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Europe
Austria set to deport man to Syria, marking first for EU since Assad’s fall
2025-07-03
[IsraelTimes] Rights groups warn Vienna’s move could set a dangerous precedent, arguing that Syria remains officially unsafe for return under international law

Austria is preparing to deport a Syrian man whose asylum status was revoked due to a criminal conviction, in what an EU official and rights groups say will be Europe’s first forced deportation to Syria since the fall of former president Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators...
Rights groups are concerned that Austria’s plan could set a precedent, encouraging other European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
member states to follow suit amid rising anti-migration sentiment across the 27-nation bloc.

The 32-year-old man, who was granted asylum in Austria in 2014, lost his refugee status in February 2019 because of his criminal record, his legal adviser Ruxandra Staicu said. She declined to specify the nature of his conviction.

The Austrian Interior Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Deportation to Syria was not possible during the country’s civil war as it was considered unsafe. The Austrian government argues that Assad’s fall means the situation has changed and it has begun proceedings to strip some refugees of their status, though rights groups say it is premature to do so.

Austrian and Syrian authorities agreed for the man to be deported last week, but the closure of airspace across several countries in the region, including Syria, due to Israel’s 12-day conflict with Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
delayed the process, Staicu and a Western diplomat said. Hundreds of flights were forced to turn back or reroute when the strikes began.

The diplomat, who requested anonymity, added that the deportation would now go ahead once the airspace reopened.

Since 2015, European countries have received around 1.68 million asylum applications from Syrian nationals. Some governments, most notably Germany, initially welcomed them warmly as civil war ravaged their homeland.

But rising public concern over the scale of immigration has fueled support for far-right, anti-migrant parties.

IS SYRIA STILL DANGEROUS?
With the fall of Assad in December, many EU governments were quick to suspend the processing of Syrian asylum applications, and some have called for the security situation in Syria to be reassessed to enable deportations to resume.

In Austria, former Chancellor Karl Nehammer, from the ruling Austrian People’s Party (OVP), is among those calling for such a reassessment, amid pressure from the far-right Freedom Party.

Some rights groups and lawyers say it is still too dangerous to begin returning people to Syria.

"There are attacks against people and we have no idea in which direction [Syria] will go," said Staicu, adding that her client’s deportation would violate the European Convention on Human Rights that prohibits torture and inhumane treatment.

The United Nations
...the Oyster Bay money pit...
refugee agency (UNHCR) told Rooters: "Syrians... must not be forcibly returned from any country, including those in the European Union, to any part of Syria" due to the overall situation there.

Rights groups cite attacks against minorities since Assad’s fall. Syria also remains in the grip of a severe humanitarian crisis, with 90% of the population living below the poverty line, according to UN estimates.

Staicu said her client had received a negative asylum decision in April. He has filed another asylum application and is awaiting a response.
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Britain
Illegal Immigration a Driving Force Behind Britain's Quarter Trillion Black Market Economy: Report
2025-06-16
[Breitbart] Illegal immigration is fuelling the ballooning black market economy in Britain, which now stands at over a quarter of a trillion pounds sterling per year, a report has found.

According to an upcoming report from the independent National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) organisation, the number of people involved in the black market economy has grown by 80 per cent since 2016. The report found that as many as one in ten adults in Britain are connected to the underground economy.

The Sun on Sunday newspaper reported that NatCen claimed that this has resulted in the black market expanding to a staggering £260 billion industry, enabling delinquent businesses to avoid around £2.2 billion in tax every year. The social research organisation specifically pointed to the illegal migrant crisis in recent years as a top contributor to the burgeoning black market.

Previously, French prosecutor Pascal Marconville claimed that people smuggling networks operating on both sides of the English Channel often trade passage to impoverished illegals in exchange for them signing up to work in the underground economy in Britain, such as in cannabis farms, laundrettes, or restaurants to pay the debt incurred for gaining access to their small boat network.

Illegal migration has also been tied to the fast fashion industry, with thousands of modern slaves working in sweatshops in multicultural cities like Leicester, according to a 2020 report from the Centre for Social Justice.

Though British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer campaigned in last year’s general election on a pledge to “smash” the people smuggling gangs behind the illegal boat migrant crisis, the number of illegals successfully reaching UK shores from the beaches of France have continued to grow, hitting a record high for this time of year of over 16,000 since January.

The report comes as the governing left-wing Labour Party has come under criticism after Treasury minister Darren Jones claimed that the majority of illegal migrants crossing the Channel are “children, babies and women”. This was contradicted by the government’s own figures, which found that last year over seven in ten illegal boat migrants were males, or 26,999 out of all 36,816 illicit arrivals.

Commenting on the report, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage told The Sun on Sunday: “The British people are being taken for fools again. We already know that our borders are in chaos. But, thanks to successive Labour and Tory governments, those arriving then go on to work illegally on the £260 billion black market economy.”

“And all the while we pay for their accommodation. Nearly 40,000 boat migrants have arrived since Labour came to power — and numbers are up 40 per cent on this time last year. How many of these already work on the black market without paying tax? Labour has long championed the mantra of British jobs for British workers. But brickies and builders are being undercut by illegal labour.

Britain is in social and economic decline. The social contract is stretched to its limits. People that pay their taxes and play by the rules increasingly feel shafted.Yes, these migrants may be victims of exploitation — but they are also part of the criminal economy. Unscrupulous bosses are laughing all the way to the bank while British workers get priced out again.”

Mr Farage said that the only means of solving the crisis would be to immediately deport anyone who enters the country illegally and to leave the deportation-blocking European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and its associated court in Strasbourg, which Britain is still a member of despite Brexit as it is technically a separate institution from the EU.

The Reform boss remarked: “Keir Starmer’s soft touch is laughable. He promised to smash the gangs — but all he has smashed are illegal immigration records.”
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Britain
Farage Calls for 'Halt' on Immigration, Making UK 'Less British Every Day'
2025-05-11
[Breitbart] Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has called for a “halt” to immigration, arguing that the mass importation of foreigners “devalues” Britain.

