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A Swedish gay rights organisation has called on the government not to deport any homosexual Iraqi asylum seekers in the light of a shocking new report categorising an extermination campaign against gay men in the Middle Eastern country. The Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights (RFSL) has now called on the Swedish government to halt all deportations to Iraq of people who have sought asylum on the basis of sexual orientation or gender. "We urge Sweden to investigate the possibility of evacuating homosexuals, bisexuals and transgender people who are at risk of being subjected to 'sexual cleansing',"...

Speaking for the European Union presidency, Swedish migration minister Tobias Billström said on Wednesday that the EU supported requiring visas for Canadians travelling to the EU in response to Canada’s decision to impose visa restrictions on Czech nationals. "As the presidency of the EU, we are in favour of this reciprocity," Swedish Migration and Asylum Policy Minister Tobias Billström told AFP. "But it's up to the Commission to handle the proposal, because the Commission is responsible for the reciprocity mechanism," he added. Canada imposed visas on Czechs to stave off what it said was a steady influx of Roma asylum...

Fewer people are seeking asylum in Sweden, with the number of applications dropping 33 percent last year, according to new statistics. "During 2008, 24,342 persons sought asylum in Sweden, which is a decrease of 11,865 applications compared to 2007," Statistics Sweden (SCB) said in a statement on Friday. Two-thirds of applicants were men and one-third were women, a common proportion since 2000, it added. Over 100 nationalities were represented among the asylum seekers. The largest group was Iraqis who accounted for a quarter of applications. However, SCB noted that the number of Iraqi asylum seekers was down dramatically. "Iraqis represented...

The Dutch parliament has formally endorsed a general pardon for an estimated 25,000 illegal asylum seekers. A motion aimed at widening the amnesty was rejected. The proposal was designed to include immigrants who left the country, voluntarily or not, before being sent back to the Netherlands. The plan was put forward by the governing Labour Party together with the opposition Socialist Party Coalition, Green Left and the democrat party D66. Deputy Justice Minster Nebahat Albayrak, the driving force behind the amnesty, said an expansion was not feasible and undesirable. The scheme has been condemned by parties on the right. The...

HAGUE, 28/04/07 - Asylum-seekers who lied about their identity or background in their asylum application will be admitted to the general amnesty anyway. The cabinet has agreed on this, insiders in The Hague reported Friday. In their coalition accord, the Christian democrats (CDA), Labour (PvdA) and small Christian party ChristenUnie agreed earlier that there would be a one-time amnesty for rejected asylum-seekers who applied for asylum before 1 April 2001 and have since remained in the Netherlands. Last month, insiders already reported that they would be allowed to have a criminal record providing it showed no unconditional jail sentence of...

AMSTERDAM — Health Minister Hans Hoogervorst has outraged MPs by declaring that discussions over medical care for illegal immigrants is too sentimental, claiming that they receive better care than the Dutch. The statement came after the Christian Democrat CDA and the left-wing opposition parties had demanded better access to GPs for asylum seekers on Thursday. The Liberal VVD minister said that their concern was based on "incidents and TV programmes" and that "access to GPs for asylum seekers is better regulated than for residents of the Netherlands", news service NIS reported. Labour PvdA, Socialists SP, green-left GroenLinks and CDA MPs...

The system to ensure illegal immigrants do not receive free NHS care is unworkable, doctors and lawyers say. The government says failed asylum- seekers or others without permission to be in the UK should only get limited free care, including emergency aid. But doctors and NHS trusts said there was no definite way of ensuring illegal immigrants were not getting free care. David Lock, of law firm Mills and Reeve, which is advising some NHS trusts, said the system was in a mess. Mr Lock, a former Labour MP and head of health at Mills and Reeve, said his firm...

The Directorate of Immigration (UDI) gave all Iranian asylum seekers residency if applicants claimed to be homosexual. The UDI granted asylum even if the testimony often had little backing or appeared to be patently false, newspaper VG reports. The information emerged in connection with documents submitted to an investigatory commission examining how the UDI functioned in the period under former Minister of Local Government and Regional Development Erna Solberg until today. While UDI leadership assured Solberg that asylum seekers were being handled on an individual case-by-case basis, and keeping in mind the danger of persecution in their homeland, caseworkers were...

Thousands of unemployed asylum seekers granted sanctuary elsewhere in the EU can move to Britain and claim free council housing. A court ruling yesterday opened the door to any poor EU immigrant to travel here and demand a home. Has the Government gone soft on asylum? It overturns a Government edict that local councils have no duty to help EU citizens who head to Britain, but do not bother to get a job. Councils will now have to hand over the keys to a council house to jobless EU nationals with nowhere to live - even though they have never...

