translate migrants' benefits Kirsty Buchanan Sunday Express, 8 August 2010.
The £115,000 a week spent on
translators to help immigrants claim benefits in Britain is facing intense
scrutiny. The Government wants to cut the
cost of interpreters which last year soared to more than £6 million, a
50 per cent rise. In the last six years,
169,000 immigrants claimed unemployment benefit within six months of
getting a National Insurance number. The
benefits alone cost taxpayers £1.4 million a week but added to that is
the translation bill. Most of it came from providing face-to-face and
telephone translation services for people whose grasp of English was not
good enough to understand the benefits system.
Employment Minister Chris Grayling said:
"It's been quite clear to us that costs ran out of control under the last
Government. We aim to bring the costs down as far as we possibly can. We've
been very clear that people coming to live and work in the UK need to be
able to speak English." In 2004, Labour
Employment Minister Jim Murphy pledged that costs would be curbed but the
annual bill has more than doubled from £2.63 million then.
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CRIME USA, POLITICS
Immigration backlash baffles Bob Roper Columbia Daily Tribune, 8 August 2010.
The new breed of illegal immigrant in
Arizona is not the man or woman pining for a better life, including work,
in the United States. In recent years it has become more of a drug-driven
enterprise. The insatiable demand for
drugs in this country, along with lack of border security, has created a
new phenomenon: Ruthless drug cartels south of the Arizona border have set
up human smuggling operations. Because virtually no border security is in
place within 50 to 60 miles of the border, paramilitary drug smugglers and
their human cargo operate almost at will. In other words, drug cartels are
using illegal immigration tactics to get their product into the United
States. Considering the forgoing, is it
any surprise Phoenix has a huge kidnapping problem? Is it any surprise
ranch owners within 50 miles of the border are afraid for their lives and
don't go out at night? Ironically, the
Arizona law is actually less tough than the federal law, though one would
never know that from the partisan statements and mainstream media coverage.
Per the Arizona law, racial profiling is strictly prohibited, and police
can ask for identification only if there is "reasonable cause" to believe
something is amiss. "Reasonable cause" is not required of federal agents
under the federal law. Federal law also requires that resident aliens carry
proof of their legal status at all times green cards, for example.
What is really strange is the federal
response to the Arizona law. It sued and won the first round, claiming
federal pre-emption of the whole immigration area. It is unclear whether
the federal statutes have in fact expressly pre-empted the field on this,
and in any event it will be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. Many legal
scholars believe Arizona will prevail.
Yet the feds seem to have no problem with
the 80 or so "sanctuary cities" that openly flout federal law by refusing
to turn over illegal aliens, many of whom have been charged with state
and/or city law violations. And, by the
way, express federal pre-emption did occur with respect to "sanctuary
cities" in a 1996 statute. So we are in a
state of being that George Orwell would understand well: The Obama
administration strongly objects when a state wants to help enforce the law
and thereby leaves Arizona defenseless to near-open borders, thanks to the
dereliction by the feds. But of course there is no problem with cities that
openly flout the law. There are a lot of
sensible actions that could be taken to fix our immigration policies, but I
would start with border security. Unfortunately, here we run into the
entrenched Washington ruling class, in which Democrats do not want to make
changes without amnesty, which will bring them a huge number of new
Democratic voters, and Republicans do not want to make a change because
their business friends like the availability of cheap labor.
What a sorry state of affairs.
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MULTICULTURALISM FREE SPEECH, LAW
The jihad of the word erupts in Denmark yet again Melanie Phillips The Spectator, 8 August 2010.
A chilling development in Denmark
illustrates just how 'hate speech' laws, which were introduced by deluded
western liberals, are being used to stifle and criminalise the expression
of legitimate opinion and essential debate the prerequisite of a
liberal society. Lars Hedegaard is president of Denmark's International
Free Press Society, which is devoted to fighting to preserve freedom of
expression particularly against the threat from radical Islam to
shut it down on the spurious grounds of 'Islamophobia'. The inevitable has
now happened: as Nathaniel Sugarman writes at The Legal Project, Hedegaard
finds himself facing prosecution for 'racism' over remarks he has
made about Islam.The basis for Hedegaard's prosecution was an
interview from December 2009 in which he made controversial statements
about Islam. These assertions included critiques of what Hedegaard saw as
Islam's permissiveness regarding child abuse and bearing false witness, as
well as Islam's general intolerance concerning apostacism and critical
speech. Snaphanen, a Danish blog, published the original interview,
and Hedegaard has since clarified some of his remarks.
Hedegaard's statements earned him a hate
speech charge under Danish law. While Denmark's constitution ostensibly
protects freedom of expression and forbids censorship (see Section 77), the
Criminal code provides that "expressing and spreading racial hatred" is a
criminal offense punishable with up to two years imprisonment. (Article
266b). It seems this is not the first such prosecution in
Denmark:On June 16, 2010, the Danish parliament voted to strip
a lawmaker of immunity so that he could face charges over anti-Muslim
comments. The politician, Jesper Langballe, is a veteran member of the
Danish People's Party (PPD) and a crucial ally of the center-right
government. In January 2010, he penned a newspaper column discussing the
status of women in Islam and the "Islamisation of Europe." Included was the
statement that "Muslims kill their daughters over crimes of honour and turn
a blind eye while they are raped by their uncles." He is currently awaiting
trial for violating Article 266b the same hate speech statute that
will likely be applied to Hedegaard. There is however a ray of
light for Denmark: it seems that the Justice Minister is now considering
amending the hate speech laws on the grounds that they could be misused to
restrict free speech. ... However, the
possible amendment of Denmark's hate laws is scant consolation for other
western countries, with the UN having decided to criminalise all criticism
of sharia law, as reported here. Until and unless western liberals finally
understand that radical Islamists are not a minority whose human rights
need to be defended but are instead a mortal threat to human rights
which must be defeated and crucially, that the UN is the vehicle
of Islamist oppression and must in turn be fought by all who care about
human rights the light of freedom will continue to be
extinguished in the west.
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EMPLOYMENT HEALTH SERVICES
Potters Bar's MP speaks out against recruitment of foreign doctors and nurses Chris Richards Welwyn Hatfield Times, 8 August 2010.
Hertsmere MP James Clappison has
urged the coalition Government to put a stop to the practice of hiring
foreign doctors and nurses to fill healthcare vacancies in the UK.
He spoke out after immigration minister
Damian Green revealed that a total of 2,995 health workers came to Britain
for employment in 2010. The figure is
nearly half the total for 2009, however significant numbers of doctors and
nurses are still being recruited from countries such as Zimbabwe, Ghana and
Nigeria where there are major health problems.
Mr Clappison, who has represented Potters
Bar in Westminster since 1992, said: "These are countries with very great
needs and we are recruiting their trained medical staff.
"We should be training more nurses here."
He went on to accuse the previous
government of reneging on an international agreement, where ministers
pledged the UK would not take on doctors and nurses from developing
nations. "I would like to see the
coalition Government stop recruiting nurses from these countries as it has
a real impact on their health services," Mr Clappison added.
A Department of Health spokeswoman said:
"We are determined to have an ethical approach to recruiting healthcare
professionals from overseas. ..."
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RACISM JEWS, ANTI-SEMITISM
[Definition of anti-Semite] Martyn Rady, Professor of Central European History, University College London Sunday Telegraph, 8 August 2010.
[Letter to the Editor]
Shimon Peres claimed that the
definition of an anti-Semite as "one who hates the Jews more than
necessary" is of English provenance. It
is, in fact, a Hungarian saying and is usually attributed to the interwar
prime minister of Hungary, Count Istvan Bethlen.
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CRIME BORDER SECURITY
Silenced...the sham marriage whistleblower: Immigration officer claims he warned bosses but was forced out Sam Greenhill Daily Mail, 7 August 2010.
Hundreds of illegal immigrants have
been allowed to get away with sham marriages because government officials
dared not intervene, a whistleblower claims today.
Neville Sprague, who was a chief
immigration officer, accuses his former bosses at the UK Border Agency of
turning a blind eye to the scandal.
Illegal immigrants use fake marriages to
apply for 'spouse' visas to enable them to stay in Britain and enjoy free
healthcare, education and benefits. In a
shocking exposé, Mr Sprague claims he fought in vain to clamp down
on bogus weddings, but was sacked. The
former policeman alleges he was forced out because he insisted on
investigating crimes his department did not want recorded in the
statistics. His damning testimony is set
to be heard at an employment tribunal which he is bringing against the
agency, claiming unfair dismissal.
Yesterday Mr Sprague told the Daily Mail:
'I amassed evidence of bogus weddings but my managers just did not want to
know. 'They were really keen for me not
to investigate. They kept saying, "It's not that bad". I said: "Yes it
is!".' Suspected sham marriages have
increased by more than 50 per cent since the Law Lords ruled against tough
Home Office marriage regulations on 'human rights' grounds. ...
'To do something about it required
effort, resources and of course it became another unwelcome statistic,' he
claimed. 'So it was easier for them just
to say it doesn't exist. They kept insisting it wasn't our "remit" to
arrest them, but we do have the power of arrest and we had irrefutable
documentary evidence.' ... But Mr
Sprague, 56, of south Croydon, Surrey, who was sacked last year, said
hundreds of fake weddings were needlessly allowed to go ahead.
A former Metropolitan Police detective of
25 years, he joined what is now the UK Border Agency in 2001, and was
responsible for investigating fraud. ...
He said the scam involved West Africans,
predominantly from Ghana, paying more than £10,000 to 'marry' a
British citizen. The Briton often
a prostitute or a drug user would receive up to £7,000 to take
part. All they would have to do is hand over their passport and a
photograph. Forgers would then insert
fake stamps in the passport to make it seem as though the Briton had flown
to Ghana to get married. A false wedding
certificate from Ghana would also be produced, and the Ghanaian illegal
immigrant would then send it all off to the Home Office to apply for a
'spouse' visa to remain in the UK. ... As
a result of investigating a sample number of marriages that took place over
six months, Mr Sprague believes as many as 210 out of 300 were bogus.
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POLITICS PUBLIC OPINION
Labour's catastrophic mistake on immigration: Brown's pollster reveals how it cost him election... and is now damaging democracy itself Deborah Mattinson Daily Mail,
7 August 2010.
I'd started running political focus
groups for Labour in the Eighties. This gave me the perfect vantage point
to see the birth of New Labour - and its subsequent ups and downs - through
the eyes of voters. What struck me most
was the huge gulf between the electorate and the political classes.
While politicians in the Westminster
village are obsessed with the trivia that purports to be matters of great
importance, voters worry about issues that directly impact their families
and their communities. ... Above all,
this gulf between voters and politicians is felt most strongly when it
comes to immigration. After running focus
groups for 25 years, I can honestly say I've rarely sat through one without
the subject being raised. ... These views
confirmed opinion polls at the time, which showed immigration was at, or
near, the top of people's concerns and that eight out of ten agreed that
'immigration laws should be much tougher or immigration should be stopped
altogether'. A year before Gordon Brown
became prime minister, I ran a major focus group study. By then,
immigration had become the main issue. We
described our findings to Mr Brown and senior Cabinet members. We explained
immigration was a vortex issue - its whirlpool effect engulfing everything
in its wake. Voters were emphatic. They
believed the NHS couldn't cope because too many immigrants were using its
services (for example, the Office for National Statistics recently revealed
that nearly a quarter of babies born in Britain have immigrant mothers).
They thought schools weren't able to
teach properly because they were struggling with large numbers of immigrant
children who couldn't speak English. They believed people couldn't find
work because immigrants were prepared to take jobs for much less money.
And they said families found it
impossible to get accommodation because the government gives priority to
immigrant families. It's important to
point out again that, despite the strength of these feelings, it doesn't
mean people are racist. ... I always fed
back voters' views about immigration to Labour's high command. But despite
the subject being such a hot topic, it was never put at the top of the
political agenda. There was simply no
appetite to listen, let alone act. It was as if politicians were in
paralysis. ... But the debate goes on
about immigration. The coalition Government has just announced a cap on
non-EU immigration. However, focus groups suggest this may well be another
'too little too late' initiative, paying lip service rather than really
dealing with the core issues. In any
case, voters are worried about levels of immigration from EU countries as
well, and their complaints often centre on the immigrants who are already
here rather than those who still want to come to Britain.
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TERRORISM ISLAM
Muslims 'linked to violent ideology' Duncan Gardham Daily Telegraph, 6 August 2010.
Many apparently mainstrean Muslim
groups have the same ideology as violent Islamists, according to a secret
report. The document, sent to Charles
Farr, head of the Government's Office for Security and Counter Terrorism,
has been leaked on the internet.
Preventing terrorism, where next for
Britain? from Quilliam, the think tank, lists groups in Britain that
are "broadly sympathetic to Islamism", including Scotland Yard's Muslim
Contact Unit and the Muslim Council of Britain.
The report warns that if the Government
engages with such groups "it risks empowering proponents of the ideology
that is behind terrorism".
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IMMIGRATION EUROPEAN UNION
Passport giveaway opens UK back door: 2m more Hungarians will have right to work here Daily Mail, 6 August 2010.
Hungary is set to hand passports to
millions of people living outside the EU raising the prospect of a
new wave of immigration into Britain.
From next year, Hungary's leaders will
begin a huge passport giveaway to minority groups who have historic or
ethnic ties to the East European country but live elsewhere.
Most of the beneficiaries live in
impoverished countries on the fringes of Europe. Once they are given a
passport, they will be entitled to full access to the rest of the EU
including Britain. Similar passport
handout schemes which are legal under EU laws are under way
in Romania and Bulgaria. Together, it is
estimated the three countries could add nearly five million citizens to the
continent's population, at a time when it is struggling to bounce back from
a deeply damaging recession and financial crisis.
Although they have come control for
Romanian and Bulgarian nationals, UK ministers are powerless to place
restrictions on arrivals from Hungary. That means the potential impact on
Britain of two million new Hungarian passports is much larger.
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BENEFITS AND COSTS EMPLOYMENT
Romania: thanks for the benefits Daily Mail, 6 August 2010.
Romanian president Traian Basescu has
publicly thanked the tens of thousands of his countrymen who claim benefits
in Britain instead of their own country.
In an extraordinary TV broadcast, the
leader paid tribute to the two million Romanians who live and work abroad
instead of claiming benefits at home.
'Imagine if the two million Romanians
working in Britain, Italy, Spain, France, Germany, came to ask for
unemployment benefits in Romania,' he said.
'So to these people we have to thank them
for what they are doing for Romania.' And
Mr Basescu blamed the boom in emigrant Romanian workers on lazy Westerners.
'In those countries, the social
protection is at a level that makes it more comfortable to be unemployed.'
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RACISM LEBANON
Racism Legitimised by Law Mona Alami Inter Press Service, 6 August 2010.
Lebanon has a reputation for openness
because of the relative freedom enjoyed by women in comparison to other
Middle Eastern countries. But many women face rampant discrimination.
Women driving luxury vehicles with an
Asian or African woman relegated to the back seat is a common sight around
Beirut. Most domestic workers come from places like the Philippines, Nepal,
Sri Lanka and Ethiopia. People of colour
are not only mistreated by employers who take away their passports
and force them to work seven days a week they also face
discrimination outside the workplace. ... ...
A recent survey of Lebanese resorts
conducted by Lebanese NGO IndyAct shows that all of the 20 beaches
investigated barred domestic workers from Asia and Africa from using their
facilities. ... The beaches and clubs
where some of the incidents took place are not breaching the law, because
Lebanon does not have anti-discrimination legislation.
"The Lebanese constitution states that
all Lebanese are equal in the eyes of the law, but no mention is made of
the rights of foreigners," says lawyer Amal Takiedine. ...
Lebanon has many undocumented African
immigrants, mostly from Ethiopia and Sudan. ...
In addition to suffering discrimination,
foreigners do not have the same rights in terms of property ownership
a cap is placed on how much they can purchase. Palestinians face
stricter restrictions; they are not allowed to own any real estate and are
not permitted to inherit property, even from a Lebanese family member.
Takiedine says that in the absence of a
unified civil law, such discrimination will continue. "The Lebanese legal
system follows different rules of law that vary from one community to the
other," she says. "It is a situation that naturally leads to inequality
among people."
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IMMIGRATION ABROAD CRIME, PUBLIC OPINION, FRANCE
French back Sarkozy crime, immigrant crackdown-poll AlertNet / Reuters, 5 August 2010.
