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03/23/09
By Ana Paula Coquet Dávila* / Seinforma Correspondent
España.- The European Parliament approved recently a policy that goes in effect in 2010, which rules illegal immigrants will have to voluntarily leave the European Union in a 30-day period. If they don’t, they could be confined in detention centers for 6 months, period that could be extended up to 18 months if there is no cooperation; that means, if the nationality can’t be identified or if the origin country doesn’t facilitate the return.
The entrance of the “irregulars” to the European Union will also be prohibited within the next five years after their expulsion 1.
Another controversial point of this policy is that the minors will be sent back to their origin countries, with or without their families, with tutors or public institutions. It can be classified as one of the biggest violations of the children’s rights, according to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and many constitutions of the western world.
Those constitutions establish that the minors can’t be separated from their parent if a crime hasn’t been committed. Migration is not a crime, is simply a fault in paperwork, so it can’t result in the segregation of children and parents.
Worse than Guantanamo
Nowadays, the member countries of the EU have at least 178 temporary detention centers for immigrants. The conditions of those centers have been denounced in several occasions as more degrading than those of penitentiary ones 2.
Many organizations have called this policy as the “embarrassment” policy and has been judged several times as a backward step in human rights. Migrant holding centers have been a reinvention of Guantanamo; a jail with no reason, without trial and without legality, where terrible violations of human rights are committed.
Country members of the EU will be able to decide how they will apply the policy. Nine countries - United Kingdom, Sweden, Greece, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Ireland, Holland and Malta - don’t have a maximum period of time for withholding immigrants, so they can be retained indefinitely 3.
Free juridical assistance will be given in some cases but it will depend on national laws and only when there is a real chance of succeeding with time and economic limits 4. The European Union has two years after the publication date to apply the law.
An article written by Revista Fusión states that “Europe heads to an “illegal hunt” with repressive means that affect the immigrants with no papers as much as their origin countries."5
The importance of the remittances for Latin-American countries is something we should consider. For many families, they represent their sustenance and on the countries they have macro-economical effects. Natalia Ribas, researcher at the Laboratory of Sociology of the Mediterranean (LAMES) and author of several books on migration expresses that “(…) the remittances resolve many of the poverty issues, of families that need the basic money for aliments and school.”6
Ethical, racial, religious and ideological restrictions
Almost one hundred thousand million euros were moved in remittances in 2004, according to the World Bank. The areas that received the larger remittances were Latin American and the Caribbean.7
José Miguel Insulza, secretary of the Organization of American States (OAS) declared that the “migration flow to the richest counties will keep happening while Latin Americans cannot find jobs in their own countries.” Insulza added that the movement of people is one of the consequences of globalization. 8
Latin American governments unanimously rejected “Fortress Europe”. In the Commission of Permanent Representatives of MERCOSUR the policy was condemned and the countries protested to the European Union.
Argentina claimed that migration is not a felony and “Fortress Europe” creates ethnical, religious, racial and ideological restrictions; so it constitutes a violation to human rights.
Let us remember the history of Africa and Latin America, a place that Europe emigrated but also conquered, sacked and imposed and economic model that is directly responsible for the poverty in these continents.
And it is now, the European Union that becomes the biggest oppressor of the defenseless. A letter written by Evo Morales, the president of Bolivia, protests to the EU: “(…) I call to develop a migration policy that respects human rights, and that allows to maintain our relations, beneficial for both continents and that repairs once for all the tremendous historical, economical and ecological debt that European countries have with a great part of the Third World(…)”.
Historical Paradox
El País, a Spanish newspaper, published an article called, Explanations about Fortress Europe (Aclaraciones sobre la Directiva de Retorno de la Unión Europea), where it asserts that the EU is the region in the world where the legal state is most consolidated and where the citizens and foreigners have the biggest juridical guarantees at all their levels.9
That declaration is paradoxical because they are imprisoning innocent people that seek a life they can’t get in their origin countries. The illegal immigrants are not criminals.
“Europe Fortress” policy evokes sad memories of the history of humanity; especially in European land, where ghettos and concentration camps became the prison of innocents. It was on those painful circumstances, when Europe suffered terrible wars, that Latin America, more than a shelter, became a home that received them with open arms.
Let us not be to late one more time and that with embarrassment we have to apologize for our indifference. Let us not allow a policy that promotes discrimination and disrespect.
