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  • Georgian Human Rights Groups Meet Western Diplomats

    Georgian Human Rights Groups Meet Western Diplomats

    Civil Georgia, Tbilisi / 10 Mar.2010

    Georgian human rights and advocacy groups met with British, French and U.S. ambassadors in Tbilisi on March 10 to convey their concerns regarding recent cases of, as they put it, targeting human rights groups and activists.

    Representatives from Human Rights Centre (HRC), Georgian Young Lawyers Association (GYLA) and Multinational Georgia, an umbrella organization for dozens of NGOs working on ethnic and religious minority issues, participated in the meeting held in the office of HRC.

    “There have been cases of direct or indirect pressure on activists and human rights groups and we wanted to inform ambassadors about these cases,” Ucha Nanuashvili, head of Human Rights Centre, said.

    He said, among other issues, the case of Arnold Stepanian, founder of Multinational Georgia and representative of Armenian community in Georgia, was raised during the meeting.

    Some Georgian media outlets alleged recently Stepanian was working for the Russian intelligence. Posts made by anonymous users on several Russian internet discussion forums were cited as source of information.

    One of such reports was aired recently by Tbilisi-based Real TV, a station going out in Tbilisi through cable. Its 9-minute long report on the issue opens with footage from a meeting of leaders of Alliance for Georgia (Irakli Alasania, Davit Usupashvili, Davit Gamkrelidze and Sozar Subari) with representatives of Armenian community, also attended by Arnold Stepanian; the footage is accompanied by voiceover saying: “Irakli Alasania, Davit Usupashvili, Davit Gamkrelidze and Sozar Subari are sitting alongside with a presumed special agent of Russia’s Federal Security Service Arnold Stepanian.”

    In general targeting opposition politicians has become a hallmark of Real TV; but the way how the station does it has become a source of criticism from many journalist and media experts saying that the station’s reports are often mudslinging.

    After the meeting in HRC office, French Ambassador Eric Fournier told a reporter from Real TV: “Your channel has specifically targeted some members of the opposition to make a very cynical portrait of them and it has been considered as concern by many of us.”

    John Bass, the U.S. ambassador, said the meeting aimed at getting “first-hand impression, first-hand assessment” about the human rights landscape in Georgia.

    “It’s part of our broad interaction with wide range of organizations so that we can assess human rights situation as part of our broad commitment to help Georgia to realize its goals of membership in Euro-Atlantic community,” Bass said.

    Denis Keefe, the British ambassador, said work of human rights groups was “fundamental to Georgia’s democratic development.”

    “We have good cooperation with number of these NGOs… and we have very useful and serious discussion,” Keefe said.

    Ucha Nanuashvili of HRC said that another case raised with the diplomats was related to a long-time investigative journalist Vakhtang Komakhidze, who has requested asylum in Switzerland, citing pressure from the authorities.

    On February 26 eighteen human rights and advocacy groups released a joint statement expressing concern over, as they put it, smear campaign against them.

    “Information campaign against human rights organizations has intensified since December 2009. Those media outlets, which are either controlled by or have links with the authorities, have reported biased stories one after another, where some human rights groups were portrayed as the country’s enemies working against public interests,” a joint statement by 18 non-governmental organizations.

  • Great Britain for open Armenian-Turkish border

    Great Britain for open Armenian-Turkish border

    CharlesLonsdaleGreat Britain wants the South Caucasus countries to establish friendly relations with each other, as well as with their neighbors, British Ambassador to Armenia Charles Lonsdale told NEWS.am. He pointed out that Great Britain is for both the Armenian-Turkish protocols and reopening of the Armenian-Turkish border. The past must by no means be forgotten, but good neighborly relations must be established and maintained, the Ambassador said. Mr. Lonsdale pointed out that Armenia and Great Britain are both interested in the Armenian-Turkish border being reopened.

    Ambassador Lonsdale refused to comment on the approval of the Armenian Genocide resolution by the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs. He said that it us up to the U.S. Congress to make a decision.

    T.P.