The open borders agenda embarked upon by both Westminster establishment parties, having begun under Tony Blair and brought to record heights by Boris Johnson, has been a boon to big corporations to bing down the cost of labour but has come at the cost of social cohesion and the British way of life, Nigel Farage has said.

“Many of those that have come in the last 20 years do not share our values,” he told The Express. “And so in a sense, we become a little bit less British every day. And I do view that as being a problem.”

“We have to call a halt. A 10 million rise in the last 20 years has devalued the quality of life for everybody, damaged us culturally, broken up our communities, broken up our sense of patriotism, and belief. And you know what? Not everything is about big business employers.”

This week, laying out his Reform UK party’s agenda in the Daily Mail, Farage said they would seek to put a “freeze” on immigration with the goal of “zero per cent population increase through immigration.”

The party would also leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which the UK is still a member of despite Brexit, as it is technically separate from the EU. The ECHR has frequently been used to block the deportations of illegal aliens, migrant criminals, and even terrorists from the UK.

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Illegal migration over the English Channel has soared to record highs, with over 11,500 having reached British shores from the beaches of France, the highest level for this time of the year since the crisis began.

This comes despite Prime Minister Sir Kier Starmer vowing to “smash the gangs” and bring the migrant crisis to an end during last year’s general election.

Meanwhile, a report from the Times of London suggested that the government’s projections on a decline in legal immigration were vastly underestimated and that the UK will likely see a net migration (the number allowed in minus the number who left) of around 525,000 per year from 2028 onwards, or a city the size of Edinburgh added to the country every year.

This represented nearly 200,000 more than the government had expected annually. According to the report, the post-Brexit immigration system pushed through under Boris Johnson has resulted in more non-EU migrants, who are more likely to remain in the country than European migrants.

The failure of both Labour and the Conservatives to stem mass migration has led to soaring popularity for Farage’s Reform party, which is coming off of a historic victory in the local England elections earlier this month.

The latest survey from Find Out Now, found that Reform currently stands at 33 per cent support, compared to 20 per cent for Labour and 16 per cent for the Conservatives. If the poll were to be reflected in a general election, Reform would secure 365 seats in the House of Commons, with a majority of 80, meaning that the Farage party is on pace to become the next government in 2029.
Related:
Nigel Farage 05/04/2025 Hard right wins local UK election in blow to PM Starmer
Nigel Farage 04/28/2025 Nigel Farage Is Making Big Plans for Britain's Immigration Policies, and They Look Very Familiar
Nigel Farage 04/02/2025 One in Five EU Lawmakers Broke Same Rule as Le Pen Accused of, Almost All Avoided Punishment: Report

Link


Britain
Nigel Farage Is Making Big Plans for Britain's Immigration Policies, and They Look Very Familiar
2025-04-28
[RedState] Across the Atlantic in the United Kingdom, Nigel Farage's Reform Party is making some headway in the polls. Mr. Farage and his fellows are gaining confidence and are starting to put out policy proposals - and one set of policies, on illegal immigration, looks broadly familiar.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage unveiled a sweeping four-point plan on immigration on Thursday, promising a crackdown on illegal migration and the appointment of a new ’Deportations Minister’ under a Reform-led government.

Speaking in Dover, the symbolic heart of Britain’s migration crisis, Farage declared: "We will bring a total end to all asylum claims from people who come here on travel visas or as students," while reaffirming his pledge to take the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and repeal the Human Rights Act.

We have our own "Deportations Minister," although we don't call him that; we call him the Border Czar, that being the famous and dedicated Tom "The Hammer" Homan. I would suggest to Mr. Farage that, should the Reform Party win big enough to propel him into the Prime Minister's chair, he could do a lot worse than to send his Deportations Minister over to the United States to confer and compare notes with Mr. Homan.

Oh, and Mr. Farage should find the Deportations Minister a cool nickname, too.

Reform is pulling ahead of Labour and the Conservatives in at least one poll.
Link


Britain
WTF Headline Of The Day: Convicted Pakistani Pedo Avoids Deportation From UK Because He's An Alcoholic
2025-03-27
Doing the work the native Brits won’t do?
[ZeroHedge] The man was released from prison after serving sentences for sex offences, but was subsequently charged again after assaulting a teenage girl.

The Home Office issued a deportation order, however, the guy successfully appealed it using the European Convention on Human Rights whilst serving another one year sentence in prison.

His legal representatives argued that without proper treatment for his addiction in Pakistan, his “uncontrollable” alcoholism could worsen and potentially lead to “further suffering.”

Respondents on X expressed disbelief at the UK justice system, with many pointing out that there are people currently serving longer prison sentences for spicy tweets.

This case follows similar incidents, including one just last month where another Pakistani pedo was permitted to remain in the UK with a judge ruling that deportation would be “unduly harsh” owing to the fact that his family in Pakistan took a “dim view” of his crimes.

Conservative MP Sir Alec Shelbrooke urged that “The Government needs to stop dangerous criminals being allowed to stay in this country.”
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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
The May 2, 2014 Massacre in Odessa. Whom the ECHR Really Found Guilty
2025-03-18
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Alexander Shchegolev

[REGNUM] On March 13, the European Court of Human Rights completed its consideration of the lawsuit filed by a group of individuals against the Ukrainian state regarding the tragic events of May 2, 2014, in Odessa. The court found the Ukrainian state guilty. And this is undoubtedly a sensation. But what is the guilt recorded by the court?

The May 2, 2014 Massacre in Odessa. Whom the ECHR Really Found Guilty
More precisely, we are talking about a number of claims filed with the ECHR in 2016–2018 by relatives of the deceased, as well as surviving victims, which were then combined into a single proceeding.

According to the court's decision, Ukraine is guilty of violating the citizens' right to life: in that the Ukrainian authorities failed to prevent mass riots, did not take sufficient measures to ensure the safety of citizens when these riots had already begun, and then did not conduct a proper investigation into the tragedy that occurred.

