Greece says cannot handle migrants; UNHCR calls crisis 'shameful'
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras asked Europe to help in handling tens of thousands of refugees coming in from Syria, Afghanistan and other war zones, saying on Friday his cash-strapped country could not deal with them alone.
The influx has piled pressure on Greece's services at a time when its own citizens are struggling with harsh cuts and its government is negotiating with the EU and the IMF for freshloans
to stave off economic collapse.
Boatloads of migrants arriving every day had triggered a "humanitarian crisis within the economic crisis," Tsipras said after a meeting with ministers.
"The EU is being tested on the issue of Greece. It has responded negatively on the economic front - that's my view. I hope it will respond positively on the humanitarian front," he said.
The comments came as the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) called on Greece to take control of the "total chaos" on Mediterranean islands, where thousands of migrants have landed. About 124,000 have arrived this year by sea, many via Turkey, according to Vincent Cochetel, UNHCR director for Europe.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/08/07/uk-europe-migrants-greece-idUKKCN0QC10S20150807
Three in 10 feel migrants benefit the UK
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Britons are more welcoming towards migrants than Americans or Germans, according to a poll showing that nearly three in 10 believe incoming foreigners have had a positive impact on the UK.
The survey by Ipsos Mori is based on more than 17,000 interviews in 24 countries. It found that the British public has become somewhat more sympathetic towards migrants since the last government took office, although a majority are still negative.
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Debate in the UK about border controls intensified in the run-up to this year’s general election, on the back of record levels of net migration and rising numbers of arrivals from fellow EU countries. More recently, the growing crisis at the Channel port of Calais caused by Middle Eastern and African migrants seeking to enter the UK has revived public concerns about Britain’s benefit system and asylum policies.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/822605c0-3d04-11e5-8613-07d16aad2152.html#axzz3iFyZ1gOt
Justice Department asks judge to leave migrant families in detention centers
A response to ruling says June reforms for speeding release of detainees are enough and that facilities are an effective tool to deter border crossings
The Obama administration has urged a federal judge to reassess a ruling that ordered the release of thousands of immigrant mothers and children from family detention centres, arguing that the controversial federal facilities are an effective tool to deter migrants from crossing the southern border into the United States.
In a 52-page response to a decision made last month by Judge Dolly Gee in the federal district court for central California, the US Department of Justice argues that the ruling could be used by human traffickers “who are known to exploit changes in immigration policy” and “could cause another notable increase in the numbers of parents choosing to cross the border with their children”.
The government’s response, however, concedes that Border Patrol agents have apprehended only 24,901 family members so far this fiscal year, compared with 68,445 in total last year, a 55% annual decrease.
Gee ruled in July that the federal government’s two privately run family detention centres in Texas were operated in a manner that violated a 1997 court settlement, which requires migrant children be held in the least restrictive facilities possible and be granted bail in all but exceptional circumstances.
Richard Godwin: Workers’ rights are just the job to fix the migrant crisis
There's nowhere like rural France to test the resolve of the idle Londoner. The promise of wine-fuelled sophistry , of rolling vineyards and languid sunsets, of proving to your child that the livestock you’ve been singing about all this time actually exists — all this appeals to something primal in us. But if you’re about to head there, good luck.
Should you have failed to buy a flexi-ticket for the ferry, you can console yourself on the M20 that things are infinitely more desperate in Calais. But even a simple journey across Paris from Eurostar to TGV will become fraught with anxiety when the line connecting the two stations is operating “summer hours”. Bof!
Then you learn that the one pharmacy in your town is closed for July and August, and no, you can’t buy paracetamol anywhere else. A 10-minute drive becomes a one-hour motorcade as you hit a protest by rambunctious cattle farmers, demanding more for their beef (“Mais il est d’une qualité excellente,” reason the locals). You pass an advert declaring that Intermarché is “now open on Tuesday afternoons!” And so on, until you feel this is a conspiracy to turn you into the sort of spluttering English twit you came on holiday to escape.
Making the System Fair for Migrant Workers
Ishor, 24, migrated from Nepal to Malaysia last November to work for a company at Johor Bahru’s busy commercial shipping port. What he did not know before he arrived is that the job involved working 16-hour days and being physically abused and harassed by his employer. Like most migrant workers, Ishor likely paid a labor broker a large amount of money to secure the job.
“Agents usually give (migrant workers) a very beautiful picture about the conditions in which they are going to work,” says Karuppiah Somasundram, assistant secretary of education of the Malaysia Trades Union Congress (MTUC). “Usually (migrant workers) don’t get a clear picture about how the work is going to be in Malaysia.”
Unscrupulous private recruitment agencies, prevalent in the labor migration process, offer workers non-existent jobs; misrepresent working conditions and compensation; confiscate crucial documents, like workers’ passports and visas; and impose excessive and illegal fees, according to labor and migrant rights groups around the world.
- See more at: http://www.solidaritycenter.org/making-the-system-fair-for-migrant-workers/#sthash.huqgKuAU.dpuf
UK government announces new measures against illegal immigrants
Britain's government promised new measures on Monday to crack down on illegal immigrants by making landlords evict them, as the Calais migrants crisis continued to dominate the headlines.
LONDON: Britain's government promised new measures on Monday (Aug 3) to crack down on illegal immigrants by making landlords evict them, as the Calais migrants crisis continued to dominate the headlines.
Landlords in England who do not remove people with no right to remain in Britain, or do not check their immigration status before renting them a property, could be jailed for up to five years. The move, announced by Communities Secretary Greg Clark, is set to be included in a new Immigration Bill that parliament will debate in the coming months.
In addition, 100 more guards are to be placed on duty at the terminal in Calais, while UK Border Force officials are to begin working inside the control room of the cross-channel Eurotunnel from Monday.
"I think we have got a grip on the crisis. We saw a peak last week, since when the number of illegal migrants has tailed off," said Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond after a meeting of the government's emergency COBRA committee.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/uk-government-announces/2026998.html
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