Migration

This week’s news takes a look at the situation in the small country of Moldova where a majority of its workers abroad are illegal, examines the further developments in the shooting of the Brazilian man during the chaos of the London Bombings and the resulting inquiry into his death and focuses on Libya’s human rights record and deaths on the US border. We also take a look at Australia’s further integration issues and a record breaking number of African Migrants reaching the Canary Islands of Spain this past week :

• IMF forecasts that Moldova will be the world leader for the amount of money sent home by migrants in 2008. Most of the Moldovan workers abroad are illegal immigrants. See the story here.
• London police misled public after accidental shooting, panel finds a top official failed to inform the commissioner of the victim’s identity, thus allowing erroneous reports to be perpetuated in the media. The Brazilian national was killed by London police during the anarchy of the London Bombing, but inquiries found that errors by the London police were skewed and subsequently covered up in the aftermath of the situation. See the story here.
• Libya is set to take charge of a UN anti-racism committee in a move condemned by human rights groups who say the north African country’s rights record disqualifies it from the post. Libya takes over on the heels of torture allegations put forward by foreign medics recently released from the country. See the story here.
• The number of illegal immigrants who have died trying to get into the United States is higher than ever this summer. According to USAToday, many migrants have not been able to survive the harsh conditions of the deserts between the US and Mexico and often perish during the journey. Resaons for this are discussed in the article. See the story here.
• In a report by CNN, The body of a Cuban-American, Luis Lazaro Lara Morejon who was under investigation in a migrant smuggling case was found riddled with bullets along a road outside the Caribbean resort of Cancun, authorities said Tuesday. See the story here.
• A new test for Migrants to Australia is to be created according to the Sydney Morning Herald. People who are seeking to immigrate will face stricter scrutiny of their ability to integrate into Australian society, the Minister for Immigration, Kevin Andrews said this past week. See the story here.
• A record-breaking 180 African immigrants reached the Canary Islands in a single ocean-going canoe on Monday as new super-sized vessels began to be used in the perilous journey from Africa’s Atlantic coast. The 180 sub-Saharan Africans were picked up by a Spanish maritime rescue vessel off the island of Tenerife. See the story here. 

This week there has finally been some positive media about Iraq and its people. Iraqis cheered the Iraqi national team all around the world this past week when they beat defending champions Saudi Arabia in the Asia Cup of Football with a score of 1-0. Characteristic of the current situation according to unconfirmed sources, all the players on the team no longer lived in Iraq, and a match has not been played on Iraqi soil in nearly 17 years. In addition, there were fears that there might be some violence as during semifinal celebrations 50 fans of the team were killed in attacks in Iraq during street festivities. Despite all the positive and negative developments, the Iraqi national football team did achieve a great victory and is made up of many different cultures and religious affiliations as is the country itself. They are an example of how a positive future is plausible in Iraq despite all of its natural divisions in society. Only few were injured in the celebrations for the final victory of the Asia Cup.

Iraqis achieving victories outside of their country of birth is likely to become the standard in the future as many Iraqis are fleeing and have fled the chaos of their home state. In Cathryn Cluver’s wonderful posting this week on the Oxfam report on Iraq and its refugees we see that more than 2 million Iraqis have fled outside the country, and that inside the nation state the quality of life, education and other essentials have been drastically effected since 2003. For this reason it will be a likely trend that while Iraqis may achieve success outside of their home state, inside of Iraq success may be defined as being able to leave and as a result live outside of their place of birth.

While Iraqis are fleeing in record numbers, the host states that are accepting the refugees have yet to form a balanced approach to accepting refugees from one of the world’s most dangerous places. In a BBC World broadcast of August 2nd the situation in Syria where the brunt of the 2 million Iraqis have fled is discussed in detail in the telecast report. Syria, with a population of appx.18 million have accepted via some sources more than 1 million Iraqi refugees and with Jordan have accepted and are being pushed to accept more refugees. Despite this, the world community outside of Syria and Jordan have accepted very few Iraqi refugees compared to Syria and despite the focus and support they wish to give to Iraq, there has been little concrete action to help the actual people leaving Iraq. At the end of all the above observations, it is clear that a refugee crisis from Iraq had begun from the resulting conflict and that there needs to be a great deal more effort beyond Syria and Jordan in accepting Iraqi refugees…People can be surprised what refugees in conflict can do with some opportunity on an equal field of play.

See: R. Basas’ article The Burden Hardest to Bear for more information on Refugees leaving Iraq to Syria and Jordan

In the August 1st telecast of the BBC World Service the BBC did an investigative report on a new trend in London where Polish women were taking payments for marrying non-EU citizens so they could remain and gain legal status in London. The report went into great detail to present the problem, going as far as sending a reporter under cover as someone looking to marry an EU citizen to gain status in London and filming the “brokers” of these marriages in the process.

After the accession of new EU member states such as Poland, the UK was the first country to fully liberalise its economy in letting in foreign workers within the EU rules without any restrictions or time limits past the date of accession of new member states. For that reason, London absorbed many Eastern European workers who often drifted into both blue collar jobs as well as many professionals who were “brain-drained” out of countries such as Poland towards the UK and London. Today it is not uncommon to see few traditional brits working the shops and restaurants of London as many labour jobs have been taken by Immigrants and EU-citizens alike.

While marrying for papers was not uncommon before the accession of the new EU member states, an added fear that in some new communities there could be an outbreak of false marriages is an understandable concern. While the report did not give actual numbers of marriages in the Polish community or any others under false pretenses, their primary research well illustrated the problem. Despite this, I do not believe that it is an issue in one community in London only, but is a general issue that existed well before Polish citizens became part of the EU. Please search the BBC World site above for further information…

If you are a Palestinian refugee and have family ties to the West Bank, you may be in luck. In an apparent move to bolster the government of Mahmoud Abbas, which has been losing its footing in the Palestinian territories, the Israeli government is allowing “a number” of Palestinian refugees to settle in the West Bank (and the West Bank only - NOT Gaza), under “certain circumstances.” The article in the New York Times which reports this latest development, thus proves what experts have been warning us about over the past few weeks: The refugees stand to become a political pawn in the conflicts that plague the region.