Associated Press | Washington Post
May 8, 2012
WASHINGTON — Lawyers for an Albanian family in a protracted fight for political asylum say the Obama administration will allow them to remain in the United States. The decision to grant asylum to Edmond Demiraj (DEH’-meh-rye), his wife and son comes 10 years after Demiraj said a federal prosecutor promised him and his family a life in the United States in exchange for testimony against a reputed Albanian mobster… read more
By Louise Elliott | CBC News
May 9, 2012
(Left: Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, seen here earlier this month on Parliament Hill, is amending his omnibus immigration legislation in response to criticism about some of its measures; Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press.) Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is bending to opposition pressure and amending his controversial refugee omnibus bill, C-31. The amendment will introduce a 14-day and six-month review of the detention of so-called “mass arrivals” of refugees…read more
By Kristen Shane | Embassy
May 9, 2012
The UN refugee agency’s representative in Canada is urging the Harper government to make changes to its refugee bill, C-31, saying parts of it are inconsistent with international law. In testimony May 7 to the House immigration committee, on the last day of a marathon hearing schedule, Furio De Angelis outlined several concerns about parts of the bill he said provide for “differential categorization” of asylum seekers, and have the effect of restricting some claimants’ access to the asylum process… read more
Arieh O’Sullivan | via The Media Line
May 03, 2012
Campus in Camp’ helps younger generation wrestle with conflicting demands. The twenty-something Palestinians gathered here at a cultural center were born in the Dheisheh Camp, as were their parents and quite possibly their grandparents, too. But they are regarded by themselves and by their fellow Palestinians as refugees, victims of the 1948 war that led to the creation of the state of Israel, and as the people who await the day they can return to their homes… read more
by The Associated Press | via NPR
May 1, 2012
New Zealand may be one of the most geographically isolated nations on Earth, but its leaders say the country is not immune to the risks of refugees arriving by boat. No boats carrying asylum seekers have ever completed the daunting and treacherous sea voyage to New Zealand, although several have tried — including an ill-equipped fishing vessel carrying 10 Chinese refugees that last month reached the Australian port of Darwin before running out of fuel… read more
By Steve Cannane | Lateline ABC News
May 03, 2012 14:55:08
A five-year-old boy living in western Sydney faces indefinite separation from his father because of a negative security assessment from ASIO. In February last year, Sharthi, and his parents, were granted refugee status. The boy and his mother were released from Villawood detention centre but his father remains locked up with no right of appeal… read more
IANS | New York Daily News
Monday, April 23rd 2012
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi Monday said that he had raised with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh the issue of granting refugee status to those people in the state who had fled their countries due to persecution, apparently referring to Hindus who were forced out from Bangladesh… read more
By Margherita Stancati | Wall Street Journal
2 May 2012
(Sri Lanka is being pressurized to address alleged war crimes committed against its Tamil minority. Pictured, sympathizers of the Tamil Tigers protested against alleged human rights violations in London, April 7, 2009. Photo credit: Oli Scarff/Getty Images) Australia’s immigration minister denied his government was sending asylum seekers back to dangerous situations in Sri Lanka, saying that the people that Canberra returns are not refugees who fled violence… read more
LAURA WIDES-MUNOZ | Associated Press via The Republic
April 25, 2012
An immigration judge ordered U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio’s maternal grandfather deported back to Cuba in 1962, according to federal records obtained by The Associated Press under a Freedom of Information Act request. Pedro Victor Garcia eventually was allowed to stay in the U.S. permanently when Congress passed the Cuban Adjustment Act in 1966. But it’s unclear what happened in between… read more
By: Newstalk ZB staff | Latest National News
Tuesday May 1 2012
Planned changes to immigration laws are being labelled as discriminatory and politically motivated. Amendments being introduced to Parliament this week will make it much tougher for people to seek asylum here. Immigration lawyer Simon Laurent says the changes try to prevent people from applying for asylum here, even though New Zealand is a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention… read more
TRACY WATKINS | stuff.co.nz
30 April 2012
Changes to the Immigration Act to deter boat people have been introduced to Parliament. Immigration Minister Nathan Guy said the changes were being introduced to deter a mass arrival or potentially illegal migrants into new Zealand. They included the ability to detain a mass arrival under a “group warrant” rather than require individual warrants as is currently the case with asylum seekers… read more
The Associated Press | via USA Today
25 April 2012
(Pictured: An asylum seeker looks out through the bars of his cell in one of the detention centers run by the Hungarian border police in Nyirbator on Monday. By Bela Szandelszky, AP)
NYIRBATOR, Hungary (AP) – They say they came to Hungary to escape brutality, war or the threat of being put to death in their home countries. Instead, they are serving untold months behind bars without ever being convicted of a crime… read more
By Mr.Maxwell Nkole | Lusaka Times
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Since the end of the civil war in Angola in April 2002, over 180,000 Angolan refugees have voluntarily and safely returned to and reintegrated in their country of origin. Today, only some 23,000 Angolan refugees remain registered in Zambia. In light of the fundamental changes that have taken place in Angola since the end of the civil war, it is considered that those Angolan refugees remaining in Zambia who were granted refugee status on account of the civil war in Angola and the war of independence that preceded it should now be able to reclaim the national protection of their country of origin… read more
By Peter Henderson | Postmedia News
News
(The Supreme Court of Canada has announced it will hear the case of Rachidi Ekanza Ezokola. Photograph by: Geoff Robins/AFP/Getty Images , Getty Images)
A former diplomat for the Democratic Republic of Congo who’s been accused being complicit in war crimes will have his case for refugee status heard by the Supreme Court of Canada in an appeal that could redefine who this country considers culpable for war crimes… read more
The life and death of Veronica Castro
By Mary Sheppard | CBC News
Apr 24, 2012
Veronica Castro (pictured) kept in touch with friends in Canada and was able to tell them about the beating that led to her death five weeks after being deported to Mexico… CBC