French people overwhelmingly support
tough new measures proposed by President Nicolas Sarkozy to fight crime,
delinquency and illegal immigration, a poll showed on Thursday.
Sarkozy unveiled the measures last week
in a bid to shore up support ahead of 2012 elections, amid a series of
political scandals and unpopular economic reforms that have pushed his
popularity to record lows. Opposition
parties accused him of trying to divert attention from his woes with
populist steps that make a clear link between youth crime and immigration,
but the poll by Ifop for the daily Le Figaro suggested a big majority of
citizens support him. The survey of 1,003
people showed that 89 percent agree with Sarkozy's plan to force repeat
criminals to wear electronic tags for years after they have served time for
their crimes. Some 80 percent backed his
plan to strip French nationality from citizens with a foreign background
who practise polygamy or promote female circumcision, and 70 percent
favoured the same penalty for people with immigrant roots found guilty of
killing a policeman. ... Opposition
parties, human rights groups and unions announced this week that they would
stage major demonstrations across France on Sept. 4 to protest against
security measures they have condemned as xenophobic.
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CRIME RACISM, ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
Thousands of illegal immigrants escape deportation because police fear being called racist Ryan Kisiel Daily Mail, 4 August 2010.
Thousands of illegal immigrants are
escaping deportation as police fear being accused of racism if they
question a suspect's nationality, according to a Home Office report.
Failure to carry out the proper checks on
migrants while they are in police custody is leading to huge amounts
remaining in the country rather than being deported.
Police fear asking questions about their
nationality because they will be hung out to dry by politically correct
regulations. The Home Office report
recommends that more checks on suspects while in custody and a closer
relationship with the UK Border Agency is needed to identify illegal
immigrants. A pilot study found that when
enhanced checks were applied, more than three times as illegal immigrants
were found. The 14 custody suites in England and Wales showed that the
number of those identified rose from 73 to 250 during the three-month
trial. In one city, 20 suspected illegal
immigrants were found during the first month, but only six were deported
due to a lack of detention space. The rest were all given temporary release
with conditions. The Determining Identity
and Nationality in Local Policing report also revealed that 435 foreign
nationals were arrested in the same area and period - accounting for 25 per
cent of all arrests. 'The research
demonstrated that more rigorous practices in custody suites could increase
the number of foreign nationals and illegal migrants who are identified as
being involved in criminal activity," its authors said.
'In some sites there was a marked
reluctance to challenge arrestees who claimed to be British, even though
officers suspected that the claims might be false.
'This reluctance was commonly ascribed to
the fear that any such challenge could result in an accusation of racism.'
... Just under one in five of all
suspected illegal migrants arrested were questioned over serious offences,
compared with just over one in ten of UK citizens arrested, the report
found.
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CRIME RACISM, ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
Hidden toll of crime by illegal immigrants Tom Whitehead Daily Telegraph, 4 August 2010.
The number of crimes committed by
illegal immigrants or foreign nationals could be four times higher than
thought because police are not properly checking the identity of suspects,
according to a Home Office report.
Officers are failing to check the true
nationality of suspects and whether they are in the country lawfully,
meaning thousands of foreign criminals could also be slipping through the
immigration net and staying in Britain.
Many of them are likely to be involved in
organised crime or other cross-border offences, according to the research.
... The Home Office research found a
"lack of thoroughness" in checking the immigration status of those of those
arrested and a failure to take the appropriate action when they do discover
them. In some cases, officers were even
reluctant to challenge someone who claimed to be British when they
suspected they were not because of fears of being accused of racism.
Repeat offenders were often overlooked
because it was assumed their immigration status had already been checked
and police would not bother checking those who were compliant. ...
The report, Determining Identity and
Nationality in Local Policing, examined practices in 14 custody suites
and, as part of the research, a pilot was carried out in four areas
involving enhanced checks on arrested individuals.
As a result, the number of identity
checks on individuals increased fivefold and the number found or suspected
to be an illegal immigrant increased from 73 to 250.
Even when illegal immigrants were
discovered by the police they were not always dealt with appropriately
either by them or immigration officers. Details of people found to in the
country unlawfully were sometimes not passed on to the UK Border Agency
because officers felt nothing would be done about it or they were passed on
after the suspect had been released. In
turn, immigration officers were reluctant to attend police stations if the
case was likely to be complicated. In other cases, police would put
suspected illegal immigrants in a taxi to the nearest immigration office or
hand them directions, despite accepting it was unlikely they would show up.
The latest research was conducted in 2006-07 but has only now been
published.
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POPULATION PUBLIC OPINION, AUSTRALIA
Big Australia vision goes down like a lead balloon Jennie Curtin The Sydney Morning Herald, 4 August 2010.
Nearly three-quarters of Australians
do not want a bigger population, a recent survey shows.
The result appears to back up the
decision by the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, to switch from Kevin Rudd's
"Big Australia" argument to her own "sustainable Australia" rhetoric.
The Australian survey of social
attitudes, which canvassed the views of 3200 people, found those in rural
and regional areas were more strongly opposed to a larger population, with
up to 86 per cent of those in country Queensland rejecting the notion.
NSW inner-city residents held more
moderate views than the population as a whole, with 58 per cent saying
''no'' and 42 per cent ''yes'' to more people, compared with a 72 per cent
rejection rate overall. Adjunct Associate
Professor Katharine Betts, recently retired from Swinburne University of
Technology, who analysed the results, said the inner-city result was
surprising "given the distress that growing traffic congestion and
overloaded infrastructure are causing in the major cities" but could be
explained by the preponderance of university graduates or first-generation
migrants in such areas. Those two groups
provided the most enthusiastic support for more people, she said. The most
supportive were affluent migrants from non-English speaking backgrounds (63
per cent in favour). ... The survey
showed little difference in attitudes based on voting intention for the
main parties although Liberal voters (72 per cent) were slightly more
inclined to maintain stable levels than Labor (67) or the Greens (68).
National Party voters (87 per cent) and Family First supporters (84 per
cent) were strongly against increases.
Labourers (81 per cent) and technicians,
trade workers and community workers (79 per cent) were the employment
groups most against a higher population while so-called "social
professionals" (arts and media, education, and legal, social and welfare
professionals) were the least resistant to the idea at 57 per cent.
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REPATRIATION/DEPORTATION USA
Con Air: onboard the US illegal immigrant flights Nick Martin Channel 4 News, 3 August 2010.
"Everybody wants to stay, nobody
wants to leave." Channel 4 News gains exclusive access to US border police
and travels with illegal immigrants deported "back home" to Guatemala. ...
"Flights have increased by 77 per cent
since 2006," says Michael Pitts, field director of the Texas office of
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). "This year we will deport
400,000 illegal aliens in this way." ...
And this is the perennial problem for US
immigration officials. The never ending cycle of deporting illegal
immigrants only then to discover that they have come over the border and
re-entered.
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BORDER CONTROLS EDUCATION
300,000 a year let in on student visas Tom Whitehead Daily Telegraph, 2 August 2010.
The number of foreigners who came to
Britain on student visas rose by a third to more than 300,000 last year,
prompting renewed warnings last night of a loophole in immigration law.
Official figures showed that the number
of students entering Britain from non-EU countries increased by more than
75,000 in 12 months, despite unprecedented demand for college and
university places. The influx was exacerbated by a further 31,000
dependants accompanying foreign students, the figures disclosed. ...
Last night, the Government said that the
student visa system had been open to "significant abuse". Damian Green, the
immigration minister, said there would be a thorough review of the rules.
... The increase was thought to have been
the largest single rise on record.
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BORDER CONTROLS ASYLUM, DEPORTATION
17,000 immigrants told to leave UK won right to stay on appeal after Home Office failed to attend hearings Katherine Faulkner Daily Mail, 2 August 2010.
Thousands of rejected immigrants are
being allowed to stay in the UK because the Home Office is not bothering to
defend the decision in the appeal courts.
Immigrants whose applications to stay in
the UK have been rejected are routinely winning appeals against the
decisions - simply because no Home Office official has turned up at court
to defend the rejection. The number of
immigrants winning leave to remain in Britain at a hearing when no official
was present jumped by almost 50 per cent last year.
More than 17,000 won appeals in such
cases - a figure which stood at less than 1,500 just five years ago.
In some instances the Home Office has
later decided to counter-appeal the decision - a procedure that comes at a
significant cost to the taxpayer. Keith
Vaz, chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, told the Times: 'This
is a shocking state of affairs. 'It
represents a waste of money. 'I think in
some cases they cannot be bothered to turn up because they look at the
papers and know they are not going to win.
'In other cases it is sheer inefficiency.
There seems to be an attitude that they do not even care what the result is
going to be.' In the absence of home
office officials, migrants have won appeals against refused asylum
applications, deportation orders and refusals of entry to the UK. Last year
17,473 migrants won their appeals at hearings at which the Home Office was
not represented by an official. A further
23,997 won appeals when the Home Office was represented, a parliamentary
written answer revealed. A migrant is far
more likely to win an appeal if there is no official present to defend
decisions. But the UK Border agency is
struggling to cope with a massive rise in the number of appeals to Asylum
and Immigration Tribunals over the past five years and cannot spare the
staff to attend all contentious hearings.
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RACISM ANTI-SEMITISM, JEWS
Israeli president denies branding Britain 'anti-Semitic' Adrian Blomfield and Damien McElroy Daily Telegraph, 2 August 2010.
Shimon Peres, the Israeli president,
has been forced to deny that he had branded Britons "anti-Semites" during
an interview in which he attacked Britain for being consistently pro-Arab
and against Israel. Amid growing
controversy over his comments, Mr Peres insisted yesterday that he had "the
highest regard" for the way in which Britain stood alone against Nazi
Germany during the Second World War. "President Peres never accused the
British people of anti-Semitism," his spokesman added last night.
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REPATRIATION/DEPORTATION COSTS
£13 million missing after Labour's 'crazy' attempts to bribe illegal immigrants to go home James Slack Daily Mail, 2 August 2010.
Labour squandered millions of pounds
on 'crazy' schemes to bribe illegal immigrants to go home, it can be
revealed. Home Office papers show how the
last government was so wasteful with public money that £13 million has
gone missing - with officials having no idea how it was spent.
Immigration minister Damian Green has
ordered an urgent internal investigation to find out if the taxpayer has
been short-changed. The accounts also
reveal how Labour: Paid £1.2
million in bribes to people who never even set foot in Britain
Gave repatriation grants to
migrants from wealthy countries - including the US, Australia, Canada and
New Zealand Lavished thousands on
teaching foreign preachers about life in 'multi-cultural' Britain
Sent Afghans on year-long holidays
to see if they would like to go home permanently
Bribed Poles to go home in the
same year their country joined the EU, meaning they became eligible to
immediately return to the UK
Handed almost £50,000 to the Ukraine to build a 'migration advice
centre' Wasted £25,141 on a
cancelled project to support 'artisans' in Afghanistan
Paid £68,235 to China - an
industrial powerhouse - to strengthen its migration controls.
The accounts detail how Labour spent
almost £80 million on schemes designed to encourage failed asylum
seekers and illegal immigrants to go home.
The payments - denounced as 'bribes' by
critics - were designed to dramatically increase the number of people being
removed from the UK. Ministers decided it
was cheaper and easier than border guards tracking the illegal immigrants
down themselves and forcibly putting them on a plane.
The Home Office also spent hundreds of
thousands on grants to foreign countries so they could improve their border
controls, or dissuade their citizens from travelling here.
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MULTICULTURALISM ISLAM, PUBLIC OPINION
Three-quarters of non-Muslims believe Islam negative for Britain Haroon Siddique The Guardian, 2 August 2010.
Three-quarters of non-Muslims believe
Islam has provided a negative contribution to British society, according to
a new poll, which has prompted calls for Muslims to help improve the
perception of their faith. The study for
the Islamic Education and Research Academy (iERA) also found that 63% of
people surveyed did not disagree with the statement "Muslims are
terrorists" and 94% agreed that "Islam oppresses women". It included
qualitative as well as quantitative data. One respondent said: "If I had my
way I'd kick them all [Muslims] out of here."
The results follow an online YouGov poll,
published in June, that found 58% linked Islam with extremism and 69%
believed it encouraged the repression of women.
Despite the widespread negative
perceptions of Islam, iERA believes the fact that most opinions were formed
in ignorance of the faith indicates that Muslims can positively influence
them. Four-fifths of those polled said
they have less than very little knowledge about Islam, while 40% did not
know who "Allah" referred to and 36% did not know who the Prophet Muhammad
was. iERA's senior researcher Hamza
Tzortzis said: "We wanted to do something positive with the survey results
rather than just say, 'It's so sad'. So, the organisation's strategy is to
give a new realm of possibility for people to comprehend Islam, have a
proper respect for Islam and see the human relevance of the faith." ...
The study, carried out for iERA out by
DJS Research, used face-to face questionnaires to ascertain the views of a
"statistically robust" sample of 500 randomly selected non-Muslims.
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EMPLOYMENT FINANCE
Leading Square Mile financiers label coalition's immigration cap 'a disaster' Jill Treanor The Observer, 1 August 2010.
Leading City employers are furious
about the limits being imposed by the government on the number of non-EU
citizens they are able to employ and are urging a dramatic rethink of the
government's policy. The financial
district prides itself on its cosmopolitan workforce and is concerned that
the quotas on migrants being set by the coalition will make it impossible
for them to keep operating effectively. A
senior City source described the new rules as a "disaster". Firms were told
the implications of the policy by the government last week. Industry
sources said that some top City companies believe they will be restricted
to hiring as few as six non-EU nationals during the remainder of the year.
... Employers' body the CBI said it was
in dialogue with the Home Office over the migration caps while the City's
trade body, the Association for Financial Markets in Europe, said its
members were worried: "There is a concern that it will become more
difficult to move people around their businesses on a global basis."
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EXTREMISM ISLAM
Muslim extremists threaten new 7/7 James Murray and Neil Doyle Sunday Express, 1 August 2010.
A new Muslim extremist group
threatened a terrorist atrocity similar to 7/7 during a highly provocative
demonstration outside the front gates of Downing Street.
Calling themselves Muslims Against
Crusaders, they chanted furiously against British soldiers in Afghanistan
and Iraq. ... Some of the demonstrators
were supporters of Islam 4 UK, run by former solicitor Anjem Choudary. The
group was banned by former Home Secretary Alan Johnson this year as it
planned a protest march against soldiers at Wootton Bassett, the Wiltshire
town which honours the war dead from Afghanistan.
Mr Choudary insists he has nothing to do
with Muslims Against Crusaders and was not at the Downing Street protest on
Monday but he does promote their protests. Last night the Centre for Social
Cohesion think tank said the Government must adopt a different approach to
the constantly evolving extremist groups.
Director Douglas Murray said: "They are
one step ahead of the Government because they are constantly changing their
names and thinking of ways of getting their message across but the
Government has to be one step ahead of them."
Father-of-four Choudary lives on state
benefits of around £25,000 a year, like many of those who organise
meetings and events to promote their extremist views.
Mr Murray said: "There is one solution...
stop paying for their benefits. It is utterly ridiculous that the state is
effectively financing this problem."
Today we reveal that Choudary and two
hate preachers have joined forces to launch an internet operation devoted
to their views. ... Choudary has joined
forces with Omar Bakri Mohammad, who is banned from re-entering the UK
after he fled to Lebanon in the wake of the 7/7 bombings in London. With
them is Abdullah el-Faisal, deported from the UK in 2007 after being jailed
for distributing recordings of speeches in which he solicited the murders
of Jews and Hindus.
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ASYLUM OVERPAYMENT, MISMANAGEMENT
Border agency costs us all £70m Ted Jeory Sunday Express, 1 August 2010.
Bungling border officials are
preparing to write off almost £70 million in bad debts, overpayments
and compensation to asylum seekers. A
shocking catalogue of costly mistakes at the Home Office's UK Border Agency
meant £26 million had to be written off in the last financial year.
And the agency paid out £13 million
of benefits in error to would-be refugees since April 2008.
Astonishingly, a further £41 million
has had to be set aside in special accounts to cover more bungles,
including bad debts, overpayments and compensation claims, this year.
The agency's accounts reveal £12
million was overpaid last year to just six hostel owners for providing
asylum seekers' accommodation.