    , 05/03/2010

  • Ethnic Kurd wins high court release ruling after failed deportation

    Ethnic Kurd wins high court release ruling after failed deportation

    • Test case reveals Iraqi government resistance to repatriations
    • Home Office officials out of control, claims rights group

    • Owen Bowcott

    Home Office attempts to forcibly deport thousands of failed Iraqi asylum seekers suffered a setback today when it emerged that Baghdad has objected to any “increase in returns”.

    The official refusal surfaced in a high court test case , which ruled that an ethnic Kurd should be released after 21 months in immigration detention because there was no likelihood of his being sent back, even in the “medium term”.

    The decision by Mr Justice Langstaff may relate only to a single individual – Soran Ahmed, 22, from Kirkuk – but the judgment has exposed the Iraqi government’s reluctance to receive deportees and the difficulty UK officials have persuading counterparts in Baghdad to cooperate.

    An internal Whitehall document, read out to the court, detailed how the UK Border Agency is proposing to fly Iraqi officials into Britain so that they can understand and “buy-in” to the deportation process. It also suggested arranging a UK ministerial visit to Baghdad to stress “the importance of returns to Iraq“.

    Ahmed, whose case was supported by the Refugee and Migrant Justice (RMJ) civil rights group, was one of 44 failed Iraqi asylum seekers forcibly put on an abortive charter flight to Baghdad last October with private security guards; Ahmed claimed he was assaulted on board.

    In Baghdad, Iraqi interior officials never appeared and the deportees interviewed by an infuriated Iraqi colonel in charge of the airport. “He was antagonistic from the outset,” Mr Justice Langstaff commented.

    The colonel accepted 10 deportees and ordered the rest back to London. They did not have the correct Iraqi documentation, he claimed, or were ethnic Kurds who would be in danger in the predominantly Arab city of Baghdad.

    There are regular UK deportation flights to the relative peace of the Kurdistan Regional Government area in northern Iraq. Other European countries have been sending failed asylum seekers back to central and southern Iraq. The UK is meeting stiffer resistance to this route.

    The United Nations high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) still opposes repatriations to the central five governorates of Iraq due to the risk of violence. An email from officials in Baghdad to Whitehall last May “disclosed a reluctance to see an increase in the return of Iraqi nationals from the UK to Iraq,” the judge said.

    A Foreign Office official who flew to Iraq several times to prepare the way for the flight explained that he met resistance from Iraqi officials to EU documentation. On receipt of the full list of deportees the Iraqis said: “We will see what we can do”.

    A report from the conference reviewing the failure of the October flight suggested that the UK Borders Agency should learn from more successful EU deportation programmes and the Iraqi prime minister’s office should be written to for help. The high court heard that the letter has still not been despatched.

    It would be unlawful to continue to detain Ahmed, said Langstaff. He was previously imprisoned in Britain for sexual assault and using false documents. There was no prospect of UK flights returning him to Kirkuk via Baghdad this year and the Kurdish Regional Government would not accept him. The judge ordered him to be released under strict bail conditions despite the fact that he posed “some risk” to the public. Bail conditions will be determined at later hearing.

    Caroline Slocock, chief executive of RMJ, welcomed the judgment. “”[The flight] should never have left the UK. Home Office staff widened their own criteria on who could safely be on board, largely to fill empty seats at the last moment.

    “Not only was the destination of the flight kept secret from those being removed, but it is now clear Iraqi authorities were kept in the dark. The alarming picture emerging is of Home Office officials out of control. Officials needs to get a grip of the problem rather than egg officials on by changes of policy which make it easier for the remove people without proper judicial scrutiny.”

    Source:  https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/feb/19/kurd-asylum-seeker-repatriation-iraq, 19 February 2010

  • Tougher rules to stop abuse of student visa system

    Tougher rules to stop abuse of student visa system

    Tougher rules have been brought in to stop people abusing the student visa system to remain illegally in the UK.

    The government has faced criticism that the system is too lax
    The government has faced criticism that the system is too lax

    Home Secretary Alan Johnson said 30% of migrants who came into the UK were on student visas and a number were adults taking short courses, not degrees.

