Migration

 This blog is also posted in the FPA Latin America Blog.

The European Union and Latin America have always had amicable ties, via trade, culture and administrative and legal traditions. Immigration from Latin America to the EU has often been able to avoid the conflict and debate that are common in the United States, where millions of immigrants from Latin America are more of a campaign issue than a sociological blessing. The European Union may have angered some of their Latin American friends however, with the new EU Immigration Policy creating a collective grumble throughout immigrant communities in Europe and among Latin American leaders themselves.

It is not common to have so many Latin American leaders, often with varying political stripes, to have complete agreement on an issue or a set of issues. Ironically, the past two weeks have produced not only new relations between Hugo Chavez and Alvaro Uribe, but produced a collective grumble by all leaders during the Mercosur regional summit and other policy discussions against the new EU Immigration measures. It is not secret that Spain and the EU have become the new destination for many legal and some illegal immigration from Latin America. The new EU policy seeks to detain possible illegal immigrants for a period of up to 18 months before deporting them, leading many Latin American leaders to perceive the EU as placing issues of immigration on the immigrants themselves, allowing policymakers to avoid the responsibility in dealing with immigration in the EU on a proper legal and equitable level. This led Latin American leaders to sign a joint declaration against the new EU immigration policies during Mercosur summit. In addition, some leaders threatened restrictions of Venezuelan oil, and possible restrictions of grain and other agricultural products leaving the rich fields on Brazil, Argentina and other countries that have been hit by the recent food crisis. While Latin America is not the only region to be angered by the new EU policy, it is one of the regions that are considering a collective reaction against Europe on behalf of the hundreds of thousands living there illegally which originate from Latin America.

The question that remains is whether the new EU policies are a just approach in dealing with illegal immigration or whether they warrant a strong reaction from Latin America and other countries around the globe? While the 27 member EU nations did pass the new Immigration Policy to be implemented in 2010, many have varied time restrictions regarding detentions of illegal immigrants. In reality, the EU policy is not only addressing illegal immigration coming from Latin America, but is greatly focused on the 51,000 illegal boat people coming into Spain, Italy, Greece and Malta that arrived in 2007 alone. Many of these illegal migrants end up drowning on their voyage to Europe, presenting the EU with a diverse humanitarian problem in dealing with illegal immigration. The new policy awards voluntary deportations, but also penalizes migrants who attempt to frustrate officials in dealing with their deportations as well. Families and children also have some rights extended, but as a whole the new policies are a lot stricter than previous laws protecting the EU from illegal migration.

After the EU Policy is implemented in the long run, the true effectiveness of the EU Immigration Policy will show its true colours. Protests from Latin America will likely not lead into true economic sanctions however, unless there are massive abuses against their citizens in the EU. In the end, many still will enter the EU illegally, and this is unlikely to change. The effectiveness of the new policy will come when people are actually caught and deported, which is still the fate of the minority of illegal immigrants in most countries in the world. Morality and immigration policy is still to be debated in Latin America and the EU, but it is certain that a solution to these issues is far from an absolute success in immigration policy in any region of the world.

For Video on the Mercosur Summit and Latin American leaders and EU Immigration, click here.

<>The New York Times is reporting that Greek Islands are being overwhelmed by migrant arrivals - and most recently, a large part of these are unaccompanied minors. The tiny island of Leros is waiting for the declaration of a state of emergency, after 200 migrants were picked up by the coast guard over the last few days.

While a number of these launched political asylum claims and others were sent back under existing procedures, the new wave of child migrants is raising new questions for local officials: “The problem now is who takes care of the minors,” said Chrysoula Sifouniou, deputy prefect of the Dodecanese, a group of islands dotting the Aegean’s southeast flank near the Turkish coast. “We don’t have the infrastructure to cope with them, not even a single reception center for them. There’s no state plan or strategy in place to deal with these cases.” 

“This is a new trend we’ve noticed in recent months,” Ms. Sifouniou said. “It has left us baffled and confused, because we neither have the expertise nor the infrastructure to deal with this problem on a local level.”

Concerned islanders and church officials have offered to aid the children, and some hotel owners have offered to house them.

<>The United Nations has already criticized Greece’s policy of dealing with new arrivals and now state officials are calling for additional help from the European Union.  We will follow this story as it develops further.

First off: We are back - after a long hiatus barred behind firewalls and various projects!

 In its October 29th issue, German news magazine, DER SPIEGEL (article is in English), reports on inhumane expulsion practices by Greek officials dealing with refugees along the country’s shores.

German refugee rights organization ProAsyl and the Greek Group of Lawyers for the Rights of Refugees and Asylum Seekers have issued a condemning report on the human rights violations that are apparently common practice in the refoulement of unwanted refugees and would be migrants in Agean Sea.

The report alledges the following:

“The Greek coast guard systematically maltreats newly arrived refugees. It tries to block their

All three of the detention camps visited by the delegation offer unacceptable living conditions.The circumstances of detention amount to degrading and inhuman treatment.”

ProAsyl and its supporting organizations, including the European Council for Refugees and Exiles, ECRE, are calling upon the EU to take rapid, punitive action against Greece, respective of the European Convention on Human Rights, the Geneva Convention on the Protection of Refugees and existing European Directives.

Read ProAsyl’s press release here (PDF).

Download the full report here.