Asylum Update March 18 2009
18 March 2009
Research
New report from Positive Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers (PAFRAS): Underground Lives: an investigation into the living conditions & survival strategies of destitute asylum seekers in the UK
See also Guardian coverage
New book: Do Our Citizenship Requirements Impede the Protection of Political Asylum Seekers?: A Comparative Analysis of European Practices by Hakan G. Sicakkan.
Book chapter: Querying the Queue: A Review of the Literature on the Management of Borders and Migration in the European Union by Roos Pijpers in the Disoriented State: Shifts in Governmentality, Territoriality and Governance (eds Lagendijk, A., Arts, B. and van Houtum, H).
A Suitable Enemy: Racism, Migration and Islamophobia in Europe is a new book by Institute of Race Relations Executive Director Liz Fekete. It seeks to provide a ‘comprehensive overview of EU immigration, asylum, race and security policies’.
Post-traumatic stress in asylum seekers and refugees from Chechnya, Afghanistan, and West Africa: gender differences in symptomatology and coping by Walter Renner and Ingrid Salem in the International Journal of Social Psychiatry Vol 55 No 2.
Policy and Law
Bail for Immigration Detainees (BID) has produced three updated briefings on the detained fast track, access to immigration bail, and children and immigration detention
The European Parliament has adopted two new reports as part of its policy development process:
- Next steps in border management in the European Union and similar experiences in third countries. Proposals include an ‘entry/exit system for all third country nationals’, aimed primarily at overstayers from outside the European Union.
- Report on the future of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) which covers equal conditions of access to protection and asylum ‘burden’ across EU states, and the importance given to protection and human rights in the mandate of the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the EU Member States (Frontex). See also European Parliament press release
From the United National High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR):
- UNHCR Comments on the European Commission's Proposal for a recast of the Directive laying down minimum standards for the reception of asylum-seekers
- Opening of first emergency transit centre (ETC) for refugees by UNHCR and IOM.
The House of Lords Select Committee on the Constitution has published a report on: Part 3 of the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill
See also: Migrants Rights Network briefing on the Bill and its implications for refugees.
Childright No 253 from the Children’s Legal Centre features Booted Out: Kamena Dorling on the forced return of unaccompanied asylum seeking children
News
The government has announced the opening of Britain’s ‘biggest immigration removal centre’ next to Gatwick Airport t the same time as capacity at other such centres is being expanded.
See also Institute of Race Relations comment
Events
Médecins du Monde UK is holding a conference in London on Saturday 21 March on healthcare policy at home and abroad, with a particular focus on the most vulnerable migrants in the UK.
Resources
Maternity Action and Medact have published a set of information sheets on maternity rights for different categories of migrant women, including refugees, asylum seekers, refused asylum seekers and others.