Embarrassingly for the agency's Home
Office bosses, £4.3 million ended up incorrectly in the pockets of the
agency's own staff. Failure to update
salary changes and annual leave entitlements on payroll systems meant the
agency overpaid more than 2,500 employees by an average of about
£1,700 each. Meanwhile three
refugees who were unlawfully detained while border officials investigated
their claims ended up being paid more than £330,000 each last year in
compensation. And settlements worth
£2.1 million were reached with 40 under-18s who were wrongly detained
as adults an average of £52,000 each.
Yet in spite of the mistakes, 29 senior
officials were paid £295,000 in bonuses in 2009. Bernard Jenkin,
chairman of the Commons Public Administration Committee said: "The public
administration of the civil service has become increasingly dysfunctional.
"The whole basis of civil administration
in the UK has to be a huge agenda for the new government."
The losses are detailed in the Border
Agency's annual report, published last week. Most embarrassing of the
errors is the £13.1 million in benefits overpaid to asylum seekers in
the past two years. Officials found that
payments still being made to claimants when support should have ended
totalled £9.6 million during 2008/09 and £3.5 million during
2009/10. About £1.9 million went to
asylum seekers whose applications had already failed.
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RACISM ANTI-SEMITISM, JEWS, MUSLIMS
Peres: the English are anti-Semitic David Harrison and Adrian Blomfield Sunday Telegraph, 1 August 2010.
Israel's president has accused the
English of being anti-Semitic and claimed that MPs pander to Muslim voters.
Shimon Peres, 87, said England was
"deeply pro-Arab" and "anti-Israeli", adding: They always worked against
us." In an interview on a Jewish website,
he went on to say: "There is in England a saying that an anti-Semite is
someone who hates the Jews more than is necessary." ... ...
Mr Peres, a Nobel Peace Prizewinner who
was awarded an honorary knighthood by the Queen in 2008, said that
England's attitude towards Jews was Israel's "next big problem".
He said: "There are several million
Muslim voters, and for many Members of Parliament, that's the difference
between getting elected and not getting elected," he said. ...
Mr Peres made the comments in an
interview with Prof Benny Morris, a historian at Ben-Gurion University of
the Negev, which was published on Tablet, a Jewish news website.
Mr Peres is one of Israel's
longest-serving political leaders an MP for 48 years and twice prime
minister. He is firmly on the Israeli left.
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REPATRIATION/DEPORTATION CRIME, EUROPEAN UNION
Fruit and veg law prevents deportation of drug smuggler David Barrett Sunday Telegraph, 1 August 2010.
A Turkish drug trafficker sentenced
to 20 years' imprisonment for his role in one of Britain's largest-ever
heroin seizures cannot be deported because of an obscure European law.
The man, who was a senior member of an
international drugs gang, arranged to smuggle £30 million of heroin
into Britain hidden inside the fuel tank of an articulated lorry.
The Home Office spent two years trying to
deport Ali Osman Gok after he was freed from prison in 2008.
But his lawyers overturned their efforts
by mounting a lengthy series of appeals, focusing on a little-known,
30-year-old treaty between the EU and Turkey which mainly deals with import
duty on fruit and vegetables. Gok, 40,
who lives in north London with his wife and two daughters, is now free to
remain in Britain indefinitely. ... The
treaty which enabled Gok win his case governs tariffs on goods between
Turkey and Europe, and includes a detailed list of aubergines, marrows and
other foodstuffs covered by the agreement.
Known as "Decision 1/80 of the
Association Council of September 19, 1980", it also includes a number of
"social provisions" which were the key element of the case put forward by
Gok's solicitor. It means that Turkish
nationals can only be denied the right to live and work in European
Community states if they pose a "specific risk of new and serious prejudice
to the requirements of public policy".
The Asylum and Immigration Tribunal (AIT)
made its decision despite hearing that Gok had been a key member of one of
the biggest heroin smuggling plots the UK has ever seen. ... ...
Sir Andrew Green, chairman of
Migrationwatch, said: "This is getting increasingly ridiculous. If a major
drugs smuggler can't be thrown out then who can be? ..."
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IMMIGRATION ABROAD ISRAEL, ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS, DEPORTATION, NATIONAL IDENTITY
Israel to expel hundreds children of migrant workers in the country illegally Sun Sentinel, 1 August 2010.
Israel on Sunday approved new
residency criteria that could result in the deportations of hundreds of
children of migrant workers. The decision
by Israel's Cabinet represented a small step by Israel to clear up the
status of thousands of foreign workers in Israel.
Under the decision, children of migrants
whose parents entered Israel legally may remain if they are enrolled in
school, speak Hebrew and have been here longer than five years.
An Israeli advocacy group, the Hotline
for Migrant Workers, estimates 700 of 1,200 school-age children are at risk
of deportation, along with their parents.
About 200,000 migrant workers live in
Israel, mostly from the Philippines, China and Africa. About half have
overstayed their visas, thousands for many years. Many have children who
were born in Israel and know no other home.
Some Israelis complain that illegal
migrants are taking jobs away from citizens. Others worry that the
non-Jewish workers could upset the Jewish nature of the society.
At the Sunday Cabinet meeting, Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed with the critics. "This is a
tangible threat to the Jewish and democratic character of the state of
Israel," he said.
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EXTREMISM ISLAM, FIFTH COLUMN
Muslim fifth column Michael Nazir-Ali Daily Telegraph, 31 July 2010.
[Letter to the Editor]
Both Baroness Manningham-Buller and
Imran Khan have been reported in your columns as claiming that the
invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan have led to increased recruitment of
Muslims in Britain to radical causes. They may well be correct.
The implication, however, that whenever
the West acts to protect itself or to prevent genocide or oppression by
extremists and tyrants, it is causing a fifth column to arise in its own
societies, is deeply worrying. Such a situation has enormous consequences
for the will to resist extremism and for morale generally.
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REPATRIATION/DEPORTATION EUROPEAN UNION, ROMA, GIPSIES, CRIME
EU washes hands of French plans for Roma expulsions as tensions grow Valentina Pop EUobserver.com, 30 July 2010.
The European Commission on Thursday
said it is up to member states to decide whether they expel Roma people,
but only on an individual basis and respecting the principle of
"proportionality", in reaction to France's announcement it will dismantle
300 Roma camps within three months. ...
On Wednesday, French interior minister
Brice Hortefeux said 300 illegal "camps or squats" would be dismantled and
the travellers living there, mostly EU citizens from Romania and Bulgaria,
will be sent back to their countries. The
announcement came after President Nicolas Sarkozy held crisis talks to
discuss what he described as the security "problems" posed by the minority,
following an attack on a police station in central France last week.
The French opposition and human rights
groups lambasted the decision. ...
In Romania, home of the largest Roma
population, non-governmental organisations said that France's move violates
basic human rights. "Saying that Roma who committed crimes will be expelled
is a severe violation of the freedom of movement. The word 'crime' can be
[widely] interpreted and can lead to abuses," Gelu Duminica, head of the
association Impreuna (Together), told AFP.
Meanwhile, Romanian foreign affairs
minister Teodor Baconschi stressed that the nine million Roma living in the
European Union were "European citizens" and their freedom of movement could
not be impeded. He also deflected
France's objections to accepting Romania into the border-free travel area
known as Schengen, a move which should take place in March 2011, together
with neighbouring Bulgaria. "Romania can
manage migratory flows effectively, on the external border of the Schengen
area. But this has nothing to do with the freedom of movement of European
citizens on EU territory. Also, the social inclusion of EU citizens is not
among the Schengen requirements," Mr Baconschi told Evenimentul Zilei.
France's EU affairs secretary Pierre
Lellouche has previously told France Info and RFI that his country has
doubts about Romania's accession to the Schengen area, precisely because of
the crimes committed by its citizens of Roma ethnicity. ...
France is certainly not the only western
European country where the Roma community is being stigmatised and pushed
back. Two years ago, Italy had taken similar steps after several crimes
were allegedly committed by Roma and even allowed for vigilante patrols to
be established in the local communities.
And Germany is set to deport 12,000 Roma
to Kosovo in the coming years, writes Der Freitag, in a deal that Pristina
accepted "under pressure" last April. ...
In Denmark, the city of Copenhagen
earlier this month asked for government assistance, including the use of
force, in order to expel the 200 to 400 Roma who live there. "The situation
is untenable," the mayor of the Danish capital said, arguing that the
number of burglaries has risen in the neighbourhoods where they have taken
up residence.
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IMMIGRATION ABROAD CITIZENSHIP, USA
U.S. Immigration Fight Widens to Native Born Miriam Jordan, Jean Guerrero and Laura Meckler The Wall Street Journal, 30 July 2010.
The immigration debate is reviving
the explosive idea of denying citizenship to children born on U.S. soil if
their parents are in the country illegally.
A U.S. senator and a state lawmaker in
Arizona, both central players in the battle over immigration law,
separately proposed this week that "birthright" citizenship be denied to
the children of illegal immigrants. They said the change would help stem
the flood of illegal border crossings. ...
Immigration-rights activists say
citizenship isn't a significant driver of illegal immigration, because a
child has to reach age 21 to petition for permanent legal residency for his
or her parents. ... At issue is the 14th
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, enacted in 1868 to ensure that states
not deny former slaves the full rights of citizenship. It states, "All
persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the
jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State
wherein they reside." ... Mr. Pearce,
like some other proponents of the change, argued that the amendment as
written doesn't apply to illegal immigrants. Because illegal immigrants
aren't "subject to the jurisdiction" of the U.S., as the amendment
requires, they fall outside its protection, these people argue. A group of
House lawmakers made a similar argument when they tried to pass legislation
changing the birthright principle in 2005.
"When it was ratified in 1868, the
amendment had to do with African-Americans; it had nothing to do with
aliens," Mr. Pearce said. "It's got to be fixed."
Given the controversial nature of this
proposal, successfully amending the Constitution would be considered a long
shot. It requires a vote of two-thirds of the House and of the Senate, and
must be ratified by three-fourths of state legislators.
A change in state law redefining who is a
citizen would likely draw a legal challenge, as did Arizona's effort to
change state immigration law. Under Mr.
Pearce's proposal, Arizona would refuse to issue a birth certificate to any
child unless at least one parent could prove legal presence in the U.S.
"The 14th Amendment has been hijacked and abused," Mr. Pearce said. "We
incentivize people to break our laws."
The U.S. is home to about 11 million
illegal immigrants. There are nearly four million whose children are U.S.
citizens, according to a 2009 report by the Pew Hispanic Center, a
nonpartisan research group in Washington.
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DIVERSITY PROMOTION NAVY, USA
High seas segregation: The Navy is listing dangerously in politically correct water The Washington Times, 30 July 2010.
[Leading article]
The Navy wants to judge sailors by
the color of their skin, not the content of their seamanship.
The latest national security leak is a
shocking e-mail from a Navy admiral on "Diversity Accountability." The
message, sent to a list of other flag officers, notes that "a change in
focus of this year's diversity brief is the desire to identify our key
performers (by name) and provide insight on each of them." Chief of Naval
Operations Adm. Gary Roughead, who apparently originated this order, "is
interested in who are the diverse officers with high potential and what is
the plan for their career progression. He may ask what is being done within
to ensure they are considered for key follow on billets within the Navy."
The message specifies, "This list must be
held very closely but will provide ready reference to ensure we are
carefully monitoring and supporting the careers of the best and the
brightest the Navy has to offer." That is, the best and the brightest
provided a sailor is one of the euphemistically "diverse." If you are a
white male, it might be time to set sail and seek opportunities elsewhere.
In practice, the Navy will be creating a
list of privileged "diverse" officers who will enjoy special benefits and
career mentoring not available to people of the wrong race, as well as a
virtual guarantee of fast-track access to the highest reaches of command.
Fifty-six years after the Supreme Court struck down the concept of
"separate but equal" treatment of races, the U.S. Navy is erecting a wall
of segregation between what will amount to two parallel promotion systems:
one for the "diverse" and another for the monotone. If this isn't illegal,
it should be. ... In the contemporary
naval bureaucracy, this type of politically correct nonsense has run out of
control like a loose cannon on deck. The Naval Academy lists racial
diversity as the "highest personnel priority," apparently even over the
mission of educating future Navy leaders for warfare on the high seas. Adm.
Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made achieving
diversity a "strategic imperative" when he was chief of naval operations.
Call us old-fashioned seadogs, but we'd prefer that the Navy's top priority
be fighting and winning our nation's wars rather than engaging in social
experimentation.
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BENEFITS AND COSTS HOUSING
Nearly 100,000 new homes must be built every year for immigrants Daily Mail, 29 July 2010.
Nearly 100,000 new homes must be
built every year just to provide housing for immigrants, ministers
disclosed yesterday. Four out of every
ten new houses or flats built to cope with the rising population will go to
a migrant, they said. Over a 25-year
period, immigrants will require 2.5 million extra homes unless the
Government meets its pledges to bring about a major reduction in numbers
arriving to live in Britain. Communities
Department spokesman Andrew Stunell said estimates of housing demand and
the expected level of housing required by immigrants were prepared in March
2009, but only now revealed. He said in a
Commons written answer: 'It is estimated that net international migration
could account, on average, for 40 per cent of the net growth of households
in England over the projection period from 2006 to 2031.'
The housing projections from the
Communities Department say that at current birthrates and expected rates of
immigration, 252,000 new homes a year will be needed each year until 2031.
Of these, 36,000 will be needed because
there will be more people living alone and fewer couples and families, and
116,000 because of rising birthrates. The
remaining 100,000 will be needed to house migrants, based on 2006
population figures. At present the Office
for National Statistics estimates that net immigration will run at 180,000
a year for the foreseeable future.
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IMMIGRATION ABROAD FRANCE, GYPSIES
Sarkozy accused of racism for ordering closure of 300 illegal gypsy camps and expulsion of Roma after riot Daily Mail, 29 July 2010.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has
been accused of racism after ordering authorities to dismantle 300 gypsy
camps and expel illegal Roma immigrants.
His actions come a week after riots
between gypsies and police in which a young man was shot in the Loire
Valley. In response to the trouble, Mr
Sarkozy called a government meeting yesterday and he said those responsible
for the clashes would be 'severely punished'.
He ordered the government to crackdown on
all illegal Roma immigrants, almost all of whom have come from Eastern
Europe. He said illegal Gypsy camps 'will
be systematically evacuated', calling them sources of human trafficking,
exploitation of children and prostitution.
He also pushed for a change in France's
immigration law to make such expulsion easier 'for reasons of public
order'. It comes after last week's riot
in the small Loire Valley town of Saint Aignan where dozens of gypsies
armed with hatchets and iron bars attacked the police station, hacked down
trees and burned cars. The riot erupted
after a gendarme shot and killed a traveller who had driven through a
checkpoint.
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ASYLUM EMPLOYMENT
Up to 45,000 failed asylum seekers given right to work in Britain by Supreme Court Jack Doyle Daily Mail, 29 July 2010.
Tens of thousands of failed asylum
seekers were granted the right to work in the UK yesterday in a landmark
court ruling. It affects around 45,000
whose applications have already been rejected at least once, but who have
not been deported. Home Office officials
argued that an EU directive - which gives asylum seekers the right to work
after 12 months - should not apply to them because it would encourage
applicants to abuse the system by making repeated claims.
But the Supreme Court ruled that failed
asylum seekers whose cases have not been dealt with after 12 months must be
given access to jobs. Many of those
affected are part of Labour's backlog of 450,000 asylum claims - which are
still being processed. Sir Andrew Green,
chairman of the MigrationWatch think tank, said: 'There has been a
succession of court decisions which take no account of the real world in
which our Home Office has to operate. 'It
is no service to genuine refugees to make the asylum system progressively
more open to abuse. Yet again EU directives have unintended and unwelcome
consequences for Britain.' Reacting to
the judgment, Tory ministers said they were considering restricting the
asylum seekers to industries in which there was already a proven shortage
of workers. Immigration minister Damian
Green said: 'This judgement will only have a short-term effect. The long
delays in the asylum system will be resolved by the summer of next year
when all the older asylum cases are concluded.'
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ASYLUM COSTS
Asylum target to be scrapped Daily Telegraph, 29 July 2010.
An asylum target to deal with most
cases within six months is to be scrapped, it can be disclosed.
The move will form part of a review of
the asylum system to be announced by Damian Green, the Immigration
Minister, today. A target to deal with
three quarters of asylum claims within six months is already being missed
but Mr Green will say the decision is designed to speed up cases rather
than lead to further delays. He will
propose to cut the £500 million annual bill to support asylum
applicants as part of the eight-month project to assess how the system can
work more effectively.