    Under the new rules, applicants will need to speak English to near-GCSE level and those on short courses will not be able to bring dependants.

    The Tories said the system had been the “biggest hole in border controls”.

    The Home Office would not confirm reports the changes may cut visas issued this year by tens of thousands.

    A spokesman said a review of student visas had been ordered in November. In 2008/9, about 240,000 student visas were issued by the UK.

    News of the new measures comes a week after student visa applications from Nepal, northern India and Bangladesh were suspended amid a big rise in cases.

    ‘Legitimate study’

    Last year the UK introduced a system requiring students wishing to enter the country to secure 40 points under its criteria.

    However, the government has faced criticism that this has allowed suspected terrorists and other would-be immigrants into the UK, only for them to stay on despite their visas being temporary.

    Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, the home secretary denied the system had been lax before.

    “By 2011, we will have the most sophisticated system in the world to check people not just coming into the country but to check they have left as well,” he said.

    He said the UK remains open to those foreign students who want to come to the UK for legitimate study.

    “We are the second most popular location for people going into higher education,” he said.

    “We have to be careful that we are not damaging a major part of the UK economy, between £5bn and £8bn.”

    Immigration Minister Phil Woolas told the BBC’s Politics Show 200 bogus colleges had been closed.

    “Students have foreign national identity cards. We have the e-Border counting in and counting out,” he said.

    “The latest proposals are a response to the moves by people who are trying to get round the system.”

    Under the measures, effective immediately:

    • Successful applicants from outside the EU will have to speak English to a level only just below GCSE standard, rather than beginner level as at present

    • Students taking courses below degree level will be allowed to work for only 10 hours a week, instead of 20 as at present

    • Those on courses which last under six months will not be allowed to bring dependants into the country, while the dependants of students on courses below degree level will not be allowed to work

    • Additionally, visas for courses below degree level with a work placement will also be granted only if the institutions they attend are on a new register, the Highly Trusted Sponsors List.

    Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said the UK needed to “restore immediately control of our borders”.

    “The biggest hole in the student visa system is caused by the Tory and Labour abolition of exit checks, which means we do not know if someone has left once their visa runs out,” he said.

    Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Grayling said the student visa system had been the “biggest hole in our border controls for a decade”.

    “Ministers should be ending the situation where a student visa is a way of coming to the UK to stay, by banning the practice of moving from course to course in order to stay on and stopping overseas students from applying for work permits without going home first,” he said.

    The party has also proposed that overseas students should pay a cash deposit which would be lost if they did not leave the country when their course finished.

    And Conservative backbencher Mark Pritchard has gone further and proposed universities withhold degree certificates until foreign students can prove they have returned to their home countries.

    But Mr Johnson said Mr Grayling’s plan would just add another level of bureaucracy.

    “Many of these students, if they are coming here using this route for illegal migration, will pay thousands of pounds to usually criminal gangs,” he said.

    “The thought of losing a bond is not going to solve this problem.”

    Source: news.bbc.co.uk, 7 February 2010

  • Bus Driver Arrested After ‘You’ve Planted a Bomb’ Jibe to Muslim Passenger

    Bus Driver Arrested After ‘You’ve Planted a Bomb’ Jibe to Muslim Passenger

    POLICE have arrested a bus driver who allegedly called a woman passenger a Muslim terrorist and asked her if she had put a bomb on his bus.

    An investigation was launched by First Buses in Leeds after Turkish-born Hatice McGraffin, 29, claimed a driver made the inflammatory remarks as she boarded her bus on her way to work on Thursday.

    The 45-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of racially/religiously aggravated harassment and remained in police custody at the time of printing.

    Mrs McGraffin, 29, from Otley, who is married to Englishman Ian, said the driver told her: “You are an Islamic terrorist – you have put a bomb on the bus’. I asked people on the bus ‘are you listening to this’ but they ignored me.

    “I am not even a practicing Muslim and I am married to an Englishman.

    “There are lots of Muslim people living in this country, does he think they are all terrorists?”