1 RAMIREZ María, La Eurocámara aprueba la norma que permite retener hasta 18 meses a los “ilegales, El Mundo, 18/06/2008, http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2008/06/18/internacional/1213783999.html
2 Observatori DESC, Contra la directiva de la vergüenza, Liberinfo, 5 mayo de 2008, <http://www.libe>rinfo.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=3529
3 RAMIREZ María, La Eurocámara aprueba la norma que permite retener hasta 18 meses a los “ilegales, El Mundo, 18/06/2008, http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2008/06/18/internacional/1213783999.html
4Ibid
5 IGLESIA Martha, Europa Blindaje de Fronteras, Revista Fusión, Agosto 2008, <http://www.revistafusion.com/2002/agosto/repor107.htm>
6 EROSKI, Las remesas económicas de los inmigrantes, CONSUMER EROSKI, http://www.consumer.es/web/es/solidaridad/economia_solidaria/2006/10/26/156758.php?page=3
7 IBID
8 CELARE (Centro Latinoamericano para las Relaciones con Europa), Gobiernos Latinoamericanos rechazaron de forma unánime la Directiva de Retorno de la UE, Infolatam, 20 junio de 2008, <http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache:Y6GtQ7SyzC8J:www.derechoshumanosbolivia.org/bvdocs/directiva%2520de%2520retorno.pdf+directiva+retorno+diferentes+paises&hl=es&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=es&client=firefox->
9 GUTIERREZ Juan, Aclaraciones sobre la directiva de retorno de la Unión Europea, Foro Jurídico, El País, 17 de septiembre de 2008, <http://lacomunidad.elpais.com/forojuridicointernacional/2008/9/17/aclaraciones-sobre-directiva-retorno-la-union-europea>
*Ana Paula Coquet Dávila is a Mexican social communicator. At present she is working in TV post-production at the Federal District, at Circuit 24, House of Representatives.
By Ana Paula Coquet Dávila* / Seinforma Correspondent
España.- The European Parliament approved recently a policy that goes in effect in 2010, which rules illegal immigrants will have to voluntarily leave the European Union in a 30-day period. If they don’t, they could be confined in detention centers for 6 months, period that could be extended up to 18 months if there is no cooperation; that means, if the nationality can’t be identified or if the origin country doesn’t facilitate the return.
The entrance of the “irregulars” to the European Union will also be prohibited within the next five years after their expulsion 1.
Another controversial point of this policy is that the minors will be sent back to their origin countries, with or without their families, with tutors or public institutions. It can be classified as one of the biggest violations of the children’s rights, according to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and many constitutions of the western world.
Those constitutions establish that the minors can’t be separated from their parent if a crime hasn’t been committed. Migration is not a crime, is simply a fault in paperwork, so it can’t result in the segregation of children and parents.
Worse than Guantanamo
Nowadays, the member countries of the EU have at least 178 temporary detention centers for immigrants. The conditions of those centers have been denounced in several occasions as more degrading than those of penitentiary ones 2.
Many organizations have called this policy as the “embarrassment” policy and has been judged several times as a backward step in human rights. Migrant holding centers have been a reinvention of Guantanamo; a jail with no reason, without trial and without legality, where terrible violations of human rights are committed.
Country members of the EU will be able to decide how they will apply the policy. Nine countries - United Kingdom, Sweden, Greece, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Ireland, Holland and Malta - don’t have a maximum period of time for withholding immigrants, so they can be retained indefinitely 3.
Free juridical assistance will be given in some cases but it will depend on national laws and only when there is a real chance of succeeding with time and economic limits 4. The European Union has two years after the publication date to apply the law.
An article written by Revista Fusión states that “Europe heads to an “illegal hunt” with repressive means that affect the immigrants with no papers as much as their origin countries."5
The importance of the remittances for Latin-American countries is something we should consider. For many families, they represent their sustenance and on the countries they have macro-economical effects. Natalia Ribas, researcher at the Laboratory of Sociology of the Mediterranean (LAMES) and author of several books on migration expresses that “(…) the remittances resolve many of the poverty issues, of families that need the basic money for aliments and school.”6
Ethical, racial, religious and ideological restrictions
Almost one hundred thousand million euros were moved in remittances in 2004, according to the World Bank. The areas that received the larger remittances were Latin American and the Caribbean.7
José Miguel Insulza, secretary of the Organization of American States (OAS) declared that the “migration flow to the richest counties will keep happening while Latin Americans cannot find jobs in their own countries.” Insulza added that the movement of people is one of the consequences of globalization. 8
Latin American governments unanimously rejected “Fortress Europe”. In the Commission of Permanent Representatives of MERCOSUR the policy was condemned and the countries protested to the European Union.