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RACISM USA, POLITICS
Left Admits: Racism Charges Against Tea Parties a Tactic, Not a Truth National Center for Public Policy Research, 29 July 2010.
Members of the Project 21 black
leadership group are condemning the left's false use of the accusation
"racist" as a political tactic, saying they recognize the strategy from the
teaching of left-wing organizer Saul Alinsky.
Former U.S. Commission on Civil Rights
Chairman Mary Frances Berry, a long-time prominent liberal activist, has
admitted in an interview with Politico that the left is trying to smear the
tea party movement as "racist" for strategic reasons, not out of genuine
concern that the movement is itself racist.
Berry called the tactic an "effective
strategy" and chose not to denounce it. ...
Berry, now the Geraldine R. Segal
Professor of American Social Thought and History at the University of
Pennsylvania, was asked, "will branding the tea party 'racist' work?"
Berry replied:
Tainting the tea party movement with the
charge of racism is proving to be an effective strategy for Democrats.
There is no evidence that tea party adherents are any more racist than
other Republicans, and indeed many other Americans. But getting them to
spend their time purging their ranks and having candidates distance
themselves should help Democrats win in November. Having one's opponent
rebut charges of racism is far better than discussing joblessness. ...
Left-wing organizer Saul Alinsky, whose
tactics have been studied and followed by Barack Obama and his followers,
taught his activists to "Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and
polarize it." The Tea Party movement has unnerved the left and energized
supporters of smaller government, causing the left to target it, as per
Alinsky's method, with bogus racism charges.
The Politico interview with Berry is
available at http://www.politico.com/arena/bio/mary_frances_berry.html.
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CRIME MARRIAGE, BORDER CONTROLS
Sham marriages on 'unprecedented scale' Tom Pugh The Independent, 29 July 2010.
The scale of the sham marriages was
on an unprecedented scale involving "classic exploitation" of foreign
nationals desperate to stay in the UK, investigators said.
Cash-strapped Eastern Europeans were
promised sums of up to £3,000 to marry Africans to help them gain
residency in the UK and a chance of a better life.
Through gaining indefinite leave to stay
in the UK, the Africans, mainly from Nigeria, would be able to enjoy
Britain's education, healthcare and social benefits systems.
A large proportion of the Africans who
went through with the sham marriages had arrived lawfully in the UK, either
through the asylum process or by gaining a student visa.
Investigators said it was when they had
"reached the end of the line" in their legal applications and appeals to
stay in the UK permanently that they went through the sham marriage
process. Files recovered as part of the
inquiry showed that, in some cases, Africans were already married and had
children in their homeland. Detective
Inspector Andy Cummins, of the UK Border Agency's (UKBA) South East region
immigration crime team, said: "In the majority of the cases, the reason
that most went through with the marriage process was not for love, it was
to assist in their application to residency into the UK." ...
Officers working on Operation Gomozia
arrested the Rev Alex Brown on June 30 last year, along with Buchak, an
illegal immigrant and gambler who used the alias Kaido Maesalu.
Further investigations identified pastor
and solicitor Michael Adelasoye, who had worked as an immigration adviser
at several firms of solicitors.
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CRIME MARRIAGE, BORDER CONTROLS
Vicar guilty of 360 sham weddings Jennifer Cockerell The Independent, 29 July 2010.
A vicar was found guilty today of
conducting hundreds of sham marriages to help illegal immigrants gain
residency in Britain. The Rev Alex Brown,
61, conducted 360 fake ceremonies at the church of St Peter and St Paul in
St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex, between July 2005 and July 2009.
Co-defendent Vladymyr Buchak was also
convicted at Lewes Crown Court of conspiring to breach immigration laws by
paying Eastern Europeans up to £3,000 each to marry Africans, mainly
from Nigeria. They were caught after the
UK Border Agency investigated the bogus marriages.
The jury is still deliberating on a third
defendant. During the seven-week trial,
jurors heard that Brown presided over a total of 383 marriages during the
four-year indictment period, a staggering 30-fold increase on the 13 he had
conducted over the previous four years.
They were told that Buchak, 33, a
Ukrainian national who had himself been living illegally in the UK since at
least 2004, was responsible for "cajoling and persuading" the Eastern
Europeans into the marriages of convenience.
He preyed on migrant workers who were
living in the area and were desperate to earn money by offering them large
cash sums to wed Africans to allow them to obtain the documents to live and
work in the UK. Jurors were shown
photocopies of the marriage register at the church which showed that 360
out of the 383 weddings during the period involved Eastern Europeans
marrying African nationals, mainly from Nigeria.
It was also apparent that, of the
hundreds of people who had got married, they all seemed to live in the
surrounding streets of the parish, with 90 couples registered as living in
one road alone and 52 in another. In some
instances there were even several brides and grooms claiming to live in the
same house and jurors were told that most of those involved in the
marriages had given false addresses.
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POLITICS
Coalition split on migrants cap casts shadow over India trip Rosa Prince and Andrew Porter Daily Telegraph, 28 July 2010.
The Coalition was under its greatest
strain since coming to power last night after David Cameron and a senior
Liberal Democrat Cabinet Minister clashed publicly over the Government's
plan to introduce a cap on immigration.
During a joint trade visit to India, the
Prime Minister and Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, effectively agreed
to disagree over what had been a key policy for the Conservatives during
the general election, but which was opposed vociferously by the Lib Dems.
... Mr Cable, who was in the party,
warned that the mission would be futile unless the Government scrapped the
proposed annual limit on immigration from outside the European Union. ...
Mr Cable briefed Hindu Business
Line that he would fight to have the cap scrapped, saying he wanted as
"liberal an immigration policy as it's possible to have".
"We are arguing, within government, about
how we create the most flexible regime we can possibly have, but in a way
that reassures the British public," he added.
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POLITICS
David Cameron to offer India direct say on immigration policy Nicholas Watt The Guardian, 28 July 2010.
David Cameron is to offer India a
direct say in drawing up Britain's new immigration policy as Downing Street
responds to fears in New Delhi that a proposed cap will harm trade links.
In a sign of what the prime minister will
today describe as a new "spirit of humility" towards India, Downing Street
is making it clear that Britain will consult Delhi over a proposed new cap
on non-EU immigration. Cameron's trip to
India, which he will launch today with a speech to business leaders in the
hi-tech centre of Bangalore, had threatened to be overshadowed by concerns
in Delhi about the cap.
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POPULATION
Immigration sees UK's population growth outstrip the rest of Europe Steve Doughty Daily Mail, 28 July 2010.
This country gained more people last
year thanks to immigration and rising birth rates than anywhere in the
continent. ... The Eurostat analysis
showed that Britain's population rose by 412,000 in 2009, up 182,000
because there were more immigrants than emigrants, and up by 231,000
because of rising birth rates. Much of
the new baby boom is a result of immigration, and one in four children born
last year was born to mothers who were themselves born abroad. ...
Sir Andrew Green, of the Migrationwatch
think tank, said: 'This is further confirmation that the population of the
UK is rising extremely fast, mainly due to immigration, which accounts for
two thirds of the projected population growth of the next 25 years.
'There are always arguments in favour of
immigration. But the majority of people are clear that immigration needs to
be brought down. The Government would do well to stick to the promises they
have made to the electorate.'
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MULTICULTURALISM FILMS
Bye bye, UK Film Council Paul Hoffman Daily Telegraph, 28 July 2010.
[Letter to the Editor]
I'm delighted that Jeremy Hunt, the
Culture Secretary, has decided to annihilate the UK Film Council (report,
July 27). It was secretly hated by many in the film industry. ...
Had the first Harry Potter novel been
presented as a screenplay to the council, it would either never have seen
the light of day or it would have been carefully rewritten on the orders of
the council's apparatchiks so that Potter would have become a streetwise
break-dancer in a tough inner-city school with a pregnant girlfriend. The
council's alleged successes can mostly be put down to the fact that even
those who loathed it had to go to it for money.
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REPATRIATION/DEPORTATION MIGRANTS' RIGHTS
Having a better immigration system also means returning immigrants Tim Finch, Head of Migration, Equalities and Citizenship at the Institute for Public Policy
Research Liberal Conspiracy [website], 28 July 2010.
You know government policy is in
trouble when on the same day it is attacked by both a High Court judge and
its own independent inspector. That is
what happened yesterday to the Home Office over important aspects of their
returns policy with the High Court ruling the fast track deportation
process 'unlawful' and the Chief Inspector of the UK Border Agency
criticising the use of dawn raids and the treatment of families.
But it is just too easy for people who
want a more sympathetic approach towards migrants to greet these
developments as victories against those 'nasty' people in the Home Office.
Of course it is important to use
campaigns and legal challenges to stop the inequities and injustices that
scar our immigration system. But the cause of migrants' rights is not going
to be advanced just by frustrating the system. The system has to be
changed. There is no point as
often happens in reports by academics and NGOs coming up with
visions for a perfect immigration system that delivers absolutely
everything else, but which misses out a crucial element: return. It's a
dirty word in some parts of the migration world but it needs to be
confronted, so I will say it again: return.
Any alternative system lacks all
credibility if it does not include better and faster ways of returning
migrants who are judged, after a fair hearing, to have no right to remain
in the UK. Quite simply, the electorate
demands that this happens and the politicians and therefore the
policy makers have to take that into account. They do not have the luxury
of just ignoring mainstream opinion, as 'No Borders' groups and their ilk
are happy to do. Moreover, the ability to
return people who have entered illegally, violated their visas or been
refused asylum is not just popular, it is right. There need to be
safeguards so that people can challenge decisions of course, but in the end
rules are the rules and they should be applied and supported.
Although a campaigner for migrants rights myself I have always found it
difficult to deal with some in the migration sector who seem to glory in
seeing immigration rules widely ignored or flouted.
Fortunately there are some positive signs
that the government and the migration sector are moving towards a more
cooperative spirit around the sensitive issue of return and related
issues. The Still Human, Still Here coalition has been involved in long
discussions with UKBA around the issue of asylum seeker destitution.
More recently, a group of NGOs involved
in the Outcry Campaign have been working with officials to come up with
compromise solutions to end the practice of detaining children while
ensuring that the government retains instruments to effect or facilitate
family return. This is the way forward.
The bitter battles over immigration of the last decade have been great for
the lawyers, but done little in the long run to protect migrants or deliver
a better immigration system. It is through discussion and negotiation that
progress will really be made.
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BORDER CONTROLS VISAS
Slip-ups in checks on visas for Pakistanis Daily Telegraph, 27 July 2010.
Visa controls on applicants from
Pakistan who want to settle in Britain have failed to protect the UK's
border, a watchdog said yesterday. More
than one in 10 applications that were approved should not have been, a test
sample study showed. The UK Border
Agency's independent chief inspector, John Vine, said the investigation
into the handling of Pakistan settlement applications found "serious
organisational failings" in the UK visa section and "a lack of rigorous
scrutiny being applied to those who wished to settle in the UK".
The agency "failed to fully meet both key
strategic objectives of protecting the UK border and making fast and fair
decisions", he said. ... Pakistan is the
third largest source of applications to enter the UK.
In 2009 there were 10,700 visa
applications. Successful applicants can stay and work for two years, with
the option to apply to stay permanently at the end of that.
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CRIME FRAUD
Gipsies' rights activist ran £3m benefits fraud Daily Telegraph, 27 July 2010.
A leading campaigner for gipsies'
rights yesterday admitted masterminding a £3 million benefits fraud
involving nearly 200 Romanians. Lavinia
Olmazu, 30, and Alin Enachi, 29, her boyfriend, ran the scheme through
which 172 Romanians claimed £2.9 million.
Olmazu was working as an "inclusivity
outreach worker" with Roma gipsies for Haringey and Waltham Forest councils
in north London. ... The court heard that
the couple "facilitated the obtaining" of National Insurance numbers under
the guise of a charity called Roma Concern. ...
Six other Roma gipsies, all jobless, were
also arrested for their role in the fraud. ... They live in council
properties in Tottenham, north London, and received jail sentences ranging
from four months to two-and-a-half years.
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EXTREMISM ISLAM
Does the Prime Minister understand the 'Real Islam'? Rod Liddle The Spectator, 27 July 2010.
The Prime Minister has decided that
Turkey should be a member of the EU in order to form some sort of bridge
with the rest of the Muslim world. He has also made the same mistake that
the last government and most apologists on the left made about
Islam. He said of those people critical of Islam: 'They see no difference
between real Islam and the distorted version of the extremists. They think
the values of Islam can never be compatible with the values of other
religions, societies or cultures.' In
other words he is setting himself up as a Koranic expert, much as did
Blair, in being able to adjudicate as to what is the "real Islam".
Obviously the "Real Islam" isn't people blowing themselves up, although a
large proportion of Palestinians, Afghans and so on would argue that it is,
as would one or two cadres sitting tight in their Keighley or Tipton
bedsits. But ok, let's give him that one. What about apostasy, then? The
majority of Islamic states impose a penalty for giving up the religion,
either through the state or sharia courts; imprisonment or death. Is this
Real Islam or the "distorted version of the extremists"? It's certainly the
practice of the overwhelming majority of Islamic countries, and cleaved to
by all four major schools of Islamic thought, even the comparatively
liberal Hanafi. What about gays? More than 30 of the 50 or so Islamic
countries persecute homosexuals with anything ranging from fines to
beheadings. Again, all four schools of Islamic thought believe
homosexuality to be haram and thus worthy of punishment. Are they Cameron's
fatuous "Real Islam", or the other kind? What about rights of women, rights
of Christians to practice their faith AND proselytise, what about being
allowed to whisper that Allah's a goon, or doesn't exist? What about the
attitude towards Israel and, more pertinently, Jews in general? Cameron's
"Real Islam" in truth consists of secular west Turkey and a few decent
liberal Muslim organisations in the UK, a constituency which represents a
minuscule proportion of the Ummah. You don't "understand" Islam by making
this false dichotomy; it is not just presumptuous and ignorant, but also
plain wrong.
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MULTICULTURALISM DISCRIMINATION
Burka ban is 'discrimination' Daily Telegraph, 26 July 2010.
Lawyers have warned a Tory MP he
could face legal action if he follows through on a threat to refuse to meet
constituents wearing burkas. Lawyers for
Liberty have written to Philip Hollobone insisting that the Equality Act
obliges him to avoid discrimination. ...
The Kettering MP sparked a row earlier
this month when he argued that he needed to be face to face with voters who
wanted his help. He said he would
"invite" anyone who did not wish to remove their veil to communicate with
him is a "different way", such as by letter. Mr Hollobone is trying to
bring in a private member's Bill to ban women wearing the burka and niqab
face veils in public, after France introduced a similar rule.
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DIVERSITY PROMOTION DISCRIMINATION
Foreign office rejects middle-class men Daily Telegraph, 26 July 2010.
Able-bodied middle-class white men
are barred from doing work experience at the Foreign Office.
Under schemes introduced by Labour, only
women, people from ethnic minorities and the disabled can apply for the
£367-a-week positions. William
Hague, the Foreign Secretary, has been challenged to change the rules by
Dominic Raab, a Conservative MP. ... Mr
Raab said: "We surely need to scale back the unfair political correctness
of the last government."
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MULTICULTURALISM EDUCATION
Science lessons that leave out Darwin and Galileo Ben Leach Sunday Telegraph, 25 July 2010.
Schools have been issued with lesson
plans that omit the names of some of the most celebrated scientists in
history because they were white. They
make no mention of Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Galileo or Copernicus.
Instead there are references to lesser-known black American scientists such
as Elijah McCoy, Benjamin Banneker and George Washington Carver.
Haringey council in north London, which
issued the plans to teachers in its primary schools, says it wants to
encourage "inclusive" learning by helping teachers to include
African-Caribbean history and culture in their lessons.
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IMMIGRATION ABROAD USA, ARIZONA
Ariz. law comes after years of mounting anger Amanda Lee Myers and Jacques Billeaud newschannel5.com, 25 July 2010.
As the days tick down until the
Arizona immigration law takes effect, the state stands as a monument to the
anger over illegal immigration that is present in so many places.
The anger has been simmering for years,
and erupted into a full-blown fury with the murder of a prominent rancher
on the border earlier this year. The killing became a powerful rallying cry
for immigration reform and the sweeping new law set to take effect
Thursday, barring any last-minute legal action.
But it does not tell the whole story
about how Arizona got to this point. ...
