Copenhagen: Asylum seekers busy as bees

Copenhagen: Asylum seekers busy as bees


Via the Copenhagen Post:

When Joseph* and his friends collected honey in Nigeria, they wore an extra layer of clothing, lit a torch and kicked the hive from the tree to take the swarm’s sweet nectar.

Now living at Sandholm Asylum Centre, Joseph is studying a more conventional method of beekeeping alongside more than 20 other asylum seekers at Copenhagen’s Bybi (City Bee Association).

The six-month training program, which began in March, is a joint initiative between Bybi and the Danish Red Cross, with support from the Roskilde Festival Fund.

(source)

Bergen: Afghan suspect in knifing murder, claims he was attacked for being Christian

Bergen: Afghan suspect in knifing murder, claims he was attacked for being Christian

Via Aftenposten:

One man was killed and another injured following a knifing at Ny-Paradis state asylum centre in Bergen western Norway, Tuesday.  The suspect is an Afghan who made headlines last year when he was attacked with boiling water by fellow residents of his asylum center because he was a Christian convert.  A Somali man was charged for the attack, and was sentenced to five months in prison.  On appeal he was acquitted, as the court believed him it had been an accident.

"He had big problems due to his Christian faith.  There are many in the asylum center who don't accept people converting from Islam to Christianity,' Issa Hammer says of the Afghan suspect.  He's a friend of the two Christian Afghans at the center and goes with them to church.

Groningen : Asylum seekers' protest camp grows

Groningen : Asylum seekers' protest camp grows

Via Expatica:

A campsite in the province of Groningen inhabited by rejected asylum seekers continues to grow as more people join the protest.

Around 300 asylum seekers are living in tents in Ter Apel. The group has gathered to protest their impending deportations; a spokesperson for the applicants said he expects the camp to continue to grow.

(source)

Denmark: Asylum seekers avoiding Denmark

Denmark: Asylum seekers avoiding Denmark

Via the Copenhagen Post:

According to the Danish Refugee Council (DRC), the drop in applications may be attributed to Denmark’s reputation as a difficult place to be granted asylum.

“There have not been any systematic studies examining why asylum seekers choose one country over another,” the DRC’s head of asylum, Eva Singer, told Politiken newspaper. “But one part of the explanation may be found in their understanding of which countries offer their best chance of gaining asylum.

We can see this with asylum seekers from Somalia, who for many years had their applications turned down in Denmark. The asylum seekers are often advised by traffickers who recommend which countries are best to travel to.”

(source)

Belgium: Cash for Asylum and Migration, despite the cuts

Belgium: Cash for Asylum and Migration, despite the cuts

Via Expatica:

The Asylum and Migration Department has received 27 million euros extra despite the whole range of austerity measures the federal government announced.

The cash will be used to keep reception centres for asylum seekers open longer, the Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration Maggie De Block (Flemish liberal) announced.

(source)

Switzerland: Build villages for asylum seekers: Swiss party

Switzerland: Build villages for asylum seekers: Swiss party

Via the Local:

The Christian Democratic Party has tabled a motion to introduce specially built villages for asylum-seekers.

The idea is to build three “villages” in Canton Aargau in eastern Switzerland in order to house some 500 asylum-seekers.

(...)

But the far-right Swiss People’s Party thinks that such a system would create the wrong incentives for would-be asylum seekers, as it could make asylum in Switzerland even more attractive.

Others consider the plans for the villages to be similar to a kind of apartheid.

(source)

Gothenburg: Christian-Muslim couple from Kosovo hiding from immigration police

Gothenburg: Christian-Muslim couple from Kosovo hiding from immigration police

Via SR:

A couple from Kosovo are living in hiding in Gothenburg, and say they are willing to do so for the rest of their lives in order to stay in Sweden. Their asylum request has been rejected. According to the Immigration Service, there are close to 5,000 people in Sweden who were refused asylum but cannot be found to be deported.

The woman is pregnant and says it is diffiuclt, every day they think of the fact that their child will have no future.

Bosnia: Threats Drive Education Official To Resign, Flee Country

Bosnia: Threats Drive Education Official To Resign, Flee Country

Finland: Spying on refugees on the increase

Finland: Spying on refugees on the increase

Via YLE:

Spying on foreigners residing in Finland has increased, according to the annual report of the Finnish Security Intelligence Service (SUPO). Such activity is not illegal as is the case in other Nordic countries.

Foreign intelligence services use spying techniques to keep citizens residing abroad in check. Dissidents and refugees face regular surveillance.

(source)

Netherlands: Council of state criticises amnesty plan for child refugees

Netherlands: Council of state criticises amnesty plan for child refugees

Via DutchNews:

Draft legislation to give an automatic right to stay in the Netherlands to refugee children who have lived here for at least eight years is unnecessary, unfocused and unfair, according to the Council of State.

(...)

In addition, the legislation could encourage families to drag out legal procedures until a child had been in the country for eight years, and it would be unfair on families who have left, Nos television quotes the council as saying.

