MNS Summary December 2007:
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Legal issues again make up a substantial part of
developments on the EU level covered in the December issue, such as the first
series of questions for a preliminary ruling concerning the so-called qualification
directive on protection put to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and the
latter’s rulings that Belgium and Spain had failed in their obligations to
transpose the Directive concerning expulsions and the one concerning
third-country nationals who are long-term residents, respectively.
Another ruling by a European instance of much
importance, in this case by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), is the
finding by its Grand Chamber of 17 judges that the Czech Republic had
discriminated against Roma children by putting them in special schools. An extensive
article covering this case provides the arguments of both the majority of 13
judges and those of the four dissenting judges whose opposition was expressed
in rather strong terms.
Included in the December issue is also the decision of
the Acting President of the ECHR to urge at least two Contracting States to
refrain from ordering the expulsion of rejected Tamil asylum-seekers. In view
of the current instability and insecurity in their home country, the ECHR feels
oblige to systematically grant applications for injunctions.
Regarding migration policies on the EU level, there is
news coverage on:
- the first EU Council meeting that discussed the
European Commission’s “Blue Card” proposal on recruiting highly skilled
third-country nationals;
- the on-going negotiations between the EU and Bern on
extending free movement to Romanian and Bulgarian workers;
- Ottawa’s decision to grant visa-free travel to two
more EU Member States and
- the controversial consequences in Italy of the murder
of an Italian woman allegedly by a Romanian of Roma origin. The consequences
include remarks made by the Italian EU Commissioner in support of his
Government’s emergency decree authorising the expulsion of EU nationals on
public policy grounds and a European Parliament resolution condemning the stand
taken by this Commissioner.
National news items in this section include:
- statistical data suggesting an exponential increase in
the number of suspected cases of fraudulent marriage in Belgium;
- the new Aliens Act in the Czech Republic;
- the approval of the new Aliens Bill in France by its
Constitutional Council whose only major objection is the collection of
statistics indicating ethnic origin; details of France’s new immigration
strategy;
- complaints by doctors in France that they are coming
under pressure to be more reticent to favour the continued stay of sick
irregular migrants; DNA testing in Germany where such a practice is not imposed
by law;
- difficulties faced by German firms in recruiting
skilled workers;
- continuing influx of East Europeans, especially Poles,
into the Netherlands;
- Romanians becoming largest foreign community in Spain
within less than a year;
- Swiss plan to prevent possible influx of Romanians;
- human rights obligations and EU law prevent the
British Home Office from expelling three persons convicted of manslaughter,
drug trafficking and serial rape, respectively; record numbers of British
nationals leaving the country.
As for irregular migration, drowning tragedies
continue in appalling numbers in spite of all the warnings of the dangers in
making the sea journey, especially to the Canary Islands. At least 47 died
after leaving Mauritania and another 20 perished after departing from Gambia.
In the Strait of Gibraltar, three bodies were recovered from the sea off the coast
of Almeria, in an area where already four other bodies were found last October,
all believed to have been on board the same vessel which capsized last
September and resulted in an unknown number of deaths.
Elsewhere, in the Aegean Sea, irregular migration to
Greece is putting strain on Athens’ relations with Ankara and the two sides
have agreed to step up their co-operation in this area.
Two other items of interest in this section is the
step taken by Switzerland to create a new post of special attaché on
immigration at two of embassies in the African continent and the introduction
of tough measures in the UK to render employers more responsible for verifying
whether their employees are entitled to work.
News items on protection issues include:
- the end to one more hunger-strike action in Belgium
after protesters are offered at least a temporary residence permit;
- ruling of a German court granting at least temporary
protection to Iraqi Sunnites;
- evaluation of limited regularisation programme for
long-stay asylum-seekers in Germany;
- insufficient attention paid in Italy to protection
needs specific to women;
- doctor’s testimony of degrading treatment of
asylum-seekers in a detention centre in Malta;
- debate in Switzerland on the use of a taser gun to carry
out forced expulsions of asylum-seekers and the experience of a Federal
Minister to have this gun tested on himself;
- UK House of Lords ruling authorising the repatriation
of Sudanese asylum-seekers originating from Dafur;
- more criticisms against UK authorities for reluctance
to protect their former Iraqi staff members.
The section on racism and discrimination contains several
articles, apparently of a local and anecdotal nature but have other
significance, such as:
- the decision of a South Korean car manufacture to
withdraw its sponsorship of a Belgian football club whose Chairman racially
insulted one of its black players;
- the complaint for racism lodged by a Belgian woman
against her own father for regularly insulting her husband, of Rwandan origin;
- the conviction of a French comedian for anti-Semitism
after comparing Jews with slave traders;
- the resignation of a German police chief who
manipulated crime statistics to reduce the responsibility of the far-right; and
- the refusal of a Spanish judge to maintain in
preventive custody the youth whose gratuitous attack against an Ecuadorian
woman was filmed and very widely distributed.
This section also contains coverage on a report by
Amnesty International denouncing lower social welfare payments (start help) to
certain groups of foreigners; discrimination on the Dutch labour market and the
alarming situation of racist murders in Russia.
“Other issues” include coverage of a new report
by the Swiss Senator, Dick MARTY, who has already strongly criticised and
condemned the practice of “extraordinary renditions”. His latest report
criticises the UN blacklist of “suspected terrorists”, a practice which has
resulted in a number of foreign residents being, de facto, sanctioned for
offences of which they have been accused but not been granted the opportunity
to defend themselves.
Other articles cover:
- the “demise” of the far-right group in the European
Parliament;
- the election of two Muslim women to the Danish
Parliament;
- the decision of a third Belgian city to ban its employees
from wearing “religious symbols” at the workplace when in contact with the
public;
- youth riots in France;
- announcement by the new Dutch Minister of Integration
that she has distanced herself from the policies of her predecessor;
- first case of genital mutilation before a Swiss Court;
- the publicising of the report of the UK’s Independent
Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), 18 months after it was completed, accusing
the London Metropolitan Police of having made 19 catastrophic errors that led
to the execution of an innocent Brazilian youth in July 2005.
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