THE teenage sons of Australia's highest-profile asylum-seekers, the Bakhtiyari family, have apologised to the Howard Government for the "lies" they now say prompted their deportation. Alamdar, 16, and Montazar, 14, claim to have been "used" by refugee advocates and lawyers, who they say ruined their chances of remaining in Australia and forced their deportation to Pakistan in December last year. The boys came to national prominence in 2002 when refugee activists deposited them at the British consulate in Melbourne and demanded they be given asylum after facilitating their escape from the now-defunct Woomera detention centre. In an interview with the...

OSLO, Norway -- A smuggler swallowed 3.5 pounds of cocaine to avoid detection but was caught in southern Norway nevertheless, the customs service said today. Per Emil Wikoeren, head the Customs Region Southern Norway, said the man, posing as an asylum seeker, had swallowed the cocaine in 160 small packages. "That is a Norwegian record and we have found nothing in our databases to indicate that anywhere in this world has anyone swallowed 1.6 kilograms (3.5 pounds)," he told state radio network NRK. The man, originally from Nigeria and in his 20s, arrived from Madrid at the small airport near...

Asylum seekers threaten to sew eyes By Samantha Maiden January 3, 2004 HUNGER-STRIKING asylum seekers detained on Nauru are threatening to sew their eyes together unless their demands for refugee status are met. Four detainees, who have already sewn their lips together, yesterday released a letter warning they would take the action unless a January 10 deadline was met to review their applications. The men are among 41 detainees who are participating in a hunger strike that began on December 10. "We are those four persons who have sewn their lips together and we understood well that we are going...

Panto dropped in racism fear A Devon village panto, Snow White and the Seven Asylum Seekers, has been scrapped amid fears that it could be called racist. The village hall committee at Merton near Okehampton ordered the cast to change the name after getting advice from the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE). But writer and producer Bob Harrod has refused, saying the panto was not racist and was sympathetic to asylum seekers. The show featured seven asylum seekers with the names Chemical Ali, Comical Ali, Back Ali, Dark Ali, Bowling Ali, Ali G and Ali-Kiss-Angel. In the panto they all...

Those seeking asylum in Europe will now face a further hurdle thanks to a new fingerprinting system being implemented throughout the European Union, Norway and Iceland. From now on, all asylum seekers over the age of 14 will be fingerprinted in the country where they make their application for asylum and checked against a centralised database. EU officials say that the system will help combat so-called "asylum shopping", whereby people make numerous asylum applications as they seek out the country offering the best conditions. But civil liberties groups have attacked the plan, saying that the measures contribute to the idea...

Two people suspected of being part of the ricin terror plot were teenage asylum seekers. The pair lived in the flat where the killer toxin was found in Wood Green, north London They were housed there by a local council while they waited for their asylum applications to be processed. They are both aged only 16 or 17 - one was from Algeria and the other from Ethiopia. A total of seven men in their teens, 20s and 30s continue to be questioned. The two terror suspects were housed by Islington Council in north London. A spokesman for the council...

Terrorists posed as asylum seekers to get a London flat which they turned into a poison factory, it has emerged.Two 17-year-old youths claiming their right to be housed by the local council were given the flat above a chemist's shop in Wood Green. Then it is believed a gang moved in to make a batch of the poison ricin with the intention of spreading terror in the capital. Three members of the gang are being hunted in the biggest police operation of its kind following a raid on the flat, where traces of the poison were found. Seven North African...

The first wave of Iraqi Kurds given the right to a new life in Britain under the deal to close Sangatte were on their way to London this morning. Before dawn, the first of around 1,000 immigrants who had registered with the notorious camp in northern France over the summer were moved to a processing centre on the outskirts of Calais. They were being fingerprinted and issued with work permits which will allow them to stay and work in the UK for four years, with the possibility of more permanent status if they are still in work at the end...

BRITAIN IS TO take in 1,200 asylum-seekers from the Sangatte refugee camp in France when it closes four months early at the end of the year. They will be given four-year work visas and not be treated as asylum claimants, David Blunkett said yesterday. While they are job-hunting they will be housed and given living allowances for three months. 'The visa will be renewable in respect of whether the person retains the job they have applied for,' he added. The costs would be a 'tiny fraction' of the £18,000 needed to process and support each asylum-seeker. Mr Blunkett described the...

A GP is refusing to treat asylum seekers because, he says, they are draining resources from his practice. Dr Vijayakar Abrol has put up a sign in the window of the City Road Medical Centre in Birmingham telling asylum seekers to stay away. The GP claims they are taking money from the rest of the patients on his list and he does not have the resources to treat them. His comments have been described as xenophobic by a leading health official. 'Staff protection' Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Dr Abrol said he was just trying to be a...

Two Palestinian asylum seekers being held by Swedish authorities are linked to Hamas, security police officials said Friday. According to AP, the men were apprehended by police three weeks ago in Malmo, 500 kilometers southwest of the capital, Stockholm, but have not been charged with a crime. "These men have connections to Hamas. That much I can say," security police director Margareta Linderoth was quoted as saying Friday. Authorities earlier have said the men were linked to "terrorist activities" but have declined to be more specific. The case has been classified and the suspects' identities have not been released. Per...