The court paid special attention to the inaction of the authorities during the events on Kulikovo Field: the fact that the police did not take any action to ensure the safety of the people who had taken refuge in the building and did not try to evacuate them from there after the fire started, and also the fact that the firefighters arrived at the scene only 40 minutes after the fire itself started, which led to such a significant number of victims.

According to the court decision, Ukraine is obliged to pay the plaintiffs from 12 to 17 thousand euros.

Let us recall that in the spring of 2014, in Odessa, as in many other cities of historical Novorossiya, there was a large-scale confrontation between supporters of the Euromaidan and their opponents, who are commonly referred to by the collective term "anti-Maidan". In Odessa, the "anti-Maidanists" gathered on the square known as Kulikovo Field, from which the name of the movement as a whole came.

On May 2, 2014, large-scale clashes occurred in the center of Odessa between Kulikovo Field activists and Euromaidan supporters, both local and those who arrived from other cities, during which six people were killed (two Euromaidan activists and four Kulikovo supporters). After them, the Euromaidan supporters went to Kulikovo Field, where they destroyed the camp of their opponents and also tried to storm the Trade Union House, where some of the Kulikovo Field activists had taken refuge. The attackers set the building on fire, which resulted in the deaths of 42 people.

It should be emphasized that the court did not ask, and should not have asked, any question about the perpetrators of the tragedy.

The ECHR has, in principle, a different competence: it analyzes the actions of the authorities in certain situations, as well as the extent to which these actions comply with the European Convention on Human Rights.

And so, having analyzed the actions of the Ukrainian authorities, the court came to the conclusion that the norms of the convention were not observed.

More precisely, it is not so: in fact, the court talks quite a lot about the perpetrators of the tragedy, but does so in the descriptive, not the operative part of its decision.

As you might guess, the main culprit of what happened was, of course, Russia.

Allegedly, it was Russian propaganda that inflamed the confrontation in Odessa in the spring of 2014 and it was precisely this propaganda that “reinforced” the actions of the Kulikovo Field activists.

It is repeatedly emphasized that the police's insufficient actions consisted mainly of weak counteraction to the "Kulikovites", and it is also clearly not without ulterior motive that many of the people responsible for making decisions fled to Russia after May 2.

The latter is far from the truth.

In fact, only two people were in Russia: the head of the Odessa department of the State Emergency Service, Vladimir Bodelan, and the deputy head of the regional department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Dmitry Fuchedzhi. These two names are constantly mentioned in the court decision as examples of people who performed their duties improperly.

At the same time, the names of officials who remained in Ukraine are not mentioned in the report; for example, nothing is said about Fuchedzhi’s immediate superior, Petro Lutsyuk, who was, in fact, the chief law enforcement officer of the Odessa region at the time of the tragedy.

This shift in emphasis in the ECHR decision correlates well with the position of the Ukrainian authorities on this matter: Fuchedzhi, for example, was sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison in 2023, while Lutsyuk, by definition more responsible for ensuring public order in Odessa, not only did not bear any responsibility, but after May 2 continued to work in various positions in the central office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The court decision does not mention the then governor of Odessa region, Vladimir Nemirovsky, the head of the SBU department, and so on, not to mention the investigators of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the prosecutor's office, who conducted (and in fact, as confirmed by the court decision, destroyed) the investigation of the events.

Of course, the court was not obliged to mention them, because, as has already been said, the investigation of the events as such and the establishment of the role of specific individuals in them is not the task of the ECHR. But, despite this, the court mentioned individual officials in its decision. Those who are convenient for the Ukrainian authorities.

It is difficult to talk about objectivity when the text of the decision condemns the actions of the deputy head of the regional Ministry of Internal Affairs, Fuchedzhi, but his immediate superior, Lutsyuk, is not mentioned even once.

There is no need to be surprised by such selectivity. The ECHR is a structure of the European Union, whose attitude towards Russia is generally well known, and one should not expect objectivity from it, at least for this reason.

Fire near the building of the regional council of trade unions in Odessa
It is worth mentioning separately that in the “descriptive” part of its decision, the ECHR (and this is directly stated in the decision!) relied to a large extent on the data of the so-called “May 2 Group”, created on the initiative of Igor Palytsia, who headed the Odessa region after May 2, 2014. Palytsia’s appointment was a direct consequence of the tragedy, so he is one of the main beneficiaries of what happened, and he is reasonably suspected of involvement in its organization.

Be that as it may, the “May 2 Group”, created on the initiative of Palytsia and working under the wing of his deputy, OSCE media expert Zoya Kazanzhi, consisting of supporters of the Euromaidan, interprets the events in a very specific way.

In their materials, especially the latest ones, the actions of the "Euromaidan" activists are whitewashed as much as possible, and all the blame for the mass deaths is shifted as much as possible to the "Kulikovites" and Fuchedzhi and Bodelan, who "fled to Russia." And it was from them that the corresponding considerations apparently found their way into the court's decision.

However, it is difficult to say what is the cause and what is the effect: either the court simply carelessly trusted the falsifiers, or, on the contrary, having initially set itself the task of giving the case the right political emphasis, it attracted the right people as a source of information.

Well, that's probably not that important.

What is valuable is that, despite the obvious bias, the court, with its decision, nevertheless confirmed and legalized many important points concerning both the events themselves and their investigation.

In particular, Ukraine is accused of the fact that, even knowing about the unrest that was being prepared, the leaders of the Ministry of Internal Affairs did nothing to prevent it, did not prepare sufficient forces to counter it, and even after the fighting began in the center of Odessa, did practically nothing to transfer additional law enforcement forces to the conflict zone.

Based on this conclusion of the court, we can pose the following question: was the inaction of the security forces negligence or did they deliberately inaction, as part of the implementation of an agreed scenario, the purpose of which was to create a dramatic picture of violent riots.

The court's decision devotes considerable attention to how law enforcement officers acted and failed to act during the investigation of the events.

In particular, the rather dramatic story of Professor Elena Radzikhovskaya and her struggle to bring to justice the suspect in the murder of her only son, Andrei Brazhevsky, is described in dry, formal language.

