Asylum Update November 12th 2008

Research

 

Trafficking in Persons in Afghanistan is a new report from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) on trafficking both in and from Afghanistan, based on research conducted last year in Kabul and nine border provinces.  

Moving Up Together is a new study by the Institute of Public Policy Research examining ‘why some migrant and minority communities in the UK are falling behind’ and relevant policy interventions. It focuses on people born in Bangladesh, Iran, Nigeria and Somalia.

The European Journal of Migration and Law Vol 10, No 3 contains:

Whose Rights and Which Rights? The Continuing Story of Non-Refoulement under the European Convention on Human Rights by Maarten den Heijer and Must EU Borders have Doors for Refugees? On the Compatibility of Schengen Visas and Carriers’ Sanctions with EU Member States’ Obligations to Provide International Protection to Refugees by Violeta Moreno Lax.

 

Environment and Planning D Vol 26 No 5 contains Domopolitics and disease: HIV/AIDS, immigration, and asylum in the UK by Ingram, A.

 

Child Care Health and Development Vol 34 No 6: Social support in unaccompanied asylum-seeking boys: a case study by Mels, C.; Derluyn, I; Broekaert, E.

 

 

Policy and law

 

The European Commission has launched a public consultation on the future priorities in the field of Justice and Home Affairs policy, which covers asylum and refugees.
Meanwhile the European Civil Liberties Network has produced its own alternative questionnaire.

 

New Home Office minister Phil Woolas has stated that it would be disproportionately expensive to collate statistics on the number of people with exceptional leave to remain who have been refused settlement in the UK and whether having a criminal conviction in Britain was a reason for said refusal.

 

Events

 

Sir John Waite, co-chair of the Independent Asylum Commission, will give the 9th Annual Harrell-Bond Lecture entitled ‘Asylum: a new perspective.’ It is hosted by the Refugee Studies Centre and will take place in Oxford on Wednesday 19 November. Email Katherine Salahi to book a place.

 

‘Mental Health Matters: Issues for Asylum Seekers and Refugees’ features key note speakers from organisations like the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, Gofal, Mind Cymru and AWETU. It takes place at the Dylan Thomas Centre in Swansea on Wednesday 10th December 2008.

 

Launch of research report: ‘Relocation, Relocation – The impact of internal relocation on women asylum seekers’ by RWRP/Asylum Aid on November 27 at Garden Court Chambers, London, 6-8.30 pm. Email if you wish to attend.

 

The Refugee Council is hosting a series of regional workshops in November and December as part of the Inclusive Secondary Schools Project, which aims to encourage partnership work between schools and Refugee Community Organisations (RCOs).

 

News

 

A Congolese demonstration in Manchester protested against deportations to the DRC and the worsening situation in that country.

See also: Cameroonian returned to UK after passenger protest

 

The Border Agency plans to open a new immigration detention centre near Arncott, Bicester, would open in 2012 and house 800 people.