Argentina claimed that migration is not a felony and “Fortress Europe” creates ethnical, religious, racial and ideological restrictions; so it constitutes a violation to human rights.
Let us remember the history of Africa and Latin America, a place that Europe emigrated but also conquered, sacked and imposed and economic model that is directly responsible for the poverty in these continents.
And it is now, the European Union that becomes the biggest oppressor of the defenseless. A letter written by Evo Morales, the president of Bolivia, protests to the EU: “(…) I call to develop a migration policy that respects human rights, and that allows to maintain our relations, beneficial for both continents and that repairs once for all the tremendous historical, economical and ecological debt that European countries have with a great part of the Third World(…)”.
Historical Paradox
El País, a Spanish newspaper, published an article called, Explanations about Fortress Europe (Aclaraciones sobre la Directiva de Retorno de la Unión Europea), where it asserts that the EU is the region in the world where the legal state is most consolidated and where the citizens and foreigners have the biggest juridical guarantees at all their levels.9
That declaration is paradoxical because they are imprisoning innocent people that seek a life they can’t get in their origin countries. The illegal immigrants are not criminals.
“Europe Fortress” policy evokes sad memories of the history of humanity; especially in European land, where ghettos and concentration camps became the prison of innocents. It was on those painful circumstances, when Europe suffered terrible wars, that Latin America, more than a shelter, became a home that received them with open arms.
Let us not be to late one more time and that with embarrassment we have to apologize for our indifference. Let us not allow a policy that promotes discrimination and disrespect.
1 RAMIREZ María, La Eurocámara aprueba la norma que permite retener hasta 18 meses a los “ilegales, El Mundo, 18/06/2008, http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2008/06/18/internacional/1213783999.html
2 Observatori DESC, Contra la directiva de la vergüenza, Liberinfo, 5 mayo de 2008, <http://www.libe>rinfo.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=3529
3 RAMIREZ María, La Eurocámara aprueba la norma que permite retener hasta 18 meses a los “ilegales, El Mundo, 18/06/2008, http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2008/06/18/internacional/1213783999.html
4Ibid
5 IGLESIA Martha, Europa Blindaje de Fronteras, Revista Fusión, Agosto 2008, <http://www.revistafusion.com/2002/agosto/repor107.htm>
6 EROSKI, Las remesas económicas de los inmigrantes, CONSUMER EROSKI, http://www.consumer.es/web/es/solidaridad/economia_solidaria/2006/10/26/156758.php?page=3
7 IBID
8 CELARE (Centro Latinoamericano para las Relaciones con Europa), Gobiernos Latinoamericanos rechazaron de forma unánime la Directiva de Retorno de la UE, Infolatam, 20 junio de 2008, <http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache:Y6GtQ7SyzC8J:www.derechoshumanosbolivia.org/bvdocs/directiva%2520de%2520retorno.pdf+directiva+retorno+diferentes+paises&hl=es&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=es&client=firefox->
9 GUTIERREZ Juan, Aclaraciones sobre la directiva de retorno de la Unión Europea, Foro Jurídico, El País, 17 de septiembre de 2008, <http://lacomunidad.elpais.com/forojuridicointernacional/2008/9/17/aclaraciones-sobre-directiva-retorno-la-union-europea>
*Ana Paula Coquet Dávila is a Mexican social communicator. At present she is working in TV post-production at the Federal District, at Circuit 24, House of Representatives.
______________
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The Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement
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Migrations: Routes, Dreams and Reality
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The “embarrassment” policy
The “Fortress Europe” policy, now known as the “embarrassment” policy, considers jail, deportation, and the return of minors, with or without the company of their parents, in a clear violation of the children’s rights. The creation of detention centers similar to Guantanamo in the Old World is being denounced.
Latin American governments have rejected “Fortress Europe” policy unanimously. Europe emigrated but also conquered, sacked and imposed and economic model that is directly responsible for the poverty in Latin America and Africa. (photo Alvaro Gomez /Seinforma Canada)
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