According to the official findings of the investigation, Brazhevsky died when he jumped from one of the upper floors of the burning Trade Union House.

However, Radzikhovskaya herself is convinced that her son was killed by Euromaidan activist Vsevolod Goncharevsky. In one of the videos filmed on May 2, he is shown finishing off people who were jumping out of the windows of a building engulfed in flames with a stick.

Extinguishing a fire in the building of the regional council of trade unions
Goncharevsky was arrested in August 2014, but was later released, and in February 2015 the case against him was closed due to lack of evidence of his involvement.

Radzikhovskaya tried for several years to get the investigation reopened, and in 2017 she even managed to get an expert examination of the video recordings to determine whether they really did depict Goncharevsky. Unfortunately, nothing is known about the results of these examinations, and the case against Goncharevsky has never been reopened.

Now this whole story is immortalized by the decision of the ECHR.

Another story is described in slightly less detail: the death in the center of Odessa of Kulikovo men Nikolai Yavorsky, Alexander Zhulkov and Gennady Petrov.

They died, having received fatal wounds from buckshot, and almost certainly fell victim to the same shooter - Euromaidan activist Sergei Khodiak. However, Khodiak was only a suspect in the murder of one person - Kulikov's Evgeniy Losinsky, and all attempts by relatives of the other victims to recognize them as victims in this case were brushed aside by law enforcement officers for many years.

By the way, Khodiyak was not even held accountable for Losinsky's death; he lived freely in Odessa and was active in "social activities" in the spirit of the recently murdered Demyan Ganul. The case of premeditated murder opened against him was closed four times (!) by the investigator's order and reopened the same number of times by the court's decision after the victims filed corresponding appeals.

The ECHR decision even states that all four times the decision to terminate the criminal proceedings were completely identical and did not contain any indication of the real reasons for such a decision! The last time the investigation against Khodiyak was extended in January 2022 until July of the same year.

Probably, after the start of the SVO, Ukrainian law enforcement officers finally managed to bury this “cold case” that had been bothering them.

All this did not prevent the court from concluding that there was no selectivity in the actions of Ukrainian law enforcement officers and that they “did not pay more attention to the investigation of the murders of Euromaidan protesters than to the investigation of the murders of anti-Maidan protesters.”

In part, this is true, in the sense that law enforcement officers, in principle, did as little as possible for the investigation, probably fearing, not without reason, that in the course of a real investigation they might establish facts that should not have been established.

Nevertheless, the fact remains: the actions of the Ukrainian authorities not only during the events of May 2, but also after these events were recognized as violating that very European Convention on Human Rights.

That is, the ECHR confirmed the repeatedly expressed opinion that the investigation of the May 2 case was essentially sabotaged, and left wide scope for searching for an answer to the question of who specifically sabotaged it and for what purpose.

Well, and the last thing.

The list of plaintiffs and victims included in the court decision itself is of considerable value in situations where fakes are still persistently spreading on the Internet that the people who died on May 2 were mostly people from Russia and Transnistria.

Well, here it is: in the list attached to the court decision, which indicates both the citizenship and place of residence of the victims and survivors, it is directly stated that all of them are citizens of Ukraine, and most of them are residents of Odessa.

So the fact that the ECHR made at least such a decision is good news for everyone who still hopes to one day learn the whole truth about what happened on May 2, 2014 in Odessa.

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Europe
Germany plans to 'defy EU laws' with mass rejection of asylum seekers at its borders following spate of terror attacks
2025-03-12
First stop the flood, then drain the pond.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Germany's new government is planning to turn away asylum seekers from its borders en masse regardless of agreement from its neighbours, a member of the incoming coalition has claimed.

Jens Spahn, a Christian Democratic Union (CDU) politician and former minister under Angela Merkel, revealed the new policy direction following talks with the Social Democrats (SPD) over the weekend.

Mr Spahn told the Table.Briefings podcast that Germany's neighbours would be informed and possibly coordinated with - apparently contradicting claims made on Saturday that Germany would only turn back asylum seekers in conjunction with its partners.

'We are not making ourselves dependent on the consent of the other countries,' deputy leader of Germany's conservative CDU/CSU parliamentary group said on Sunday.

He noted that the existing agreement on migration 'doesn't say agree but in coordination', and that 'we see all the legal bases there to enforce it either way'.

But critics have already suggested it would be a breach of EU migration law and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) if adopted. Mr Spahn has previously suggested Germany could leave the ECHR to overcome legal obstacles.

The announcement comes after Austria, to the south, rejected Germany's idea of turning back asylum seekers at the border, insisting it would not accept them either.

The harder line on migration comes in the wake of a spate of terror attacks across Germany in recent months and a shift to the right among voters, with burgeoning support for the far-right Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) party pressing centrist parties to change course.

Germany's conservatives under future chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Saturday that his CDU party had come to an agreement in principle with the centre-left SPD to form a coalition government.

He said both sides had agreed on tough new steps to limit irregular immigration, including refusing all undocumented migrants at the borders, including asylum seekers. Merz has stressed the need to win back votes from from the AfD, which secured more than 20 per cent of votes in the election.

Spahn said the SPD has been cooperative on the issue: 'We have a common interest in limiting migration.'

The rejection of asylum seekers at the borders was at the centre of the CDU's campaign in an effort to hold on to voters unsettled by recent attacks on German soil.

Merz has repeatedly pledged not to work with the far-right anti-immigrant AfD party despite their second-place finish, upholding a longstanding 'firewall' not to work with the party.

Outgoing chancellor Olaf Scholz last month extended strict border controls brought in to tackle migration and Islamist terrorism, ahead of the February 23 election.

But the tightening of borders has not been without backlash. The move, which saw 640 people turned back and 17 extremists identified by police in just the first five days, was met with condemnation from several European partners.

Scholz at the time cited figures showing asylum applications had fallen by a third last year from 2023 and that 1,900 people smugglers had been arrested.

Amid a shift in European policy towards migration, the EU is expected today to open the way for member states to set up migrant return centres outside the bloc following pressure from governments to facilitate deportations.