And the annual costs? About $600 million
for educating illegal immigrants at K-12 schools, more than $120 million
for jailing illegal immigrants convicted of state crimes and as much as $50
million that hospitals have to eat for treating illegal border-crossers,
according to figures provided by Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom
Horne, Gov. Jan Brewer's office and the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare
Association.
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BORDER CONTROLS EDUCATION
Student visas surge under 'shambolic' points system Jack Doyle Daily Mail, 25 July 2010.
Holes in Labour's disastrous
points-based immigration system led to huge increases in the numbers of
student visas handed out, startling figures revealed last night.
The system was heralded as a crackdown on
the number of migrants allowed into the UK, but the number of visas issued
to some countries increased more than six-fold.
Less than a year after it was brought in,
ministers were forced to suspend applications from several countries,
including Bangladesh and Nepal, because they were being used by economic
migrants posing as students. Sir Andrew
Green, chairman of the MigrationWatch UK think-tank, said the revelations
showed the points based system was 'a shambles'.
The scale of the problems affecting the
points system was never revealed in full before the General Election.
However, figures released by the UK
Border Agency under the Freedom of Information Act showed that the number
of visas issued in Bangladesh increased by 745 per cent - rising from 448
in January 2009 to 3,339 in January of the following year.
There was also evidence loopholes were
being deliberately exploited - as applications shot up from 919 to 4,829
over the same period. Over ten months the
total number of visas handed out to Bangladeshis rose six-fold from 3,380
to 21,226. Officials at the UK Border
Agency admitted they found evidence the system was being abused by economic
migrants posing as students and just ten months after it was introduced in
April 2009, all applications for student visas were suspended in North
India, Bangladesh and Nepal. ... India
and Nepal saw applications more than double from 9,791 for the month of
August 2008 to 24,035 in August 2009. The
number of visas actually approved nearly doubled from 6,580 to more than
12,000. Across all countries sending
students to the UK, student visa numbers went up from 208,800 to 273,445 in
a year - a rise of 31 per cent. ...
Immigration Minister Damian Green said:
'I am looking at this issue closely with a view to introducing new measures
later this year to ensure that every student who comes to the UK is
genuine.'
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EXTREMISM ISLAM, GOVERNMENT
Whitehall 'open' to extremists Andrew Gilligan Sunday Telegraph, 25 July 2010.
The Government has opened the way for
official links with Muslim extremists after Whitehall civil servants said
radical groups could be a "safety valve" for people tempted by terrorism.
The groups specifically named in leaked
documents include al-Muhajiroun, which praised 9/11 as "magnificent", and
Hizb ut Tahrir, which wants to turn Britain into an Islamic dictatorship.
In the classified papers, presented last
week to Coalition ministers on the Cabinet's home affairs committee,
officials say a "clear assessment" had been made that individuals "do not
progress" to violence through such
groups. ...
At least 19 terrorists convicted in
Britain had links with al-Muhajiroun. These include Omar Khayam, who was
sentenced to life in jail as leader of the fertiliser bomb plot, and
Abdullah Ahmed Ali, the ringleader of the airliner liquid plot. He is also
serving life. Al-Muhajiroun provided backing to Abu Hamza, the extremist
cleric whose mosque in north London was a forming ground for other
terrorists. ... The organisation was
banned under Labour, but former members have regrouped under different
banners. ... Hizb ut Tahrir claims that
it opposes terrorism, and condemned the 9/11 and 7/7 attacks. However, it
regards integration as "dangerous", orders Muslims to keep apart from
non-believers and says that "those [Muslims] who believe in democracy are
Kafir", or apostates. ... ... The
Whitehall documents admitted that a "minority" of terrorists was involved
with non-violent extremist groups such as al-Muhajiroun, stating that such
groups "can foster a sense of Muslim isolationism from wider UK society,
which may increase vulnerability to radicalisation".
But in a "restricted" memorandum to Eric
Pickles, the Communities Secretary, written on July 15, Robert Mason, one
of his senior officials, said the papers presented "a clear assessment that
individuals do not progress through non-violent extremist groups to violent
groups ... Extreme groups may also provide a legal 'safety valve' for
extreme views." ... The papers are
understood to have been prepared with the involvement of Mohammed Abdul
Aziz, a controversial paid ministerial adviser to the communities
department. Mr Aziz is an honorary trustee of the East London Mosque, which
has hosted dozens of extremist preachers, including Anwar al-Awlaki, a
cleric cited as an inspiration by the perpetrators of 9/11 and many other
terrorist attacks. The mosque is the
headquarters of the Islamic Forum of Europe, a secretive fundamentalist
network that believes in transforming "the very infrastructure of society,
its institutions, its culture, its political order and its creed ... from
ignorance to Islam". Mr Aziz is a former officer of the forum's youth wing.
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BORDER CONTROLS
Border control in chaos after contractor sacked Tom Whitehead Daily Telegraph, 23 July 2010.
Border controls designed to monitor
every passenger coming in and out of the country were in disarray last
night after the Home Office was forced to sack its contractor.
Delays in the £750 million contract
with Raytheon Systems Ltd mean up to 100 million passenger movements each
year are still not registered by the e-Borders programme. ...
It is also a blow to the fight against
illegal immigration, crime and terrorism, as the system is key to checking
the movement of individuals and whether migrants left the country when they
were supposed to. ... The system was due
to count 95 per cent of the estimated 200 million annual passenger
movements into and out of the country by the end of this year. But the
delays mean it is only covering half those movements.
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RACISM PREJUDICE, CRIME
JP is forced to apologise for saying migrant 'abused our hospitality' Steve Doughty Daily Mail, 23 July 2010.
A magistrate has been forced to
apologise for complaining that a foreign defendant was 'abusing our
hospitality', it was revealed yesterday.
The JP was punished by senior judges for
having 'displayed prejudice' against people who are not British.
A disciplinary board found the magistrate
had failed to show 'the qualities of social awareness and sound judgement'
expected of a court official. They even
considered sacking him from the bench, it was revealed.
Ministers in the Coalition government
have previously used similar phrases about foreign criminals abusing
British hospitality. The action against
the magistrate brought a wave of protest from MPs and criminal law experts
who questioned why the use of such a phrase about a defendant accused of
crime was in any way insulting or biased. ...
The magistrate was 'reprimanded' on the
orders of Lord Chief Justice Lord Judge and ordered to ' undertake further
training'. He was also removed from a
mentoring list of JPs who help to train other magistrates. ...
Criminologist Dr David Green of the
Civitas think-tank said: 'the magistrate has been sent for "further
training", which sounds to me like re-education as once practised by
communist China and North Korea. ...
Among politicians who have used the
magistrate's phrase is Tony Blair, who as Prime Minister in 2006 wrote of
'foreign nationals' suspected of terrorism, 'if he then abuses our
hospitality and threatens us, I feel he should take his chance back in his
own home country'. A Home Office
statement on crime last year said of foreigners: 'We will not tolerate
those that abuse our hospitality by becoming involved in crime.'
Last month Coalition Justice minister
Crispin Blunt said in a Commons written answer: 'Foreign nationals who come
to our country and abuse our hospitality by breaking our laws should face
the full force of the law.'
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MULTICULTURALISM POPULATION
One baby in four born to migrants: Number of foreign-born mothers has doubled Steve Doughty Daily Mail, 22 July 2010.
Almost a quarter of babies are born
to immigrant mothers, an official breakdown showed yesterday.
It found that 24.7 per cent of children
born last year have mothers who were born abroad and that their
numbers have doubled since the late 1990s. ...
The figures produced fresh warnings to
ministers that immigration rates must be brought down to avoid the growing
threat of overpopulation in Britain.
Numbers of children born to mothers from
outside the country have been growing fast in recent years as immigration
has reached record levels. In 1998 there
were 86,456 babies born in England and Wales to mothers born abroad. These
mothers are considered likely to be long-term migrants by statisticians.
Last year, the total had reached 174,400,
according to the figures from the Office for National Statistics.
Over the same period, the share of babies
with foreign-born mothers rose from 13.6 per cent to 24.7 per cent.
The rising proportion of children of
migrant mothers is a result both of high levels of immigration and higher
birthrates among newly-arrived families.
Last year, the ONS calculated that women
born in Britain will average 1.84 children each during their lifetimes,
while women who came to this country from abroad will have 2.51 children
during their lives. ... The breakdown of
figures was published by the ONS yesterday in its final tally of births and
birthrates in 2009. Overall, the number of babies born in England and Wales
fell slightly from 708,711 in 2008 to 706,248 last year.
The numbers of babies whose mothers were
born abroad went up by around 3,500, from 170,834 to 174,400. The three
most common countries of origin of foreign-born mothers are Pakistan,
Poland and India.
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IMMIGRATION ABROAD ISRAEL
Aharonovitch warns of influx of illegal African migrants Yaakov Lappin The Jerusalem Post, 21 July 2010.
Public Security Minister Yitzhak
Aharonovitch has reiterated a warning over the influx of illegal African
migrants into Israel, during a tour of the Egyptian border on Tuesday.
"A thousand two hundred migrants come
through here every month, enter Israel, and then Tel Aviv, Eilat and
Ashdod. This is a serious shortcoming, which Israeli society is paying
for," he said during the tour. The
minister was briefed by an IDF commander and Southern District Police Chief
Cmdr. Yohanan Danino. Aharonovitch
lamented the delay in implementing a March government decision to set up a
fence. ... On Sunday, Aharonovitch said
that up to 2.5 million African migrants who are currently residing in Cairo
"are waiting" to cross into Israel. The
public security minister added that Ashdod had become a new center for
illegal migrants, and that 2,000 had made their homes in that city.
According to figures presented by
Aharonovitch to the government, 155,000 illegal African migrants now live
in Israel. Some 50,000 are based in Tel Aviv's central bus station area.
Eight thousand migrants live in Eilat, and 7,000 live in Arad.
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MULTICULTURALISM EDUCATION, NATIONAL IDENTITY
Poodles where once we were British bulldogs Judith Woods Daily Telegraph, 21 July 2010.
Now let me get this straight: irony
is being axed from the primary school literacy syllabus because immigrants'
children don't get it. ... Have we all
gone mad? Our traditions are being trampled, our humour outlawed, ...
As a nation, we're renowned for our
tolerance, but if it continues, I fear our craven invertabracy will be our
sole defining characteristic. ... It is time to draw a line under Labour's
mea culpa culture and all this bending over backwards to accommodate
anyone who turns up on our shores.
Patriotism, said Samuel Johnson, is the
last refuge of the scoundrel but there's nothing shameful or
inherently racist about taking pride in British values and expecting
newcomers to fit in, rather than supinely adjusting our jokes and dress
codes to make them feel more at home than we do. The irony, children, is
that no one will respect us for it.
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BIAS MULTICULTURALISM, FREE SPEECH, HATE CRIME
Christians 'target for hate crime prosecutions' Christopher Hope Daily Telegraph, 19 July 2010.
White Christians are being unfairly
targeted for committing hate crimes compared with minority groups, a report
claims today. The study, from the Civitas
think tank, argues that hate crime legislation is restricting freedom of
speech and has effectively introduced a new blasphemy law into Britain by
the back door. A foreword attached to
A New Inquisition: religious persecution in Britain today suggests
that prosecutors and police are unfairly singling out alleged crimes by
white Christians. It says: "Some police
forces and the CPS [Crown Prosecution Service] seem to be interpreting
statutes in favour of ethnic and religious minorities and in a spirit
hostile to members of the majority population, defined as 'white' or
'Christian'."
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IMMIGRATION EUROPEAN UNION, ROMANIA, MOLDOVA
Moldovans could get a passport to Britain Daily Telegraph, 19 July 2010.
Romania has opened a backdoor route
entitling hundreds of thousands of migrants from Moldova, a former Soviet
republic, to work and claim benefits in Britain.
More than 900,000 Moldovans with an
ethnic Romanian background have applied for passports from Romania, a
European Union travel document that will allow them free movement into
Britain. Up to 120,000 applications have
already been cleared and 800,000 are pending, increasing fears of a mass
migration from Moldova, one of Eastern Europe's poorest countries, which is
sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine.
Romania's president Traian Basescu has
said all Moldovans who consider themselves Romanian, which takes in most of
the country's 3.6 million population, should be able to "move freely both
in Romania and the EU".
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BORDER CONTROLS COSTS, CRIME
Britain pays Calais migrants £3,500 to go home - before they even get here Tom Harper Mail on Sunday, 18 July 2010.
British taxpayers have paid out more
than £1 million to persuade hundreds of asylum seekers and illegal
immigrants to return home before they even enter the UK.
Foreigners attempting to cross the
English Channel at the French port of Calais are offered free flights and
awarded up to £3,500 to help start businesses back home.
The Home Office-backed Global Calais
Project has persuaded 468 'irregular migrants' to return to their countries
of origin at a cost of £1.2 million to the UK Exchequer.
Among those to take up the offer were 50
Afghans, 20 Sudanese, eight Libyans and five Indians none of whom
had a legal right to travel to or live in Britain.
Last year, 281 illegal immigrants took
advantage of the generous offer, a rate of more than five a week. The
bizarre incentive is equivalent to 14 years' wages for a worker in
Afghanistan. The Home Office claims the
payout scheme, which began in 2007, helps avoid long, costly legal battles
once the migrants arrive in the UK. The
payments emerged in a Freedom of Information request to the Home Office by
The Mail on Sunday. The department spent a year battling the release of the
figures and agreed only after an intervention by the information watchdog.
The Home Office also admitted paying out
almost £80 million in resettlement grants to 21,506 people who had
already reached the UK. The sum is equivalent to the annual salaries of 800
family doctors or 3,200 teachers. ...
Taxpayer-funded repatriation schemes
began under Labour in 1999 but were widened dramatically in 2005 when
Ministers raised the maximum payout from £1,000 to £4,000 in an
attempt to combat the soaring number of illegal immigrants.
All the schemes are operated by the
International Organisation for Migration (IOM), an independent body that
organises migrant removals for governments around the globe. ...
They offer to transfer them to Paris, pay
for flights home and promise retraining or business grants of up to
£3,500 if the migrants agree to halt their journey into the UK. The
grants are distributed from IOM offices in the migrants' countries of
origin once they return home. Charlie
Elphicke, Conservative MP for Dover, said: 'There is a real risk that
people will hear of this and it will create a bizarre incentive for people
to try to smuggle themselves into Britain. The solution could be worse than
the disease.' Back in Britain, the IOM
administers other Home Office-backed schemes from its plush head offices in
Westminster, Central London. The
Voluntary Assisted Return and Reintegration Programme (VARRP) pays failed
asylum seekers who are already in the country up to £4,000 to drop
their appeals and return home voluntarily.
Almost 17,000 failed asylum seekers from
122 countries have taken advantage of VARRP so far, including 1,597
Albanians, 289 Indians and 39 Poles. In
total, the Home Office admitted paying the IOM a total of £79.2
million over the past five years.
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MULTICULTURALISM ISLAM
Burka ban ruled out by minister Patrick Hennessy Sunday Telegraph, 18 July 2010.
Britain will not follow France by
introducing a law banning women from wearing the burka, the immigration
minister ruled last night. Damian Green
said such a move would be "rather un-British" and run contrary to the
conventions of a "tolerant and mutually respectful society".
He said it would be "undesirable" for
Parliament to vote on a burka ban in Britain and that there was no prospect
of the Coalition proposing it. His
comments will dismay the growing number of supporters of a ban. A YouGov
survey last week found that 67 per cent of voters wanted the wearing of
full-face veils to be made illegal.
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BORDER CONTROLS CRIME
The ban that means immigration officials cannot chase runaways Rebecca Lefort and David Barrett Sunday Telegraph, 18 July 2010.
A "ludicrous" rule that prevents
immigration officers from chasing illegal immigrants who run away is to be
reviewed. Senior officials at the UK
Border Agency (UKBA), which is charged with removing the estimated 500,000
illegal immigrants in Britain, are re-examining the operating guidance
issued to its officers. A rulebook that
governs how raids are carried out also instructs officers not to
"patronise" suspects, to give them "body space", to maintain eye contact,
and to adopt a "relaxed" and "non-aggressive stance".
The ban on pursuits was introduced to
counter fears that a chase could lead to either an immigration officer or a
suspect being hurt. ... ... The UKBA
removed 63,000 people from Britain in 2009-10.