    It’s happening up and down the country every day. Innocent Muslims or people who look vaguely ‘Muslim’ are targeted and abused. Is this another example of the emerging ‘acceptable face’ of prejudice? Are Muslims the new ‘chavs’ and ‘gippos’, or the new 1930s German Jews?

    We applaud this young woman for standing up for herself and the police for taking immediate action.

    It was another lone woman on a bus who changed the course of history for the better. Rosa Parks is now regarded as the “Mother of the Modern-Day Civil Rights Movement”. On December 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, Parks, age 42, refused to obey a bus driver’s order that she give up her seat to make room for a white passenger. Her one small act of bravery helped change the course of history. She later said: “I would like to be remembered as a person who wanted to be free… so other people would be also free,” and, “I’m tired of being treated like a second-class citizen.”

    We hope Mrs McGraffin’s actions will encourage others to come forward and stand up for themselves.

    MPACUK

  • Schools reporting 40,000 racism cases a year

    Schools reporting 40,000 racism cases a year

    Schools are reporting 40,000 incidents of racism a year involving children as young as five after everyday playground squabbles, a report warns.

    school

    29 Oct 2009

    Primary schoolchildren and toddlers in nurseries are being punished for making racist insults, it claims, even if they do not understand the terms they use.

    The report also says teachers are being treated like counter staff in police stations, having to fill in forms detailing name-calling and jokes.

    At the same time, diversity “missionaries” sent into schools to teach pupils about bigotry are said to be increasing the divide between white and black children by forcing them to see everything in terms of race.

    Schools were placed under a duty by the Government in 2002 to monitor and report all racist incidents to their local authority.

    Adrian Hart, the author of the report which is published by the Manifesto Club, a civil liberties group, said: “The obligation on schools to report these incidents wastes teachers’ time, interferes in children’s space in the playground, and undermines teachers’ ability to deal with problems in their classrooms.

    “Worse, such anti-racist policies can create divisions where none had existed, by turning everyday playground spats into ‘race issues’. There are a small number of cases of sustained targeted bullying, and schools certainly need to deal with those.

    ”But most of these ‘racist incidents’ are just kids falling out. They don’t need re-educating out of their prejudice – they and their teachers need to be left alone.”

    The report gives an example of a Racist Incident Referral Form which records the case of a girl who called a boy “white trash” during a primary school football game. She was “severely spoken to” and suffered “loss of lunchtime play”.

    A five-year-old girl was told off and her parents were contacted when she refused to let a black girl join in a game, the report says.

    On another occasion, a primary school pupil was “spoken to severely” and warned he could be reported to the head teacher and his parents after calling two classmates “a chocolate bar”.

    Martin Ward, the deputy general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “Certainly any racist incident in schools should be dealt with swiftly but the definition of racism can be taken too far, especially with young children who clearly don’t understand the connotation behind the words.’’

    After the introduction of the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000, which put public bodies under a duty to eliminate discrimination, schools were told they had to monitor the impact of their policies on the educational attainment of pupils of different races.

    In 2002, racist incident forms were created that required teachers to name the alleged perpetrator and victim, and spell out what they did and how they were punished. Schools can keep these details on file.

    Today’s report – The Myth of Racist Kids – calculates that some 280,000 such incidents have been reported in England since full records began.

    An earlier investigation, using Freedom of Information requests, found 95,022 incidents between 2002-03 and 2005-06.

    Birmingham City Council alone has seen numbers rise from 943 incidents in 2002-03 to 1,606 in 2008-09, while 1,248 were logged by Leeds City Council last year.

    Essex County Council figures show that most of the children involved in reported racist incidents were aged between nine and 11.

    Schools that send in “nil” returns are criticised for “under-reporting”, and are sent letters telling them to put up posters raising awareness.

    Mr Hart recommends that the compulsory reporting of alleged racism is scrapped, and that schools are allowed to develop their own policies on diversity and playground disputes.

    Diana Johnson, the Schools Minister, said: “Bullying in all forms, including those motivated by prejudice, is totally unacceptable and should not be tolerated.’’

    The Telegraph