The European Commission is to unveil a controversial planned reform of the EU's return system, which critics say is inadequate in its present form.

Data shows that less than 20 percent of irregular migrants who are ordered to leave Europe currently do so.

'We want to put in place a truly European system for returns, preventing absconding, and facilitating the return of third-country nationals with no right to stay,' commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said Sunday.

A souring of public opinion on migration has fuelled hard-right electoral gains in several EU countries, upping pressure on governments to harden their stance.

Led by immigration hawks including Sweden, Italy, Denmark and the Netherlands, EU leaders called in October for urgent new legislation to increase and speed up returns and for the commission to assess 'innovative' ways to counter irregular migration.

Most controversial among them is the creation of 'return hubs' outside the European Union where failed asylum seekers could be sent pending transfer back home.

This is not possible at present as under EU rules migrants can be transferred only to their country of origin or a country they transited from, unless they agree otherwise.

Magnus Brunner, the commissioner for migration, is expected to propose to the European Parliament in Strasbourg legal changes allowing EU countries to strike deals with other nations to set up such centres, according to people familiar with the matter.

An expansion of the conditions under which irregular migrants can be detained is also likely to be featured in the proposal, which will need backing from parliament and member states to become law.

Fraught with legal and ethical concerns, some experts say return hubs are an expensive and impractical idea that is unlikely to see large-scale uptake any time soon in spite of the commission's proposal.

For Jacob Kirkegaard of Bruegel, a think tank, the amendments reflect a 'path of least resistance' chosen by von der Leyen when dealing with divisive issues that are no longer a priority given the fraught international environment.

Brussels is currently busy dealing with US tariff threats, an aggressive Russia and the prospect of a collapse in transatlantic relations.

'This is simply about political bandwidth,' Kirkegaard said. 'She's going to get out of the way' and let member states do what they want, he said of von der Leyen.

The changes are likely to upset rights groups, some of which have already voiced concerns.

'This new proposal will be harmful and confirms the EU's obsession with deportations,' said Silvia Carta of the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM).

'We can likely expect more people being locked up in immigration detention centres across Europe, families separated, and people sent to countries they don't even know,' she said.

Britain recently abandoned a similar scheme to deport illegal migrants to Rwanda, and Italian-run facilities to process migrants in Albania, coming with an estimated cost of 160 million euros ($175 million) a year, are bogged down in the courts.

Return hubs will conceivably face a similar slew of legal challenges if they are set up, said Olivia Sundberg Diez of Amnesty International.

'We can expect drawn-out litigation, probably costly centres sitting empty and lives in limbo in the meantime,' she said.

Yet proponents say there are few viable alternatives.

'If we are not going to do the return hubs, what will we do instead is my question? We have tried other systems for many years, it doesn't work,' Johan Forssell, Sweden's migration minister, told AFP.

Irregular border crossings detected into the European Union were down 38 percent to 239,000 last year after an almost 10-year peak in 2023, according to EU border agency Frontex.
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Britain
Drug Dealer Escaped Deportation as it Would Hurt Mother's Metal Health: Report
2024-11-02
[Breitbart] A migrant drug pusher reportedly avoided deportation from Britannia after arguing that his removal would cause mental health issues for his mother.

UK Home Office efforts to remove convicted Portuguese robber and drug pusher Fabio Indiai from the country were stymied after the migrant’s lawyers convinced a judge that being deported would breach his rights under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), the Daily Mail reported.

A judge found that the provision, which guarantees the "right to respect for private and family life", would have been breached by removing Indiai because it would negatively impact the mental health of his mother, to whom Indiai allegedly provides day-to-day support.

The Portuguese migrant was previously imprisoned in 2021 for intent to supply Class-A drugs after being arrested with over £1,000 of cocaine, ketamine, and MDMA.
I assume his mother survived that experience, which means she would survive being without him again. Or she could join him in exile — money goes a lot further in Portugal than in England.
Additionally, Indiai had also served 18 months in a youth prison for robbery in 2012. While the Home Office did not seek to deport him after the initial offence, the government department did seek to remove him from the country following the end of his sentence for drug dealing.

Commenting on the decision to allow him to remain in the country, Conservative leadership candidate Robert Jenrick said: "You can’t make it up. And you can’t defend it. We must leave the ECHR."
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Britain
UK preacher who was arrested in free speech corner while debating Islam wins damages from police
2024-10-08
[FoxNews] Metropolitan Police of Greater London reportedly paid £10,000 in damages and legal costs to UK evangelist Hatun Tash

A female Christian evangelist in the United Kingdom who was arrested and strip searched by the police after conversing with Muslims in a famous free speech area, has reportedly won £10,000 in damages from the police for her ordeal, according to a press release from legal advocacy group Christian Concern.

Hatun Tash, a former Muslim who converted to Christianity, has preached the Bible and debated Muslims at Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park, London, for over 10 years. On June 26, 2022, Tash was setting up her camera at Speakers' Corner, when a man ran up and stole her copy of the Quran, according to a legal threat sent by Tash's lawyer to The Metropolitan Police after her arrest. Tash used a Quran with holes in it during her preaching as a visual aid.

Another man reportedly held Tash's tripod and prevented her from chasing the thief. After Tash's friends called the emergency line, officers arrived and forcibly removed the preacher from the area as a growing crowd of men pursued her and shouted, "Allahu Akbar" while making attempts to assault her, the lawyer's letter said. The 2022 incident was also captured on video and recently made public on YouTube.

Tash's belongings were allegedly left by police at the scene. Her lawyer argued police violated her human rights after they "wrongfully detained" her for 15 hours, strip searched her, took her glasses and questioned her in the middle of the night.

Police told the Christian preacher she had been arrested for "criminal damage" due to her Quran, even though it was her property, as well as "intention to stir up racial hatred by use of threatening, abusive or insulting words or behavior, or displays any written material which is threatening, abusive or insulting," because she was wearing a Charlie Hebdo t-shirt which depicted the Prophet Mohammed, according to the lawyer's letter.

