june 2006

Externalisation

• Two projects on external border controls, financed by the E.U., are lead by Spain on the African coast. The Atlantis project (400,000 euros), of which start has been brought forward because of the mass landings of migrants in the canaries islands in recent weeks, plans to create joined naval patrols near the Mauritanian coast, to send a liaison officer and to train the Mauritanian authorities. The Sea Horse project (2 million euros on the AENEAS funds) regroups Senegal, Mauritania, Morocco, Cape Verde Islands, Italy, France, Belgium, Germany and Portugal. It is coordinated by Spain and will last three years. The aim is to reinforce cooperation between departure, transit and arrival countries, in order to stop illegal immigration.

• The directorate General for Development of the European Commission starts the migration management in ACP countries, through the development of actions

• There are more than 4,000 Moroccan minors in Spain. An “entente memorandum” has been signed between Spain and Morocco to ensure the respect and the dignity of the minor treatment.

• Ukraine is facing an increasing number of immigrants trying to enter the European Union through new state-members

• Abdoulaye Wade published an article in Le Monde. He asked Nicolas Sarkozy to open dialogue with Senegal and criticised the unilateral behaviour of France about im/emigration. Exchanges with the Spanish government are taken as an example for the cooperative management of the migratory phenomenon.

• The security system created by the Frontex agency in the Canaries Islands will be set off in the beginning of July

• Three points will be debated in the Euro-African conference in Rabat: the fight against illegal immigration thanks to information exchange, illegal immigration and coordination development. Algeria will not attend the conference.

• The European Union is present at the Ukrainian and Moldavian borders. Liaison officers supervise and offer a technical assistance to the local officers.

• Algeria will not attend the interdepartmental conference in Rabat. It thinks that the migration issue should be debated with the African Union and not only a few countries.

• A detailed document was made in Spanish on the Spanish surveillance projects, in particular Atlantis and Sea Horse.

• Bi-lateral agreements between Spain and Mauritania have been signed. Funds have been granted to Mauritania for the management of the migratory flows and the development.

Member States/ Third states

• The United Kingdom is debating on a possible regularisation

• Algeria broke up an Asian illegal immigration network.

• The mass arrivals of African migrants in Malta create many problems: xenophobia and racism, centres overcrowding, difficulties created by the Dublin regulation on the asylum requests.

• Nicolas Sarkozy wants to ask the Senegalese government’s opinion before installing a special insertion and aid program for the return of the African immigrants. This might be the occasion to start a partnership for the immigration issues between France and Senegal (maybe to define later a legal immigration rate).

• Malta repressed the revolt of 20 detainees, who was held in deplorable sanitary conditions

Camps

• France : national protest day on June 20, 2006, called by CIMADE, because of the opening of a camp bigger than ever before (280 places in Vincennes).

• MEPs visited some retention centres: Lampedusa, Malta, Paris, Ceuta

Asylum

• [Asylum claims have decreased in Europe. It is probably linked to the speeding up of the procedures and therefore to the access restrictions to the refugees status.
• Belgium
• Germany
• Czech Republic

• Italy is the only country without an asylum regulation

• The European Council does not agree with the «fortress policies» installed by the state members about asylum. The imprisonment of asylum seekers is particularly criticised.

• UNHCR criticises the British asylum system, underlining that the examination of the claims is too inadequate and the eviction of the rejected seekers send them to a very dangerous situation.

• 13 associations are engaged against the Dublin II Regulation on asylum right. A letter, that have been signed by organisations, have been sent to the commissioner Frattini, in order to point out the inefficiency and injustice of the system for the asylum seekers, as well as its inequality of the responsibility share.

Appeal and mobilisation

• Rabat Manifesto, following the non-governmental conference June 30 and July 1, 2006. This conference is to link to the Euro-African governmental conference of July 10-11th, 2006.

• European Appeal for the regularization of immigrants without papers and the closing of detention centres. This appeal was first made by the European social forum in Athens.

• Second European Caravan in Barcelona for the freedom of movement
• Fifty demonstrators have been arrested.
• Manifesto, proposed by the European Caravan for the freedom to circulate, asking to close imprisonment places for aliens and to stop the legal action started after the movement that began in Barcelona on the 24th of June in the Zona Franca detention center

• Declaration of the social forum on the migration (which was held on June 22-24, 2006) in Spanish

Migreurop

• Article published in Libération, on June 13, 2006, by Claire Rodier, president of Migreurop: «illegal emigration»: words to be banned