Occasional Victories |
|
|
Life as a refugee support volunteer with it's occasional victories and frequent defeats. Occasional Victories is a place for links, news, rants and raves about Refugee related issues.
If you would like to contribute just drop me an email at carigeen(a)yahoo.com
Archives
|
2003-09-03
The Austrian situation gaelbhain in Austria posts: '39.000 people have been asking for asylum in Austria in 2002, the gouvernment catered for 7300, the rest of them has to see what they do. And most manage to get help and survive somehow, but about 2000 are homeless.' Same song, different words in Ireland. Nothing But The Same Old Story I was just about nineteen When I landed on their shore With my eyes big as headlights Like the thousands and thousands who came before I was going to be something . . . Smiled at the man scrutinising my face As I stepped down off the gangway Came down to their city Where I worked for many's the year Built a hundred houses Must've pulled half a million pints of beer Living under suspicion Putting up with the hatred and fear in their eyes You can see that you're nothing but a murderer In their eyes, we're nothing but a bunch of murderers Hey, Johnny, can't wait till Saturday night! Got a thirst that's raging . . . Know a place where we can put that right Wash away the confusion Hose down this fire inside But look out! 'Cause I'll tear you into pieces if you cross me. Paul Brady 2003-09-02
UNHCR statistics.... and comments UNHCR statistics on asylum applications in the period January - June 2003 The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has just released its statistics 'Asylum Levels And Trends In Industrialized Countries'. The figures for the first half of this year are broken down by region (EU / Europe as a whole / Canada / US / Japan etc.) and by first and second quarter. In the second quarter: * The level of asylum applications submitted in Europe were the lowest since current records were first collected by UNHCR in 1999. * The largest percentage reductions compared to the previous quarter were registered by Bulgaria and the UK which showed reductions of 40% (from a very low base) and 34%, respectively, with the numbers in both Ireland and Spain down by 31%. * 763 Nigerians sought refuge in Ireland during this period. The comparative figure for applications in Austria was 422 while Spain had 350 Nigerian applicants. Hmmm.... Possible reasons for the drop? No current war on Europe's borders. Former Yugoslavia is settling down and refugees from Czechnia, Iraq or Palestine have great difficulty getting here. The bloody African wars continue but it's almost impossible to get here from combat areas. Reinforcement of border controls on 'Fortress Europe' All that citizens of the 10 EU acceding countries have to do is wait for 1st May 2004 when free movement of labour becomes possible. There has been significant numbers of applications for asylum from the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic, and a certain number of applicants from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The reason for the relatively high level of Nigerian applications? English language, family connections, news of the closure of the Irish baby route has not filtered out yet. ------- In the period Jan-June 2003: * A total of 177,105 applications for asylum were made in Europe. * Of these, a total 4,750 applications for asylum (2.68% of Europe's total) were made in Ireland. This put Ireland in twelfth position in Europe as a recipient of asylum seekers during the period, just behind the Czech Republic and Greece. * In the corresponding period the UK received just over 34,000 applications. * Across the list of 29 industrialized countries, the main country of origin of asylum seekers was Iraq - over 17,000 Iraqis sought asylum. The Netherlands and Greece received the largest numbers of Iraqis. * The Russian Federation, Turkey, Serbia / Montenegro and China each produced more than 10,000 people seeking asylum with Nigeria in sixth place. |