Tash's lawyers argued that her rights to freedom of expression, thought, conscience and religion had been breached under Articles 9 & 10 European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). They sought damages for assault, wrongful arrest, unlawful imprisonment and harassment and legal fees, as well as an apology and agreement that the police would not "continue to harass her."

A settlement was recently reached, according to the Christian Legal Centre, and the Metropolitan Police.

"The Metropolitan Police has reached a settlement in relation to a proposed civil claim brought in relation to an arrest in 2022. We are not prepared to discuss details of the proposed claim or settlement further," a Met spokesperson told Fox News Digital.

Tash told Fox News Digital this isn't the first time she's experienced similar incidents with law enforcement at Speakers' Corner.

The former Muslim-turned-evangelist runs a ministry called "Defend Christ, Critique Islam." She has over 690,000 subscribers on her YouTube channel where she argues for Christianity and against the Islamic religion.

But her boldness in sharing her faith has made her a target for extremists. She has been stabbed, been the target of a terrorist plot, and wrongfully arrested multiple times at the free speech location over the past few years.

In her experience, the police have been lenient toward those who've threatened her and she says that has only emboldened more extremists to come after her. Like some others in Britain, she feels like there's an emerging "two-tier" justice system in the UK.

"Once Muslims kind of figured out, okay, nothing is happening, [once] they overstepped the law, then they started coming as mobs. So, like a group of ten, 20 of them simply would come and just harass me, making sure that I don't use my freedom of speech, making sure that I do not talk," she told Fox News Digital. "And every time there was tension, police would be the one concerned that they moved me or arrest me. None of those individuals ever were told off or told to be stopped. Police's approach was it is easier to remove me so that Muslim people can continue what they are doing."

"It's not only at Speakers' Corner. We get to see the same thing in schools," she said, explaining about a teacher who is still reportedly in hiding after showing a Mohammed cartoon to his class in 2021.

Despite these circumstances, she remains steadfast in her commitment to keep preaching.

"As long as the Lord gives me breath, I'm planning to preach the gospel because I think even though there are lots of negative things that are happening. For me, the solution is Jesus Christ. I saw how he transformed me. He will transform these individuals," she said.

Tash says she engages with imams at mosques and has seen approximately 20 imams who've left Islam and become Christians, as well as approximately 1,000 Muslims in England. On her YouTube platform, her ministry disciples hundreds of people from Muslim majority countries, she says.

"We are open to debates and discussions," she said. "It gives people to make their own choices, whether they want to be Muslim or they don't want to be Muslim, whether they want to become a Christian or not. So I have been someone who has been put in a place of privilege to see how my God steps in and changes and transforms lives. So, in that sense, I'm so grateful to the Lord."
Related:
Hatun Tash 07/29/2021 Hyde Park no longer safe for Christians
Hatun Tash 07/27/2021 London: A woman wearing a Charlie Hebdo shirt was attacked by a knife wielding man at Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park

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Europe
'The sooner we bring in border controls the better!': EU civil war over Germany's migrant plan continues as Geert Wilders vows to copy it for the Netherlands and Hungary welcomes Berlin to the '#stopmigration club'
2024-09-12
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Civil war has broken out in Europe over Germany's new plans to introduce strict border controls - with populist leaders giving their support for similar measures.

Yesterday Germany's government presented rigorous rules on asylum that would see more people turned away at its frontiers, a day after it announced it would start carrying out controls on all its land borders.

While Germany risks alienating the Left with its hardened stance on migration, Dutch politician Geert Wilders vowed to copy the plan for the Netherlands. And Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán shared his support for the measures, welcoming Germany to the so-called #StopMigration club.

The centre-Left German government has also begun exploring strict measures on immigration, including a plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda for processing, in the wake of high arrivals of migrants from the Middle East and Ukraine.

The so-called 'traffic light coalition' looks to shore up support from voters after the far-right AfD made gains earlier this month as concerns grow over a spate of isolated Islamist attacks in recent months.

Mr Wilders, who triumphed in the 2023 Dutch general election to see his far-right PVV party become the largest in the House of Representatives, backed the policy proposal. He has struggled to gain support within the Netherlands and stepped back from his bid for prime minister in March, citing a lack of support from potential coalition partners, but has found a receptive audience through his staunch position on immigration.

He expressed support for a similar policy to Germany's within the Netherlands, writing: 'If Germany can do it, why can't we? As far as I'm concerned: the sooner, the better.'

Both the far-Right PVV and the Right-wing Liberal VDD parties have shown interest in greater border checks in line with those recently announced by Germany. Migration minister Majolein Faber has already asked military police to begin preparations.

'In the meantime, we are talking to Germany about working together,' she said on social media.

Hungary, surrounded by mountains, has brought in strict policies to limit migration under Orbán - a move the EU has pushed back on, fining Hungary 200 million euros (£170mn) in June after it failed to make changes. Under current legislation, people can only submit requests for asylum outside Hungary's borders, at its embassies in neighbouring Serbia or Ukraine. Those who try to cross the border are routinely pushed back.

Post-election polls suggest asylum and migration are the two key issues for Germans nationwide, and that support for the party is genuine - rather than a protest vote - piling pressure on the coalition government to act.

But Germany's neighbours have already criticised plans to introduce temporary controls into the passport-free Schengen zone.

Donald Tusk, the Polish Prime Minister, said that Germany was acting unilaterally and unfairly in its 'unacceptable' plans that risked breaking European law. He said Germany had introduced a 'de facto suspension of the Schengen agreement on a large scale' in its bid to confront what German interior minister Nancy Faeser called 'irregular migration'.

But Austria has shown support for the checks. In a televised debate ahead of the parliamentary election on September 29, Chancellor Karl Nehammer told national broadcaster ORF that if Germany introduced measures to send more immigrants back across their shared border, Austria would do the same, sending more people eastwards towards the Balkans.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz pledged to 'examine' the case for an overseas asylum processing centre in November last year. He insisted any scheme would be 'in compliance with the Geneva Convention on Refugees and the European Convention on Human Rights.'