It can also be disclosed that criminal
gangs are exploiting the Home Office's "points-based" visa system,
introduced under Labour in November 2008, to bring new gang members into
Britain through bogus businesses. The
system puts responsibility on employers to "sponsor" migrant workers, but
organised crime networks have set up fake companies to obtain work permits
for foreign gangsters, according to a warning from the Serious Organised
Crime Agency (Soca). ... The agency said
that abuse of the work permit and student visa systems, along with bogus
marriages, were now "common methods of abuse".
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IMMIGRATION ABROAD ISRAEL, NATIONAL IDENTITY
Netanyahu: Illegal African immigrants - a threat to Israel's Jewish character Barak Ravid Haaretz.com, 18 July 2010.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
said on Sunday that the recent "flood of illegal workers infiltrating from
Africa" into Israel was "a concrete threat to the Jewish and democratic
character of the country." Speaking at a
meeting aimed at formulating Israel's immigration policy, Netanyahu said
that most Western nations have already taken action to prevent similar
dangers. "It is inconceivable that Israel, the one country that faces more
threats than any other in the Western world, has no defined immigration
policy to protect our national and security interests. The issue has been
ignored for many years, and my aim is to bring it to an orderly and
responsible legislation by the end of this year, during the winter seating
of the Knesset." Six months ago,
Netanyahu visited the area near the border between Israel and Egypt in
order to examine the possibility of an Israeli fence along the border to
prevent infiltrations. Netanyahu said this trip highlighted the need for
such a fence. "The situation, from the point of view of terrorism and
infiltrations, is more severe than I thought," he said.
"We must man the region, and then it will
be possible to minimize the terrorist infiltrations, as well as the
smuggling of drugs and illegal workers," the prime minister went on to say.
"If we don't move forward with construction of the fence, the problem will
only get worse." "Infiltrations [into
Israel] have become an entire industry," Netanyahu added.
"The Egyptians are doing what they're
doing, but we can't rely only on them. Egypt doesn't oppose the
construction of the fence and everything is settled under the framework of
the peace treaty [between Israel and Egypt]. A country's borders can't be
penetrable it is a national threat," Netanyahu concluded.
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IMMIGRATION ABROAD REPUBLIC OF IRELAND
More than 700 calls per month to immigration support service BreakingNews.ie, 17 July 2010.
The Immigrant Council of Ireland is
receiving an average of more than 700 calls a month from migrants enquiring
how to secure residency in this country.
The agency said the steady level of
demand for advice did not support speculation that many migrants were going
home because of the recession. Chief
executive of the ICI Denise Charlton said migrants were entitled to a
"fair, transparent and efficient immigration system", but that Ireland
"still had a long way to go in understanding who migrates to Ireland and
how we can respond appropriately".
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EXTREMISM POLITICS
Geert Wilders to spread anti-Muslim movement to UK Daily Telegraph, 16 July 2010.
Geert Wilders, the controversial
anti-Muslim Dutch MP, has said he is forming an international alliance to
spread his message to Britain and across the West in a bid to ban
immigration from Islamic countries. Mr
Wilders will launch the movement late this year, initially in five
countries: the US, Canada, Britain, France and Germany.
"The message, 'stop Islam, defend
freedom,' is a message that's not only important for the Netherlands but
for the whole free Western world," Mr Wilders said at the Dutch parliament.
Among the group's aims will be outlawing
immigration from Islamic countries to the West and a ban on Islamic law.
Starting as a grass-roots movement, he
hopes it eventually will produce its own lawmakers or influence other
legislators. ... Mr Wilders has won
awards in the Netherlands for his debating skills and regularly stands up
for gay and women's rights. But he rose
to local and then international prominence with his firebrand anti-Islam
rhetoric that has led to him being charged under Dutch anti-hate speech
laws and banned from visiting Britain - until a court ordered that he be
allowed into the country. He said he
hopes to position the alliance between traditional Conservative parties and
far-Right wing groups, saying that in Britain there is "an enormous gap"
between the ruling Conservative Party and the far-Right British National
Party. "The BNP is a party that, whatever
you think of it, it's not my party - I think it's a racist party," Mr
Wilders said. Mr Wilders, who calls Islam
a "fascist" religion, has seen his support in the Netherlands soar in
recent years, even while he has been subjected to round-the-clock
protection because of death threats. His
Freedom Party won the biggest gains in a national election last month,
coming third with 24 seats in the 150-seat Parliament, up from the nine
before the election.
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EMPLOYMENT DOCTORS
Patients in peril from foreign GPs Rebecca Smith and Andrew Porter Daily Telegraph, 15 July 2010.
Foreign doctors working as
out-of-hours GPs risked the lives of patients by mistakenly giving them
overdoses despite repeated warnings they were a danger, a report concluded.
... The Care Quality Commission, which
regulates health and social care, found that on at least two other
occasions German doctors brought in by Take Care Now, the out-of-hours
company that employed Dr Ubani, administered overdoses of the same
painkiller, diamorphine. Fortunately,
those overdoses were not fatal. The
findings, published in a report today, raise questions again about the
competence of foreign doctors covering shifts in Britain and the failure of
managers to heed warnings. The report says the NHS must make sure that the
competency of overseas doctors is properly tested before they are employed.
... The General Medical Council is
frustrated at European legislation on the free movement of labour that
prevents extra language and skills testing of EU doctors.
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CRIME CHINA
Beijing's migrants locked into gated villages at night Cara Anna The Washington Times, 15 July 2010.
The government calls it "sealed
management": China's capital has started gating and locking some of its
lower-income neighborhoods overnight, with police or security checking
identification papers around the clock in a throwback to an older style of
control. It's Beijing's latest effort to
reduce rising crime, often blamed on the millions of rural Chinese
migrating to cities for work. The capital's Communist Party secretary wants
the approach promoted citywide. But some
state media and experts say the move not only looks bad, but imposes
another layer of control on the already stigmatized, vulnerable migrants.
So far, gates have sealed off 16 villages
in the sprawling southern suburbs, where migrants are attracted to cheaper
rents and in some villages outnumber permanent residents 10 to 1.
"In some ways, this is like the conflict
between Americans and illegal immigrants in the States. The local residents
feel threatened by the influx of migrants," e-mailed Huang Youqin, an
associate professor of geography at the University at Albany, State
University of New York, who has studied gating and political control in
China. ... ... "Sealed management" looks
like this: Gates are placed at the street and alley entrances to the
villages, which are collections of walled compounds sprinkled with shops
and outdoor vendors. The gates are locked between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. except
for one main entrance manned by security guards or police, there to check
identification papers. Security guards roam the villages by day.
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IMMIGRATION EUROPEAN UNION
Brussels go-ahead for new wave of migrants Macer Hall Daily Express, 14 July 2010.
Bureaucrats are planning to encourage
more new migrants to come to the EU despite rising levels of unemployment,
it emerged last night. Brussels officials
are to simplify entry rules for workers heading to Europe to take up
temporary seasonal jobs in farming, tourism and other industries.
EU home affairs commissioner Cecilia
Malmstrom said: "We need immigrant workers in order to secure our economic
survival." She claimed more were needed
to fill "labour shortages". But her
remarks are bound to provoke new concerns that Eurocrats are determined to
press for ever higher levels of immigration.
Last night, Home Office insiders insisted
Britain would refuse to sign up to the latest overhaul of EU border
controls. Mrs Malmstrom said: "We know
unemployment rates are still very high in Europe. Paradoxically, at the
same time there are labour shortages." She plans to speed up procedures for
hiring managers, specialists and seasonal workers from outside the 27 EU
member states. The EU lacks workers in
certain sectors even though average unemployment is at 10 per cent, up from
seven per cent before the crisis, commission officials said. Mrs Malmstrom
responsible for migration policies has said the EU will
continue to need extra workers in the next few years even though slower
economic growth is putting pressure on some EU governments to curb the
number of immigrants. An ageing
population and low birth rates mean that migrant labour will be necessary
to help EU growth in the long term. Mrs
Malmstrom said: "In light of the demographic challenge the EU is facing,
where our active population is forecasted to start falling already in 2013,
we need immigrant workers in order to secure our economic survival.
"I will continue to take more steps
towards a more inclusive labour migration policy for the EU in the coming
years." Under the proposals, which have
to be approved by EU governments and the European Parliament, companies
will be able to bring seasonal workers into the EU more quickly to address
changing needs. Officials insist the
measures are aimed at tackling the growing problem of illegal migrants
working in a black economy. Thousands, many from Africa, are hired each
year to do jobs such as harvesting tomatoes in Italy. ...
And companies would benefit from
simplified application procedures when bringing managers and specialists
into EU branches of international corporations.
A spokesman for Mrs Malmstrom said last
night: "It is up to each member state to decide whether they need more
seasonal workers and how many they should take. If they don't need more
seasonal workers, of course that is their choice."
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CRIME SMUGGLING OF MIGRANTS
UNODC report presents data on smuggling of migrants from Latin America and Africa United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 14 July 2010.
According to "The Globalization of
Crime: A Transnational Organized Crime Threat Assessment", there are an
estimated 50 million irregular migrants in the world today.
As a result of global inequalities and
restrictive immigration policies, many workers from developing regions are
willing to borrow heavily from their communities and risk their lives to
access opportunities in more affluent countries. Since they cannot always
do so legally, they often look for organized criminal groups to help them.
Because such "services" are illegal, those who provide them have tremendous
power over their charges, and abuses are commonplace.
The Assessment examines two northward
smuggling flows: from Latin America to North America and from Africa to
Europe. While there are other major illegal migration flows in the world,
including flows of undocumented migrants from East Africa to Yemen and
routes through Central Asia to the Russian Federation and beyond, the flows
to the United States of America and Europe are probably the most lucrative
for smugglers. The largest number of
apprehended migrants anywhere in the world are found along the southern
border of the United States. About 3 million Latin Americans are smuggled
illegally across that border every year. Since 90 per cent of them are
assisted by smugglers, the total income for the smugglers is likely to be
around 6.6 billion dollars per year. Some 88 per cent of the 792,000
illegal migrants apprehended in 2008 were Mexican nationals; almost all the
rest were other Latin Americans. ... The
dynamics of African migration to Europe are similar to those driving Latin
American migration to the United States, except that the push and pull
factors are even stronger. Some 55,000 migrants were smuggled from Africa
into Europe in 2008, for a sum of about $150 million, by small groups of
smugglers positioned along the route. Europe hosts the largest African-born
population outside Africa, and remittances account for a significant share
of GDP in many African countries. ... The
Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, adopted by
the General Assembly in its resolution 55/25, entered into force on 28
January 2004. The Protocol aims to prevent and combat the smuggling of
migrants and to promote cooperation among States parties while protecting
the rights of smuggled migrants and preventing the worst forms of
exploitation. It is intended not to stop illegal immigration but rather to
prevent organized criminal groups from exploiting the vulnerability of
illegal migrants for profit.
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POPULATION MULTICULTURALISM
One in five Britons 'will be from an ethnic minority by 2051' Jack Doyle Daily Mail, 13 July 2010.
One in five of the population will be
from an ethnic minority by the middle of this century, according to a new
report. Researchers concluded that the
figure will rocket from the current rate of eight per cent - and that
people from minority backgrounds will be living in more affluent areas.
Just one in ten of the population was
from an ethnic minority ten years ago.
Researchers at The University of Leeds
also concluded that the population of the UK could reach nearly 80 million
by the middle of this century. Higher
birth rates and people living longer as well as immigration would pushed
the population to 78.8 million by 2051. ...
Official statisticians have long
projected the population would hit 70 million by 2029.
But the new estimate, from independent
researchers, shows increases potentially continuing into later decades. ...
The academics produced a range of
estimates according to different birth, death and migration rates.
According to the highest projection, the
population will reach 78,848,000 in 2051. ...
The study predicts an increase in the
number of Indians - nearly doubling from 1,432,000 to 2,672,000. There will
also be sharp rises in numbers from Pakistan and Bangladesh. ...
Project leader Professor Philip Rees
said: 'The ethnic make-up of the UK's population is evolving significantly.
'Groups outside the white British
majority are increasing in size and share, not just in the areas of initial
migration, but throughout the country, and our projections suggest that
this trend is set to continue through to 2051. ...' ...
Around 70 per cent of the current
population increases are due to immigration - through direct arrivals or
children born to them. ... Labour's
supposedly 'tough' points-based system actually led to increases in the
number of foreign workers and students cleared to live here.
The number of non-EU migrants given work
permits, or permission to carry on working in Britain, rose by 20 per cent,
from 159,535 in 2007 - the year before points were introduced - to 190,640
last year, including dependents. The
number of student approvals increased by a third, from 208,800 to 273,445 a
year later.
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POPULATION MULTICULTURALISM
Minority group numbers set to rise to 20 per cent Alistair Keely The Independent, 13 July 2010.
Ethnic minorities will make up a
fifth of the population by 2051, according to research published today.
According to experts from the University
of Leeds, the ethnic minority share of the population will increase from 8
per cent (2001) to around 20 per cent. The UK population overall will rise
to nearly 78 million, from 59 million in 2001. ...
The team found striking differences in
the growth rates of the 16 ethnic groups studied. White British and Irish
groups are expected to be very slow-growing, while the Other White group is
projected to grow the fastest, driven by immigration from Europe, the US
and Australasia. Traditional immigrant
groups of south Asian origin (India, Pakistan and Bangladesh) will also
grow rapidly in size. The research team
investigated ethnic population trends at a local scale in the UK and built
a computer model to project those trends under a variety of scenarios for
the future. They used existing data on the 16 ethnic groups recognised in
the 2001 census, along with demographic factors such as immigration,
emigration, fertility and mortality.
Project leader, professor Philip Rees,
said: "Our results suggest that overall we can look forward to being not
only a more diverse nation, but one that is far more spatially integrated
than at present."
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BENEFITS AND COSTS ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR, SOCIAL TIES
Britain, the walk on by capital of Europe Tom Whitehead Daily Telegraph, 13 July 2010.
Britain has become a "walk-on-by"
society because of immigration and more women going to work, a report warns
today. People are less willing to
intervene to prevent anti-social behaviour than anywhere else in Europe,
according to a former Downing Street strategist.
Ben Rogers, the author, said changes to
the character of the population, such as the impact of large inflows of
migrants and more households where both the men and women worked, had led
to a "loosening of social ties" and contributed to the apathy. ...
The report, for the Royal Society for the
Encouragement of Arts, says Britain has a more serious anti-social
behaviour problem than any of its main European neighbours.
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EMPLOYMENT NURSING
EU regulations mean an end to competence tests for foreign nurses Murray Wardrop Daily Telegraph, 12 July 2010.
Competence exams for foreign nurses
working in Britain are to be dropped due to European Union regulations, it
has emerged. The Nursing and Midwifery
Council is to stop administering the tests after being told that it could
be sued by the European Commission. It is said that the safety checks
breach EU law on the freedom of movement of workers. ...
Currently, nurses from the EU must
demonstrate that their skills are up to standard before they can obtain
work in hospitals, surgeries or care homes.
They must show either that they have
undertaken at least 450 hours of nursing in their own country in the
previous three years, or they must attend an intensive three-month course
with regular tests of their knowledge and skills.
The tests will still apply for nurses
from outside the EU. Research has
indicated that up to a quarter of nurses more than 60,000 - -
working in London are foreign, with the largest number coming from the
Philippines. ... Roger Goss, a
co-director of the campaign group Patient Concern, said: "This decision is
outrageous. Undoubtedly, there is a risk that this will lead to an increase
in deaths among patients. "There are
bound to be mistakes and it simply cannot be right to take avoidable risks
with patients' lives. ..."
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DIVERSITY PROMOTION EDUCATION, USA
How Diversity Punishes Asians, Poor Whites and Lots of Others Russell K. Nieli Minding the Campus, 12 July 2010.
When college presidents and academic
administrators pay their usual obeisance to "diversity" you know they are
talking first and foremost about race. More specifically, they are talking
about blacks. ... As a secondary meaning
"diversity" can also encompass Hispanics, who together with blacks are
often subsumed by college administrators and admissions officers under the
single race category "underrepresented minorities." ...
Asians, unlike blacks and Hispanics,
receive no boost in admissions. ... Despite the much lower number of Asians
in the general high-school population, high-achieving Asian students
those, for instance, with SAT scores in the high 700s are much more
numerous than comparably high-achieving blacks and Hispanics, often by a
factor of ten or more. Thinking as they do in racial balancing and racial
quota terms, college admissions officers at the most competitive
institutions almost always set the bar for admitting Asians far above that
for Hispanics and even farther above that for admitting blacks.
