Immigration - new material (75)
01 November 2004
Mugak. Nos. 27/28 (April-September) 2004, E8, pp 92. This double issue focuses on a topic that is underestimated when talking about development programmes, immigration and improving conditions in migrants' countries of origin: the role that migrants who reside in our societies can play. The Mugak editorial staff comments: "It is a matter, in this as in many other issues, of ceasing to look at migrant people as though they were invalid. If we look at them without prejudice, it is easy to realise that we are talking of people who, among other things, have a very good knowledge of the place that they left behind; that they have an average academic education that is superior to ours; overall, they are people who have a contribution to make in more than a few fields". Available from the Centro de Documentación e Investigación sobre racismo y xenofobia, Peña y Goñi, 13 1, 20002 San Sebastian.
Primer Informe sobre los procedimientos administrativos de detención, internamiento y expulsión de extranjeros en Catalunya,
Observatori del Sistema Penal i els Drets Humans (OSPDH), Universitat de Barcelona, Virus Editorial, October 2003, pp.78. This report analyses the administrative procedures for the arrest, internment and expulsion of foreigners in Catalunya, and the roles played by judges, lawyers and police officials. It examines the Ley de extranjería (Spain's immigration law), noting that it establishes "a special administrative law [system] for foreign migrants" and laments that police and government authorities denied its authors access to the La Verneda detention centre for migrants, claiming that "the Administration's opacity when dealing with any information concerning detention centres and the living conditions of the foreigners who are detained therein, only augments existing doubts over the respect of the latter's human rights". Questionnaires are used to allow judges and lawyers to explain the functions they undertake, and their views on the legal process. One of the study's conclusions is that 90% of lawyers and 48% of judges feel that these administrative proceedings cause a high level of defencelessness for foreigners, as they fail to guarantee the full exercise of the right to defence and of effective judicial control. OSPDH website: www.ub.es/ospdh; e-mail: observsp@dret.ub.es
Harm on Removal: Excessive Force against Failed Asylum Seekers, Dr. Charlotte Granville-Chapman, Ellie Smith & Neil Moloney.
Medical Foundation for the Victims of Torture 2004, pp. 60. This report presents the findings of research on incidents of harm inflicted by state or private detention guards on unsuccessful asylum seekers who were detained pending their removal. The study was in response "to growing concerns amongst human rights organisations, refugee agencies, immigration detainee visitors groups and legal practitioners about a small but worrying number of allegations of harm occurring in detention, during transfers and on attempted removal." Section I covers the medical findings and indicates the various methods of force and "the application of seemingly excessive or gratuitous force" identified by 14 detainees who were interviewed and medically examined by a doctor. Section II assesses the human rights law implications of the abuse of detainees, while Section III provides an assessment of the criminal and civil law implications. In conclusion the report finds that "the medical data indicate that the degree of force used during the process of removing an unsuccessful asylum seeker from the UK may be excessive. The injuries documented... suggest that in some cases the force employed cannot have resulted from either the use or misuse of any recognised or established control or restraint technique." With this in mind the authors make nine recommendations that they hope will go some way to improve their "extremely worrying" findings. Available on http://www.torturecare.org.uk/publications/reportAsylum/ht