But Scholz also recognised plans would be fraught with 'a whole series of legal questions'.

A spokesperson for the Rwandan government welcomed the suggestion, saying they were 'happy to work with anyone on this who shared their desire to find a long-term solution to the migration issue'.
"Give us money"
But the move risks fracturing Germany's 'traffic light coalition'. Within Germany, the Greens, centre-left SPD and liberal FDP fiercely oppose the Rwanda proposals as being both illegal and costly.

'Even if we went ahead with it, it would mean the whole asylum system in Germany – and other European Union countries – would be dependent on one dictator in Rwanda,' Erik Marquardt, an MEP with the Green Party, told i.

'Basically, the EU would be in the hands of [President Paul] Kagame.'

'The problem is not migration. It's Islamism,' Mr Marquardt told i.

'Our approach is to try to find solutions. And the idea that there is one easy solution through just one measure, like sending people to Rwanda, is simply wrong.

'It is basically populism, and it was the same in the UK; the British government decided to put this populism into laws, and it was a big waste of money.'

Poland, while critical of the border checks, shares the claim that Russia has weaponised migration, encouraging asylum seekers to cross over into central Europe with attempted illegal border crossings from Belarus on the rise.

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-Great Cultural Revolution
Film about the expulsion of Georgians from Russia returns to the Venice Film Festival program
2024-09-07
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[KavkazUzel] A court in Venice has lifted a ban on the screening of the film Antiques, about the mass expulsion of Georgians from Russia in 2006, in the competition program of the film festival. Director Rusudan Glurjidze said that Russia tried to prevent filming and confiscate the footage.

As the "Caucasian Knot" reported, on September 27, 2006, the Georgian authorities detained five Russian servicemen (GRU officers). One of them was soon released, four were charged with espionage against Georgia. After that,  raids began to identify Georgians, including in schools. In just one week, from October 5, 2006, Moscow courts issued decisions on the administrative expulsion of 598 Georgian citizens.

One of the Georgian citizens died during deportation at Domodedovo Airport, and many complained about the conditions of detention. Among those deported (administratively expelled) during the anti-Georgian campaign were many people who had all their documents in order, visas, and residence permits. Often, a Georgian surname was enough for expulsion, the "Civic Assistance" Committee* noted at the time.

According to the Georgian border services, from July to September 2006, over 260 Georgian citizens were expelled from Russia, and from October 2006 to January 2007, their number was 2,920 people. The Russian side claims that there was no mass deportation, a court decision was made for each immigrant, and only those who violated Russian migration legislation were expelled.

The Georgian authorities filed a lawsuit against Russia with the ECHR on March 26, 2007. On July 3, 2014, the court in Strasbourg recognized Russia's violation of a number of provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights. On July 3, 2015, Georgia demanded 70.32 million euros from Russia. On January 31, 2019, the ECHR awarded 1,500 Georgian citizens 10-15 thousand euros in compensation . The total amount of compensation was 10 million euros.

The court suspended the decision that blocked the screening of the film "Antiques" by Georgian director Rusudan Glurjidze at the Venice Film Festival. The film was returned to the Giornate degli Autori ("Author's Days") competition of the independent section of the film forum, the publication "News Georgia" reported today.

"Antiques" is a feature film based on real events. The film tells the story of the mass illegal deportation of Georgians from Russia in 2006. Glurdzhidze spoke about the great difficulties their team faced while working on the film and the direct interference of the Russian authorities, the publication says.

According to Glurjidze, "the Russian Ministry of Culture demanded that several scenes be removed." "The Georgian team refused, which led to attempts to obstruct the filming and, ultimately, to the confiscation of the footage at the border," she said. "Luckily, two copies were saved. After that, the film began to be blocked," she told ScreenDaily on August 28.

A representative of the Venice Film Festival competition committee is satisfied with the court's decision. "The Venice court upheld our claim and, obviously, allowed the film to be shown, recognizing the rights of the director. Thus, we can say that justice has been restored in relation to cinematography, the creative individuals involved, the Georgian director and the film itself. First of all, a precedent has been set for the Venice Film Festival, which will benefit future filmmakers around the world," Screen International magazine quoted the head of the competition, Italian director Francesco Ranieri Martinotti, as saying.

The reason for the suspension of the screening was the ruling of the Venice court to take action against the Georgian company Cinetech, which brought the film " Antique" to the festival. The decision was made on the basis of a statement by the Croatian and Cypriot producers of " Antique". It states that Cinetech Ltd. (Georgia) illegally exercises control over the film and is trying to show it at the Venice Film Festival without the necessary permissions and rights, the publication proficinema reported.

Russian screenwriter Oleg Negin said that he worked on the film, but had not seen "a single frame" and relations with Georgian producers had deteriorated, after which he asked to remove his name from the credits. "Now the film is being presented scandalously, as a near-political event." "For my part, I can say that I worked on creating an adventurous romantic story, packaged in the format of a socially acute drama (with elements of black comedy), which had nothing to do with current politics, no matter what anyone says," his words are quoted in the publication.

On the website kinopoisk.ru, the film, shot in St. Petersburg, is dated 2022. The countries of origin are listed as Russia, Georgia, Cyprus and Croatia. The description of the film does not mention the expulsion of Georgians from Russia. "A young Georgian named Lado is engaged in smuggling antique furniture from Georgia to Russia. Two women are waiting for him in St. Petersburg. The owner of an antique warehouse Manana and Medea, Lado's girlfriend, who is tired of his immaturity. Medea, who recently sold her house in Georgia, goes to look at an apartment in the historical center of St. Petersburg. The price of the apartment is very low, but it is sold only together with its owner, an old man named Vadim. Medea agrees to the deal," the description says. 
Источник: https://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/403443
© Кавказский Узел

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Britain
The Legacy of Five Governments: Why Britain Drowned in Pogroms
2024-08-06
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Leonid Tsukanov

[REGNUM] The Labour government faces its first major challenge since being elected as the country has been engulfed in unrest for almost a week following the high-profile murder of three children in Southport.

