The new immigration law related to illegal aliens in the European Union (EU) started on June 18. The new policy, called “Return Directive”, allows the different member states of EU to confine any illegal immigrant for up to 18 months before expelling them.

These new policies against “illegal immigrants” obey a new policy in EU to stop the massive immigration especially from East Europe, Africa and Latin America.

However, for a long time a lot of right wing and nationalist political parties from all Europe have been criticising the EU leaders’ “slack” policy about immigration.
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If factories can pick up and move overseas when they want, then why can’t workers? That’s what the US Socialist Worker Party’s candidate for the Presidency, Roger Calero, reckons.

I interviewed Calero a few weeks ago and, on the whole, our perspectives on world affairs were so far apart that I sometimes wondered if we were both talking about the same global system.

But I agreed with what he had to say about immigration.
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Justice at the hands of security services is a bizarre paradox. They say, we know you are bad, really bad, and we can prove it. But you are so bad, that we can’t tell you what we know about you, nor show you the evidence against you. But trust us, it’s bad. Just like you.

If you find yourself guilty according to the security services, the onus is on you to prove yourself innocent - against unknown accusations.

In Canada, Mohammed Harkat has been under house arrest for the past two years, unable to even go to the supermarket without advising the police 48 hours in advance. He spent four years in prison. No charge, no trial, just the word of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.
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Here’s an ethical conundrum. An Iranian woman leaves her country and converts to Christianity. She moves to New Zealand and claims asylum. Should we give it to her?
The North Shore Times clearly thinks so. It has waged a campaign on behalf of Bahareh Moradi, dedicating several front pages to the 25 year old woman’s case. Commentators at Dhimmi watch have joined the chorus.
I guess the underlying assumption is that conversion from a male-dominated religion like Islam as a positive step, and we should protect a woman who does so.
But what if it seems that she converted purely to get asylum in New Zealand?
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The sentence: six months home detention
The crime: coming to New Zealand on a false passport, and using a false name (and, one would presume, false documentation) to apply for citizenship and a New Zealand passport.
Now, I’m no Sensible Sentencing Trust fanatic, but to me this story just doesn’t add up.

A Ukranian guy who came to New Zealand in 2004 with a false passport was sentenced to 3 years in jail (on appeal reduced to 18months). In 1997 a woman arrived with a false Dutch passport and claimed refugee status - even she was given three months jail.

The Department of Internal Affairs tells us that passport forgery “ is not worth the risk - don’t try it you will be caught“. But it seems that if you have the right connections, then getting caught doesn’t even land you in much trouble.

What is this guy still doing in New Zealand?
What are we not being told in this story??

Bisher al-Rawi was a UK-based informant for the MI5. As a way of saying thanks for all the hard work he put into liaising with and providing information on people under watch, the agency forwarded incorrect information to the CIA, and al-Rawi was kidnapped, put in nappies and a blindfold, strapped to a stretcher, and flown to Guantánamo bay. For a bit of variety the CIA threw in a three month stopover in a “Dark Prison” in Afghanistan where the only light he saw was the occasional dim beam from the guard’s torch and it was so cold he could feel ice crystals forming in his drinks.

We’ve heard about the horrors of Guantánamo Bay and the CIA’s black sites, but the level of official complicity seen in al-Rawi’s case is astounding. al-Rawi’s arrest was due to the MI5 deliberately passing on completely false information to the CIA, according to the Observer article which broke the story on Sunday. Read the rest of this article »

The first thing I saw was the crowd surging forward towards me, everyone sprinting in a panic away from Sol. Was there an errant car careering down the pedestrian street? Or, god forbid, a bomb? (Unfortunately it’s a possibility in the back of many people’s minds as local elections approach in this country with an active local terrorist organisation.)

Then I realised that it wasn’t the whole crowd that was fleeing for its life, just young black men carrying white sacks. They’d had pirated DVDs, imitation designer handbags, belts, wallets and sunglasses spread out for sale on a white sheet, had yoinked up the corners to make a sack and were running with their wares as fast as they could at the first sign of the authorities.

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The “11-M” hearing kicked off today: the trial for 29 people accused of involvement in Spain’s worst terrorist attack ever. On the 11^th of March 2004 a series of bombs went off in rush-hour commuter trains in different parts of Madrid, killing nearly 200 people and wounding ten times that many. The worst carnage occurred disconcertingly close to where I live; there is a placard outside my local swimming pool to remember the use of the complex as a makeshift emergency hospital on the morning of the attacks.

In the media excitement leading up to the trial the focus has centred on the logistics of the hearing and the veracity of a conspiracy theory linking local terrorists ETA with the bombings. Personally, I’m more concerned with the fairness of the trial itself. I know, I know: how much more pinko-bleeding-heart-liberal can you get than worrying about a bunch of terrorists getting a fair trial?

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Last Saturday there was the other demonstration against ETA and in favour of peace. This one was convened by the opposition party, and the front pages of all the Sunday papers featured a crowd swimming in red and yellow: everyone proudly waving Spanish flags or balloons in its colours. As a New Zealander, and in these globalising times, this ardent nationalism is a mentality I don’t quite understand. Demonstrators certainly don’t bring their Kiwi flags out in force in New Zealand. (Do they?)

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I was spewing, like angry and powerless teenager Kevin on Harry Enfield. “I hate you! You’re not my government!” I wanted to shout. Why am I so upset? Because Ahmed Zaoui’s family must remain in hiding, in an incredibly difficult situation. The government will not allow them to join Ahmed Zaoui in New Zealand until his case is resolved. Given that it is the government who continues to drag the chain on this case, it’s a poor showing.

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