"Diversity" came to be so closely
associated with race in the wake of the Supreme Court's Bakke decision in
1978. In his decisive opinion, Justice Lewis Powell rejected arguments for
racial preferences based on generalized "societal discrimination," social
justice, or the contemporary needs of American society as insufficiently
weighty to overrule the color-blind imperative of the Fourteenth
Amendment's equal protection clause. That imperative, however, could be
overruled, Powell said, by a university's legitimate concern for the
educational benefits of a demographically diverse student body.
Virtually all competitive colleges after
Bakke continued with their racial preference policies ("affirmative
action"), though after Powell's decision they had to cloak their true
meaning and purpose behind a misleading or dishonest rhetoric of
"diversity." ... While almost all college
administrators and college admissions officers at the most elite
institutions think in racial balancing and racial quota-like terms when
they assemble their student body, they almost always deny this ... Indeed,
there is probably no other area where college administrators are more
likely to lie or conceal the truth of what they are doing than in the area
of admissions and race. Most elite
universities seem to have little interest in diversifying their student
bodies when it comes to the numbers of born-again Christians from the Bible
belt, students from Appalachia and other rural and small-town areas, people
who have served in the U.S. military, those who have grown up on farms or
ranches, Mormons, Pentecostals, Jehovah's Witnesses, lower-middle-class
Catholics, working class "white ethnics," social and political
conservatives, wheelchair users, married students, married students with
children, or older students first starting out in college after raising
children or spending several years in the workforce. Students in these
categories are often very rare at the more competitive colleges, especially
the Ivy League. While these kinds of people would surely add to the diverse
viewpoints and life-experiences represented on college campuses, in
practice "diversity" on campus is largely a code word for the presence of a
substantial proportion of those in the "underrepresented" racial minority
groups.
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BORDER CONTROLS EDUCATION
Judge opens door to 'bogus' students: Visa crackdown overturned by High Court Steve Doughty Daily Mail, 10 July 2010.
Rules meant to stop immigrants
falsely coming to Britain with student visas were overturned by a judge
yesterday. The High Court decision will
mean a flood of migrants entering the country in the guise of language
students, politicians and migration analysts warned.
Former Labour Home Secretary Alan Johnson
laid down regulations earlier this year blocking students from coming into
the country to start language courses unless they already spoke English to
a good standard. But Mr Justice Foskett
said that the rules had been wrongly established through changes to
existing guidelines. There should have
been a legally binding change to the rules approved by Parliament, he
found. The decision was a victory for
language schools headed by the English UK group, which represents 440
schools and colleges based on the south coast, London, Oxford and
Cambridge. ... Last year 273,445 students
were given visas to come to Britain for courses, nearly 50,000 more than in
2008. Critics say that many cheat the
system to get into the country and stay permanently.
Apart from abuses by migrants who have no
intention of attending the courses for which their visas are granted, the
student system is also thought to have been exploited by women looking to
bring husbands into the country. In March
Mr Johnson made it more difficult to get a visa under Labour's 'points
based' system by raising the level of English required for those looking to
come on English language courses to 'intermediate' from 'elementary'.
Home Secretary Theresa May will now have
to choose whether to remake the Labour rules this time ensuring they
have been correctly approved by MPs or to postpone changes until
wider reforms of the immigration system are pushed through. ...
But shadow immigration minister Phil
Woolas, who was Immigration Minister when the rules were brought in, said:
'If the Government is serious about tackling illegal immigration it will
mount an immediate and robust appeal against this decision.
'This follows on from the decision of the
new Home Secretary to drop the English language requirement for spouses and
families of asylum seekers. For all its bluster, the Conservative-led
government already appears to be losing its grip on immigration policy.'
Sir Andrew Green of the Migrationwatch
think-tank said: 'Student visas are a huge gap in our immigration system.
The previous government's points-based system, still in effect, has led to
a flood of applications from India, Bangladesh and Nepal, often from people
with completely inadequate English for the course they clam to be joining.'
'It is now absolutely essential that this
massive loophole be closed by whatever formalities are necessary,' he
added.
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ASYLUM
Gay refugees have right to cocktails and Kylie, says judge Tom Whitehead Daily Telegraph, 8 July 2010.
Homosexual asylum seekers should be
free to come to Britain to enjoy "Kylie concerts and exotic cocktails", the
Supreme Court ruled yesterday. ... Lord
Rodger made his comments as he and four other Supreme Court justices
unanimously ruled against a Home Office policy of rejecting asylum claims
from homosexuals on the basis that they could avoid ill-treatment in their
homeland by being discreet. The policy breached their "fundamental rights".
Theresa May, the Home Secretary, accepted
the ruling and announced the immediate end of the policy.
The Supreme Court indicated that Britain
could expect to see "more and more" foreign homosexual men and women
seeking protection here because of the "huge gulf" in attitudes between
societies. The decision raised concerns that some asylum seekers may
falsely claim to be homosexual in the hope of being granted shelter. ...
Donna Covey, chief executive of the
Refugee Council, said: "It is hugely encouraging that the Supreme Court has
today ruled in favour of gay asylum seekers."
But Sir Andrew Green, the chairman of
Migrationwatch, said: "This could lead to a potentially massive expansion
of asylum claims as it could apply to literally millions of people around
the world."
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BORDER CONTROLS
Illegal migrants sneak in through minor ports Tom Whitehead Daily Telegraph, 7 July 2010.
Illegal immigrants are slipping in at
ports unmanned by immigration officers, the border agency watchdog said
yesterday. There are only enough officers
at Holyhead in Wales to cover one in four shifts, ...
Other minor ports in Wales and the South
West are not manned at all, a report by John Vine, the chief inspector of
the UK Border Agency found. The lack of
security raises the prospect that terrorists could be exploiting the gaps
to get into Britain. One anti-immigration campaigner said the agency had
"left the side door to Britain wide open".
An inspection of border agency operations
in Wales and the South West found some of the 17 airports and seaports in
the region had limited or no immigration officers.
Sir Andrew Green, chairman of
Migrationwatch UK, said: "This is astonishing. Yet again the public have
been systematically misled about the effect of our border controls."
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TERRORISM ISLAM
We have not learnt the lesson of the July 7 suicide bombing Douglas Murray, director of the Centre for Social Cohesion Daily Telegraph, 6 July 2010.
To coincide with the fifth
anniversary of July 7 this week, the Centre for Social Cohesion is
releasing Islamist Terrorism: the British Connections.
...
The idea that lack of opportunities,
poverty or lack of education are more than an aggravating factor is not
supported by the findings. ... And the
idea that a terrorist cannot to some extent be racially profiled is also
wrong. Government should not ignore facts because they are difficult.
Almost half of those convicted were of south-central Asian ancestry (46 per
cent) though this is lower than the percentage of Muslims in the UK
who have such ancestry. But apologists for jihadis often try to claim that
profiling is counter-productive. In fact, as one arm of surveillance, it
can be very productive indeed. The
Intelligence and Security Committee inquiry into the July 7 bombings,
published in May last year, queried the lack of a database like the one we
have produced, concluding: "The Committee is both disappointed and
concerned that such a simple, yet essential, piece of the evidence base
the successful conviction of terrorists was not only unused,
but was not even available." ... ... Our
Security Service's efforts have been hugely successful since
September 11, 2001 a major plot has been thwarted nearly every year
but politically, this country's policy for dealing with radical Islam has
gone off at a terrible tangent and may actually be storing up problems for
the future. It started with Tony Blair
who, in the wake of the London bombs, said he would change "the rules of
the game". But the rules did not change. ...
Instead of arguing the case for our
values and the non-negotiability of our way of life, Blair and his
colleagues treated the radicalisation of young Muslims as a theological
issue. Via the "Prevent" strategy, millions of pounds were poured into
programmes designed to encourage a different version of Islam from that of
some radical ideologues. ... In many cases, both here and abroad, the
government decided to ally with those who were political opponents of
violent groups, but who were themselves only opposed to violence in
particular contexts. ... ... A whole
department dedicated itself to pumping out the lie that the problem was not
Islamist extremism, but "violent extremism"; not jihadism but what the home
secretary at the time of the Glasgow airport bombing and the attempted
bombing in Haymarket, Jacqui Smith, requested be re-termed "anti-Islamic
activity". This was all part of a
concerted attempt to placate Muslim demagogues who teach grievance, as well
as ordinary Muslims who might feel under pressure, by pretending that
absolutely anybody could become a suicide bomber a pretence that
allows Muslim leaders and communities off the hook entirely.
...
Our police and Security Service continue
to do the hard work of preventing actual attacks, and have been remarkably
successful. Yet for the past five years the major political parties have
failed in their principal task, which should be to argue for British
values. MPs who have spoken out frankly have been silenced or reprimanded
by their parties. Outspoken critics of radical Islam have been sidelined or
ignored.
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MULTICULTURALISM EDUCATION
Primary school forced to buy computer translator because half of its pupils don't speak English Daily Mail, 6 July 2010.
A primary school where more than half
of pupils are non-English speaking has become the first in Britain to give
every child a computerised translator.
Around 60 per cent of the 384 pupils at
Manor Park Primary School in Aston, Birmingham, now communicate with
teachers using the software. Pupils type
in questions into the computer using their native language which is then
translated verbally into English for the teacher.
In reverse, teachers' words can be
translated back into 25 different languages.
The primary school is the first in
Britain to give the 'Talking Tutor' computer software to every pupil.
English-speaking students also use the
translator in order to communicate with their foreign classmates.
Headteacher Jason Smith said the technology was 'invaluable'.
He said: 'This is a tool. It is not a
replacement. It is the sort of tool that we can use to engage with children
who have recently arrived in the country and have very little spoken
English. 'It can vary, but at any one
time we have 30 plus languages being spoken at the school, so this is
invaluable to us. ... The school pays
£700 per annum for the software which comes with on-screen avatars
based on the ethnic background of the pupils. The avatars includes an Asian
man, a white Eastern European and a black African man.
Plans are also in the pipeline to include
a Chinese woman avatar and there are even proposals to develop a
Burka-wearing Muslim. The software,
developed by Lincoln-based firm EMAS UK cost more than £2.5 million to
produce. ... The school started using the
translator - which is 95 per cent accurate - in every classroom two weeks
ago. ... The latest figures from the
Department for Education show 905,610 children in the UK do not speak
English as their first language - a rise of 42,750 since last year.
In Tower Hamlets, east London, 78 per
cent of children are non-English speakers - the highest area in the UK.
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IMMIGRATION ABROAD USA, COST, ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
Illegal Immigration a $113 Billion a Year Drain on U.S. Taxpayers Federation for American Immigration Reform, 6 July 2010.
A new study released today by the
Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) estimates that illegal
immigration now costs federal and local taxpayers $113 billion a year. The
report, The Fiscal Burden of Illegal Immigration on U.S. Taxpayers,
is the most comprehensive analysis of how much the estimated 13 million
illegal aliens and their U.S.-born children cost federal, state and local
governments. The cost estimates are based
on an extensive analysis of federal, state and local spending data. The
Fiscal Burden of Illegal Immigration on U.S. Taxpayers examines
dozens of government programs that are available to illegal aliens and
their U.S.-born children, both legally and fraudulently. The report
provides detailed analysis of the impact of illegal immigration on
education, health care, law enforcement and justice, public assistance, and
other government programs. The report
also accounts for taxes paid by illegal aliens about $13 billion a year,
resulting in a net cost to taxpayers of about $100 billion. However, the
study notes that government at all levels would likely have realized
significantly greater revenues if jobs held by illegal aliens had been
filled by legal U.S. residents instead.
Federal spending on illegal aliens
amounts to $29 billion, ... lion's share of the costs of illegal
immigration is borne by state and local taxpayers an estimated $84.2
billion. ... ... The $113 billion in
outlays for services and benefits to illegal aliens and their families
represents an average cost to native-headed households of $1,117 a year.
... ... Granting amnesty to illegal
aliens, as President Obama and others propose, would not significantly
increase tax revenues generated by current illegal aliens. However, over
time, amnesty would dramatically increase public costs as newly-legalized
aliens become eligible for all means-tested government programs.
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IMMIGRATION ABROAD USA, ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
Justice sues to halt Arizona law on illegals Stephen Dinan The Washington Times, 6 July 2010.
The Obama administration sued Tuesday
to stop Arizona's new immigration law in a move that escalates President
Obama's involvement in the thorny issue and stacks him against a majority
of Americans who support the law. ... In
the challenge, Justice Department attorneys said Arizona's law violates the
Constitution by trying to supersede federal law and by impairing illegal
immigrants' right to travel and conduct interstate commerce. They argued
that only the federal government can write immigration rules. ...
The government is asking a court to block
the law from taking effect July 29. The
law requires police to check the legal status of anyone they suspect of
being in the country illegally whom they encounter while enforcing other
laws already on the books. ... In a broad
speech last week calling for immigration reforms, Mr. Obama called
Arizona's new rules "unenforceable."
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TERRORISM ISLAM
Two thirds of terrorists in Britain are home-grown Duncan Gardham Daily Telegraph, 5 July 2010.
Most terrorism in Britain is
committed by home-grown terrorists, a survey of those convicted of offences
over the past 10 years suggests. Profiles
of 124 individuals convicted of terrorism offences linked to Islamic
extremism since 1999 showed that 69 per cent held British nationality, a
report found. Robin Simcox, the co-author
of the study for the Centre for Social Cohesion think-tank, said: "There
are clear trends emerging with those involving themselves in terrorist
activity in the UK. It is crucial this is recognised and then acted upon by
the relevant authorities." ... Douglas
Murray, of the Centre for Social Cohesion, said: "The report proves how
great a threat violent Islamism poses to the world and the fact that
Britain is at the centre of this global struggle." ...
The survey found that 46 per cent of
offenders had their origins in south Asia including 28 per cent of
Pakistani heritage, of whom at least 80 per cent were British nationals.
... The next most common origin for
offenders was Somalia, accounting for six per cent, demonstrating a growing
threat from east Africa.
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RACISM
Racism has shades of grey Simon Woolley The Guardian, 5 July 2010.
[The author is the director and one of the founders of Operation Black Vote]
It's said that the Inuit people have
more than 50 words to describe snow. In one of the most contentious debates
taking place in modern Britain, though, we have only one crude term to
describe a whole range of individual and institutional practices and
prejudices: "racism". This often blunt instrument becomes even more
problematic when we consider that to be labelled a racist is only
marginally better than being called a paedophile or murderer.
Last year Trevor Phillips, chair of the
Equality and Human Rights Commission, angered many equality campaigners by
declaring that the label "institutional racism" was "no longer a useful
term". Phillips calculated that if he was able to park the definition
and in so doing remove the common emotive response, "you're just
playing the race card", or "we're not racist" one could have a
meaningful conversation about how to make progress. The danger of this
trajectory, of course, is that without clear terminology the issue you seek
to address can be sidelined. Whichever way we look at it, it's complicated.
... Racism comes in so many different
shapes and sizes it is astonishing that a nation which prides itself in the
spoken word hasn't developed a meaningful vocabulary to express these
nuances. At one extreme we have last year's brutal murder of 30-year-old
Kunal Mohanty, stabbed and left to die while his assailants racially abused
him and celebrated as if scoring a goal; the other end of the spectrum
might be the taxi driver who refuses to pick up a black man at the
roadside. ... But for all the examples of
individual bigotry and prejudice, the most profound impact is at an
institutional level. And again this is an area hampered by ineffective
means of expression. ... And when the
EHRC reported the discrepancies in police stop-and-search rates by
ethnicity, it stopped short of calling the force racist because it feared
the use of certain language would have immediately closed down the
much-needed debate. The limitations of
language are not only unfair to those individuals such as Ron Atkinson, but
also for black and Asian people who from time to time would like to
challenge a comment, an incident or an institution but feel the term racism
is far too provocative. ... In this
environment, now more than ever we need a better understanding of the
multifaceted nature of racism, and a language to help us avoid the
polarised positions that have dogged the debate so far.
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ASYLUM REFUGEES
Living in Limbo: The Asylum Problem Krista Mahr and Tanjung Pinang Time, 5 July 2010.