British citizen Axel Rudakubana, whose parents moved to the country from Rwanda, has stirred up society with his attack and once again brought to the forefront issues that the gentlemen of Downing Street preferred not to mention.

ROOTS OF DISCONTENT
This is not the first time that Foggy Albion has faced such unrest. In modern British history, there have been at least ten major episodes when interethnic and interfaith disputes first spilled over into street confrontations and then into pogroms.

True, almost all of them occurred during the era of Conservative prime ministers – with the possible exception of incidents in Manchester (2001) and Birmingham (2005), which had to be resolved by the Labour Party's Tony Blair. However, these conflict situations were then viewed as a "legacy" of the social policy miscalculations of the Conservative John Major.

Now the government led by Keir Starmer has received its own “inheritance” – and for five predecessors at once. The unrest in Southport, fuelled by anti-immigrant and Islamophobic rumours, quickly spread to other major cities, including London.

The far-right English Defence League has been rightly blamed for organising these disturbances – its members (the vast majority of whom are young) have been the driving force behind any protests even indirectly related to migration since 2009. In addition, it was members of the League who helped to fuel the unrest in Southport by spreading a rumour that the attack was carried out by an illegal migrant.

British tabloids routinely hint at the presence of a “Russian connection.” However, this time they did not ignore the Conservatives, who allegedly receive direct benefits from the failures of the Labor government and themselves push anti-migrant forces to continue the unrest.

Meanwhile, the roots of discontent should be sought somewhat deeper.

Following the migrant crisis triggered by the conflict in Syria in the mid-2010s, Britain faced an influx of refugees from the Middle East. Their arrival was seized upon by radical propagandists, including Pakistani-born British lawyer Anjem Choudary.

The latter not only welcomed the appearance of “Sharia patrols” in London, but also supported the activities of jihadists in Syria and Iraq in every possible way, “blessed” supporters of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to commit crimes, and helped terrorist recruiters illegally enter the country.

The fact that Choudary was only given a life sentence in 2021 (he had previously been jailed for just five years, despite having been a radical for at least 20 years) continues to be used to illustrate the shortcomings of British policy on sensitive issues such as illegal immigration and terrorism. The situation has changed little over the years.

Another serious blow to Britain’s resilience to the threat of mass migration was its exit from the European Union (the so-called Brexit). After the 2016 referendum, London gradually began to withdraw from pan-European control mechanisms, and migration rates inevitably soared.

In the first quarter of 2024 alone, almost 5,000 people entered the country illegally, adding to the more than 56,000 who had already arrived in the past year. London has also, at various times, accepted refugees not only from the Middle East but also from Asia and Africa, increasing tensions between communities and the native population.

As expected, the interests of the working class (the main electorate of the Labor Party) suffered from the influx of guests from abroad, since migrants took over some positions in the labor market, displacing the native population. Each year, the percentage of those displaced steadily increased, and the government preferred to remain silent once again, which only exacerbated the problem.

At the same time, the conservatives' attempts to maneuver between dissatisfied groups - for example, by promoting the idea of ​​deporting captured illegal immigrants to third countries - ended in nothing. The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which none of the previous prime ministers dared to withdraw from, prevented this.

HOW WILL DOWNING STREET RESPOND?
Since the first days of the riots, Labour has sought to demonstrate the toughness of its position. In his address to the nation, Prime Minister Starmer promised that the rioters would “regret taking part in mass riots,” and he even dubbed what is happening in British cities “far-right thuggery.”

At the instigation of the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Internal Affairs promptly increased security in Muslim neighborhoods and religious sites to prevent armed attacks. Additional steps were taken by other departments as well.

At the same time, the work of the Labour Party is currently aimed exclusively at quelling popular unrest: the Starmer government does not have a clear plan on how to solve the problem of illegal migration and relieve social tension. Moreover, they do not plan to withdraw from the ECHR, as the Conservatives previously proposed.

Moreover, given the fact that the attack was carried out by a British citizen (albeit an ethnic Rwandan), the crackdown on migrants and ethnic communities looks dubious and is likely to be seen as an attempt to appease xenophobic groups.

On the other hand, blaming the English Defence League exclusively (while ignoring other hidden actors) also seems like a losing proposition. It guarantees a repeat of the crisis in the future – on an even larger scale.

The Labour Party has not yet developed a “middle” approach, and the time to “name the culprit” has already been lost.

Also, against the backdrop of the miscalculations of Starmer and his team, right-wing populists have become more active, in particular the Reform Party, which had previously built its election campaign on criticism of the Conservatives’ “migration laissez-faire.” Now the “reformers” have switched to Labour, which, in their opinion, is repeating the same mistakes as their predecessors.

Of course, the current protests are unlikely to cost Starmer his premiership – or his party its governing status – but, as with the Conservatives, they cast some doubt on the feasibility of the promises made during the election campaign.

And this could play a cruel joke on the Labour Party in the next electoral cycle.
Related:
Axel Rudakubana 08/04/2024 Renewed rioting sweeps British cities in wake of child murders
Axel Rudakubana 08/04/2024 UK police mobilize for far-right protests after third night of anti-Muslim riots
Axel Rudakubana 08/03/2024 The areas in England where riots have broken out since Southport attack

Related:
English Defence League 08/05/2024 British Prime Minister Keir Starmer promises those involved ‘directly’ or online in riots will live to regret it. ~90 arrested thus far
English Defence League 08/04/2024 UK police mobilize for far-right protests after third night of anti-Muslim riots
English Defence League 08/03/2024 The areas in England where riots have broken out since Southport attack

Related:
Reform Party: 2024-06-30 'Eternal victim' Kaja Kallas will continue the EU’s course towards confrontation with Russia
Reform Party: 2024-06-18 'Mr. Brexit' is back: a right hook awaits British Conservatives
Reform Party: 2024-05-29 British PM seeks election Hail Mary with youth national service plan: 'Last attempt to fix a broken nation'
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