(source)

Switzerland: Sharp increase in crime due to Tunisian refugees

Switzerland: Sharp increase in crime due to Tunisian refugees

Via 20min (French):

Olivier Guéniat, head of the Jura cantonal police, told newspaper Le Matin of the link between the massive increase in Tunisian asylum seekers in 2011 (up by 619% compared with 2010) and the sharp increase in crimes. The number of car burglaries doubled in May and June 2011, compared with the average until then, then increased to 6 times that amount from July to January 2012. Meanwhile, the number of Tunisians who arrived after the Arab Spring and were identified by DNA tests for these offenses, increased by 200% from November 2011 to January 2012.

Guéniat, who is considered close to the Socialists, said the problem was specific and economical, though at the same time unacceptable. The refugees have a hopeless future at home, and their daily allowance do not even allow them three cups of coffee. He refused to stigmatize a community of immigrants.

Switzerland: Party slams 'exploding' number of asylum seekers

Switzerland: Party slams 'exploding' number of asylum seekers

Via AFP:

The far-right Swiss People's Party, the country's largest, on Monday accused the government of inaction and abuses in dealing with a surge of asylum seekers.

"The number of asylum applications is exploding, crime increases, the costs of asylum progressing from year to year," the SVP said in a statement, lamenting that processing takes up to four years.

"The Swiss asylum policy is now marked by abuses, absurdities and by inaction and confusion," the party said.

(source)

Switzerland: Muslim refugees housed in brothel

Switzerland: Muslim refugees housed in brothel

Switzerland: Asylum seekers sanding off fingertips

Switzerland: Asylum seekers sanding off fingertips

Via the Local:

Many Eritrean and Somalian refugees are taking extreme measures to destroy their fingerprints to avoid being identified and returned to the first country they entered in Europe.

"The most common method is to grind the fingertips down, for example by using sandpaper. They can also easily be worn down on a rough wall of a house," Roger Boxler, head of the refugee reception center at Kreuzlingen, told newspaper Tages Anzeiger.

(source)

Switzerland: Federal authorities considering separate camps for criminal asylum seekers

Switzerland: Federal authorities considering separate camps for criminal asylum seekers

Via SwissInfo:

The federal authorities say they are considering a proposal to set up special housing for criminal asylum seekers under restraining orders.

Mario Gattiker, head of the Federal Migration Office, said he was open to the idea from canton Ticino, which has been bearing the brunt of a wave of asylum seekers entering from neighbouring Italy.

The plan was launched by a prominent member of the Lega dei Ticinesi movement in the Ticino government.

(...)

Residents in the border region have regularly complained about incidents allegedly committed mainly by young asylum seekers from North Africa.

(source)

Finland: More asylum seekers returning home by choice

Finland: More asylum seekers returning home by choice

Via YLE:

About one tenth of asylum seekers in Finland return to their home countries voluntarily. In the past couple of years, the greatest number of asylum seekers heading home have been Iraqis. The Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) is setting up a permanent system to facilitate such moves, known as Assisted Voluntary Return.

(source)

Belgium: "Belgium is no Eldorado"

Belgium: "Belgium is no Eldorado"

Via VRT:

Belgium's brand new Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration, Maggie De Block (Flemish liberal), presented her policy document to lawmakers on Wednesday. Ms De Block wants to come down hard on abuse of Belgium's asylum system and encourage voluntary repatriation when appropriate.

The Asylum Secretary also announced the speedy creation of a new closed asylum centre as well as a new centre for illegal delinquents.

(...)

The Asylum Secretary identified the priorities of her policy: limiting the asylum procedure to six months and short shrift for people who apply for asylum for a second time. She was also keen to stress that Belgium is no Eldorado: "Putting asylum seekers up in hotels has to stop. There has to be an end to the enormous fines that the courts impose on us by the day."

(source)

Netherlands: Somalis fight for residency rights

Netherlands: Somalis fight for residency rights

33 Somali asylum seekers are staging a protest in front of a detention centre in Ter Apel, a village in a remote part of the northeast of the Netherlands. Full clip here.

EU: Judges overturn asylum regulation

EU: Judges overturn asylum regulation

Via Presseurop:

An asylum seeker cannot be transferred to an EU state where he or she “risks having to endure degrading or inhumane treatment,” reports Die Tageszeitung.

The European Court of Justice has set a precedent by ruling in favour of six refugees from Afghanistan, Iran and Algeria who entered the EU via Greece, and thereafter filed for asylum in the UK and Ireland. In line with the Dublin II regulation which stipulates that asylum applications must be processed by the first European state in which a refugee arrives, the six had been returned to Greece, where the conditions for refugees are catastrophic.

(source)

Switzerland: Asylum seekers forced onto street

Switzerland: Asylum seekers forced onto street

Via swissinfo:

Stories of asylum seekers being turned away from full asylum shelters amid freezing temperatures have sparked upset.

Both humanitarian organisations and politicians have sharply criticised the moves at asylum centres in the Swiss cantons of Basel City, Ticino and Vaud in recent weeks in which people were forced to seek shelter in private homes, train stations or under the care of the Salvation Army.

While temporary solutions have been found in some cases, the situation has once again magnified the underlying issue of a nationwide shortage of accommodation for asylum seekers.

Parliamentarians have called on the government to take action. Meanwhile the Swiss Refugee Council told swissinfo.ch the government should do more to encourage Switzerland’s 26 cantons to do their bit.

(source)