According to the U.N., there were
over 15 million recognized refugees around the world at the beginning of
2009, and another 826,000 asylum seekers. More than half of the world's
refugees are in Asia and another 22% are in Africa; both regions where many
governments are ill-equipped, legally and economically, to handle the
volumes of people requesting protection in their borders. The 59-year-old
Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was designed to
help Europeans dispersed during World War II return home in an orderly
fashion. Now it's charged with aiding the millions who sweep the earth as
they flee bloodshed, repression or poverty. ...
The world's humanitarian resolve, so
evident after 1945, is weakening as governments throw up higher walls to
both keep out economic migrants and ramp up security. In some countries
with high influxes of refugees and those seeking asylum such as
Italy, Indonesia and Malaysia nearly 90% of the population favors
more stringent restrictions on immigration, according to a 2007 Pew
Research Center poll. ... Indeed, the very definition of refugee is no
longer adequate for the vast ranks of those who are fleeing wretched or
violent states but are driven, rather, by a desire to better themselves
economically. ... Once they're away from
their home country, refugees can expect to wait. For most, finding a new
home in a third country is a distant dream. No state is obligated to offer
permanent homes to refugees in transit countries; in 2008, the UNHCR helped
88,000 people resettle out of the 10.5 million recognized refugees that it
works with (and that doesn't count the many more whose applications for
that legal status are pending). ... ...
Today, 147 countries have agreed to
international standards for processing people who claim asylum at their
borders, but Indonesia is not among them. It does not have laws
distinguishing asylum seekers from illegal immigrants. In fact, while most
of Europe, Africa and Latin America has signed the 1951 treaty, only a
handful of Asian nations recognize global refugee rights, even though
millions under the UNHCR's mandate are in the region. ... ...
... With more agreements like the one
between Italy and Libya likely to be struck, asylum claims to Europe are
dropping down to 287,000 in 2009 from 445,000 a decade earlier.
Since Italy started taking a tougher stance last year, the number of
Eritreans taking an alternate route to Europe via Turkey to Greece, where
asylum infrastructure is less developed, has doubled. "When you close the
door, someone tends to open a window. If you close the window, someone will
dig a tunnel," says Guterres of the UNHCR. "Smugglers are well informed."
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RACISM MEXICO
Racism in Mexico rears its ugly head Tracy Wilkinson Los Angeles Times, 5 July 2010.
Every morning during television
coverage of the World Cup, on the Mexican equivalent of the "Today" show,
co-hosts chat, trade barbs and yuck it up. Behind them, actors in blackface
makeup, dressed in fake animal skins and wild "Afro" wigs, gyrate, wave
spears and pretend to represent a cartoonish version of South Africa.
Yes, in the 21st century, blackface
characters on a major television network.
But this is Mexico, and definitions of
racism are complicated and influenced by the country's own tortured
relationship with invading powers and indigenous cultures.
Many Mexicans will say they are not
racist and that very little racism exists in Mexico, a nation, after all,
of mestizos, who are of European and indigenous blood.
As proof, they point to the fact that
slavery was ended in Mexico decades before it was abolished in the United
States, and that Mexico never institutionalized racism the way the U.S. did
with its segregationist laws that lasted into the 1960s. ...
But the full truth is that racism is
alive and well in Mexico. It is primarily directed at indigenous
communities who account for as many as 11.3 million people, or roughly 10%
of the national population. The indigenous remain disproportionately mired
in poverty and denied work, political access, education and other rights.
And there is a smaller community of black
Mexicans, Afro Mexicanos, many descendants of slaves first brought to the
region by Spanish conquerors in the 16th century.
Often referred to by academics as the
"third race" and concentrated in the coastal states of Veracruz, Oaxaca and
Guerrero, they have been fighting for years for recognition as a distinct
ethnic group, to be included in history books and to be given opportunities
to transcend poverty. "Racism in Mexico
is covered up," said Ricardo Bucio, head of the National Council for the
Prevention of Discrimination, which has protested the blackface TV
caricatures. "There is a lot of denial about it."
Or, as columnist Katia D'Artigues once
put it: "Although subtle, discrimination has become something invisible in
our society. We no longer see it, or we consider it normal!"
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MULTICULTURALISM ISLAM, SHARIA LAW
What isn't wrong with Sharia law? Maryam Namazie, spokesperson of Iran Solidarity and One Law for All The Guardian, 5 July 2010.
Now a report, Sharia Law in Britain:
A Threat to One Law for All and Equal Rights, reveals the adverse effect of
sharia courts on family law. Under sharia's civil code, a woman's testimony
is worth half of a man's. A man can divorce his wife by repudiation,
whereas a woman must give justifications, some of which are difficult to
prove. Child custody reverts to the father at a preset age; women who
remarry lose custody of their children even before then; and sons inherit
twice the share of daughters. There has
been much controversy about Muslim arbitration tribunals, which have
attracted attention because they operate as tribunals under the Arbitration
Act, making their rulings binding in UK law.
But sharia councils, which are charities,
are equally harmful since their mediation differs little from arbitration.
Sharia councils will frequently ask people to sign an agreement to abide by
their decisions. Councils call themselves courts and the presiding imams
are judges. There is neither control over the appointment of these judges
nor an independent monitoring mechanism. People often do not have access to
legal advice and representation. Proceedings are not recorded, nor are
there any searchable legal judgements. Nor is there any real right to
appeal. ... An example of the kind of
decision that is contrary to UK law and public policy is the custody of
children. Under British law, the child's best interest is the court's
paramount consideration. In a sharia court the custody of children reverts
to the father at a preset age regardless of the circumstances. In divorce
proceedings, too, civil law takes into account the merits of the case and
divides assets based on the needs and intentions of both parties. Under
sharia law, only men have the right to unilateral divorce. If a woman
manages to obtain a divorce without her husband's consent, she will lose
the sum of money (or dowry) that was agreed to at the time of marriage.
There is an assumption that those who
attend sharia courts do so voluntarily and that unfair decisions can be
challenged. Since much of sharia law is contrary to British law and public
policy, in theory they would be unlikely to be upheld in a British court.
In reality, women are often pressured by their families into going to these
courts and adhering to unfair decisions and may lack knowledge of their
rights under British law. Moreover, refusal to settle a dispute in a sharia
court could lead to to threats, intimidation or isolation. ...
The report recommends abolishing the
courts by initiating a human rights challenge and amending the Arbitration
Act as Canada's Arbitration Act was amended in 2005 to exclude religious
arbitration. The demand for the abolition
of sharia courts in Britain, as elsewhere, is not an attack on people's
right to religion; it is a defence of human rights, especially since the
imposition of sharia courts is a demand of Islamism to restrict citizens'
rights.
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EMPLOYMENT
Loophole lets in migrant workers David Barrett Sunday Telegraph, 4 July 2010.
The Government's immigration cap has
been criticised a "sham" as new figures disclose that companies will be
able to bypass the restriction to bring in thousands of foreign workers.
Theresa May, the Home Secretary,
announced last week that the number of migrant workers coming to Britain
from outside the European Union would be limited to 24,400 a year,
fulfilling a Conservative manifesto pledge.
However, the Home Office has admitted
that the interim cap will not apply to a system known as "intra-company
transfers", or ICTs, which allows firms to bring in non-EU nationals who
are already on their payroll. Figures
obtained by this newspaper show the extent to which companies are able to
use the ICT system to import foreign staff on a massive scale.
One Indian company, Tata Consultancy
Services (TCS), sponsored 4,600 of its employees to come to Britain in 2008
through ICTs, according to Home Office data.
Although there is no suggestion that TCS
has broken the rules, the scale of immigration from India through ICTs is
startling. Another Indian company, Infosys Technologies Limited, sponsored
3,235 people to come to Britain in the same year, while a third, Wipro
Technologies, brought in 2,420. While the
Home Office has said there were 30,000 arrivals under the ICT system last
year, this was down from a total of 46,000 the previous year
suggesting that the use of ICTs could rise again when the global economy
recovers. In 1992 there were only 7,000.
Indians make up 70 per cent of those
brought to Britain on ICTs. Others were from nations including the US,
South Africa, Japan and China. Although
the system is intended to help companies that cannot recruit suitable
candidates within Britain, critics claim that in practice much of the work
could easily have been done by Britons.
The Home Office has disclosed the names
of about 20,000 employers registered to bring skilled migrant workers into
Britain on so-called "Tier 2" visas. Names on the list, published on the UK
Border Agency website last week, range from Chelsea Football Club and
Conservative Campaign Headquarters to hundreds of Thai restaurants, Indian
takeaways and kebab shops. Of the
companies on the list, about 4,700 are permitted to use ICTs. Yet the UK
Border Agency has only 125 staff responsible for visiting sponsor companies
and keeping checks on them. ... ... One
British IT worker told The Sunday Telegraph how his contract at
Lloyds TSB was cut short after the bank hired a dozen Indian trainees
through the ICT system. ... The IT
specialist, who has 20 years' experience in the industry, said use of ICTs
was widespread in the banking industry. "ICTs are used to bring large
numbers of people in for the purposes of cheap labour," he said. ...
A spokesman for Lloyds TSB declined to
comment on the claims. ... Peter Skyte,
of the trade union Unite, said: "Our prediction is that the ICT will remain
after the interim period because of pressure from multinationals and from
embassies. "We are very concerned about
displacement of UK resident workers and its potential for undercutting pay
rates."
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POLITICS
Labour's 'cover-up' on immigration Patrick Hennessy Sunday Telegraph, 4 July 2010.
Labour was accused of a pre-election
cover-up on immigration last night after it was disclosed that the previous
government sat on a report that criticised its policies.
Ministers accused John Denham, the former
communities secretary, of trying "to bury the truth" about immigration in
an attempt to his party in office. The
report, The Drivers of International Migration To and From the UK,
written by the respected National Institute of Economic and Social
Research, was given to ministers six weeks before the start of the election
campaign. It found that net immigration
to Britain rose by 169,100 people a year between 1992-1995 and 2004-2007,
with the vast majority of new entrants coming from Asian countries.
Just over half the increase (51.2 per
cent) was accounted for by "UK immigration policy relative to other hosts",
while 26.7 per cent arose from the "relaxation of UK immigration policy
from 1997". If published, the report
would have reignited the row over the so-called "open-door" immigration
policy pursued by Labour until it began phasing in its "points-based"
system in 2008. Yet the Department of Communities and Local Government
decided not to publish it. Eric Pickles,
the Communities Secretary, described the report, which cost the then
Government £40,000, as a "skeleton in the closet", and added: "Clearly
there was an orchestrated cover-up by John Denham to bury the truth about
immigration. On the eve of the election, Labour Ministers were doing
anything to try and guarantee their political survival."
Last night Mr Denham demanded to know
what Mr Pickles's evidence was for his "cover-up" claim. He said he did not
remember receiving the report as communities secretary.
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IMMIGRATION ABROAD AUSTRALIA, RACISM, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS
Australian PM's immigration vows Yahoo!, 4 July 2010.
Australia's new Prime Minister Julia
Gillard Sunday vowed not to let "political correctness" get in the way of
tackling immigration, signalling a tough line on the issue.
Gillard, ..., said people should not be
called racist for raising concerns about asylum seekers.
"I certainly dismiss labels like
intolerant or racist because people raise concerns about border security,
but we've also got to be very alive to the complexity of this and that
there's no quick fix," ... "There's a
temptation for people to use these labels and names to try and close down
debate and I'm very opposed to that. People need to be able to have honest
discussions. "So any sort of political
correctness, or niceties that get in the way, I think, need to be swept out
of the way." The Welsh-born Gillard,
whose parents emigrated to Australia in 1966, has made it a top priority to
slow the steady flow of asylum seeker boats that plagued the Rudd
government.
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MULTICULTURALISM RACISM, POLITICS
Politicians finally hear the people say 'enough' Melanie Phillips The Australian, 3 July 2010.
Voters in Australia and Britain have
had their fill of out-of-control multiculturalism.
At first blush, Julia Gillard's
volte-face over immigration would seem to be as unlikely as Osama bin Laden
singing the Star Spangled Banner or Richard Dawkins taking holy orders.
Here is a politician with a solid
pedigree on the "anti-racist" Left rejecting former prime minister Kevin
Rudd's call for a "Big Australia" formed by continuing large-scale
immigration. Instead, Gillard has said
she understands the anxieties of folk in western Sydney, western Melbourne
or the Gold Coast growth corridor in Queensland.
As for the boats of asylum-seekers,
Gillard has made clear she wants to be even more effective in stopping them
in order to protect "our sanctuary" and "the Australian way".
In other words, Gillard is signalling
that she sympathises with the concern that large-scale immigration and
multiculturalism are threatening Australia's core values and identity, a
position the Left denounces as bigotry. ...
In Britain even more than in Australia -
where at least John Howard or Tony Abbott have tackled such issues - race
and culture have long been totally taboo. No debate has been possible about
whether mass immigration might be a bad thing for communities or the
country as a whole. Even to question this
has been to invite instant denunciation as a racist from the dominant
left-wing intelligentsia, for whom anti-racism has long been their
signature creed. ... So Britain is being
steadily Islamised, with more than 1700 mosques, the development of a
parallel jurisdiction of sharia law in Muslim enclaves, banks offering
sharia financing, extremists given free rein on campuses and relentless
pressure to suppress and censor any criticism of Islam or the Muslim
community. In parts of Australia too
there are similar worries about the growth of the Muslim community, the
pressure not to criticise any aggression it may display and the
simultaneous onslaught upon Australian values by the likes of [Muslim
cleric] Sheik Hilaly. ... So Gillard is
now humming the same tune, saying she sympathises with voters' desire for
strong management of Australia's borders, and pledging "sustainable
population" increase with the "right kind of immigrant". ... ...
For the doctrines of anti-racism and
multiculturalism have not ended intolerance, prejudice or discrimination.
They have instead institutionalised reverse discrimination and up-ended
truth, morality and justice.
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IMMIGRATION ABROAD USA, POLITICS
Obama Fails to Square the Illegal-Immigration Circle Victor Davis Hanson National Review, 2 July 2010.
There was very little new in the
president's speech certainly not his tired hope-and-change trope of
blending legal and illegal immigration ("The scientific breakthroughs of
Albert Einstein, the inventions of Nikola Tesla, the great ventures of
Andrew Carnegie's U.S. Steel and Sergey Brin's Google all this was
possible because of immigrants"). There is broad public support for the
former but not the latter so he had to imply that those who oppose
massive illegal immigration are unappreciative of the great contribution of
legal immigrants. (And note his use of euphemism in "11 million
undocumented immigrants" as if immigrants simply forgot their
documents upon entry.) Confusion was
thematic, and evident in, e.g., the idea that "being an American is not a
matter of blood or birth. It's a matter of faith. It's a matter of fidelity
to the shared values that we all hold so dear." If so, anyone in the world
with the requisite beliefs and virtues would be an American. ...
It is disturbing to hear a president
confess that he cannot enforce the law or secure the border. ("But our
borders are just too vast for us to be able to solve the problem only with
fences and border patrols. It won't work. Our borders will not be secure as
long as our limited resources are devoted to not only stopping gangs and
potential terrorists, but also the hundreds of thousands who attempt to
cross each year simply to find work.") I hope the Taliban are not listening
to that admission. ... The president
likes the passive voice and the use of abstraction, which suggest that
illegal aliens are guided not by their own choices but by impersonal
forces: "Crimes go unreported as victims and witnesses fear coming forward.
And this makes it harder for the police to catch violent criminals and keep
neighborhoods safe. And billions in tax revenue are lost each year because
many undocumented workers are paid under the table." Note the absence of
any reference to thousands of illegal aliens who commit crimes or the
mounting cost of incarcerating them, which in California, for example, is
nearing $1 billion a year. Of course,
tens of billions are also lost in the remittances that illegal aliens send
south of the border.
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BENEFITS AND COSTS CRIME, HOUSING, CONGESTION, COHESION
Migrants' impact on crime to be checked Tom Whitehead Daily Telegraph, 1 July 2010.
The impact that migrants have on
crime, housing and even traffic congestion will be considered when
ministers set an annual cap on immigration, it emerged yesterday.
Pressure on public services and cohesion
will also be factored in to the final limit.
The Government has promised to impose a
cap and the Migration Advisory Committee will consult on where the limit is
set. The body confirmed yesterday that it would not just consider the
economic impact of migrants but also social pressures. The committee will
spend the next three months attempting to quantify such factors before
presenting a report to ministers in September.
The committee also warned that limits on
foreign workers, which can only be imposed on those from outside the EU,
would only help to reduce net migration "up to a point".
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