Greece's locked up migrant children attempt suicide

Greece is imprisoning unaccompanied migrant children in violation of EU laws and often in appalling conditions, human rights campaigners have revealed.

In a report detailing how asylum seekers and irregular migrants are being detained "as a matter of course, rather than a last resort," Amnesty International has excoriated Athens for its policy of imprisoning children for long periods.

Conditions are so appalling, the report says, that children resort to hunger strikes in protest at their imprisonment, and some even attempt suicide.

"It is never acceptable that children are detained. Children should not be subjected to poor conditions and long periods of confinement," said says Nicolas Beger, head of the group's Brussels office.

"Although Greece is experiencing economic hardship and is receiving a large number of migrants, these issues cannot serve as an excuse for treating children in such a way."

The group documents how conditions in a "vast number" of the country's immigrant detention centres are poor, with overcrowding and sanitation a problem.

Unaccompanied children who are captured by authorities when arriving in Greece are usually detained following their arrest for irregular entry. Where a deportation order is issued, detention continues until a legal guardian is appointed and a place found in a special reception centre for unaccompanied children.

Overcrowding is problem particularly in the summer when a large number of migrants attempt to make the perilous journey across the Mediterranean to what they believe to be the promised land of the European Union.

At the Pagani immigration detention centre in the summer of 2009, some 150 children went on hunger strike to protest the length and poor conditions of detention. More than 850 people, including 200 unaccompanied children, 150 women and 50 small children, were kept in overcrowded and insanitary conditions.

It was only after a visit from the UN High Commission for Refugees, and the ombudsman for the rights of the child, that the authorities released 570 people, mainly families with kids and unaccompanied children.

In a letter to the European Commission, the group has demanded the EU executive take action to ensure that Greece adheres to its legal obligations to migrants and refugees - and particularly their children.

Amnesty International believes that there should be a prohibition on the detention of unaccompanied children provided by law, but even in the absence of such a step forward, Greece is beholden to a number of international and EU obligations that should prevent such situations from occurring.

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Greece is a party, states that in their best interests, ‘‘unaccompanied or separated children should not, as a general rule, be detained, and that a government provide "special protection and assistance" to children who are not in their family environment.

Furthermore, the EU's Reception Conditions Directive sets out special provisions for unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors.

"The reality for migrants in Greece is dire," said Mr Beger. "The EU must put pressure on Greece to improve the situation. Each and every person has the right to basic legal assistance and to humane treatment upon arriving in an EU country."

EUOBserver

Racist thug jailed after ripping off Muslim woman's hijab as she catches train (UK)

A racist thug who ripped off a Muslim woman's religious veil and threw it on the ground was jailed for two years yesterday.

Brute William Baikie grabbed the veil - known as a hijab - from 26-year-old Anwar Alqahtani as she was on her way to catch a train from Glasgow's Central Station.

Miss Alqahtani, who wears the hijab to protect her modesty as part of her religion, had to use another piece of clothing to cover her face after the veil was ripped as Baikie pulled it from her.

Baikie, 26, ran off but was later arrested by police after being identified on CCTV.

Miss Alqahtani, who had come to Scotland from Saudi Arabia to study for a masters degree, has quit her studies and is afraid to leave the house as a result of the attack.

Sentencing Baikie at Glasgow Sheriff Court yesterday, Sheriff Lindsay Wood told the racist what he did was an "absolute disgrace".

Sheriff Wood added: "The offence you committed was a shameful one.

"You are a man who has a number of racist convictions and you knew full well how offensive the act would have been to the lady."

The dad-of-two, whose address was given as HMP Barlinnie, admitted racially assaulting Miss Alqahtani by forcibly removing her veil at Hope Street, Glasgow, on April 27.

Prosecutor Iain Bradley told the court: "The incident was totally without warning.

"Miss Alqahtani had never seen this man before."

He added: "This thoughtless, disrespectful act has had a very serious and profound effect on Miss Alqahtani.

"She now feels that she has lost her independence as she is afraid to go out on her own in case it happens again.

"She is effectively house bound as a result of what the accused did."

Def ence lawyer Ken Sinclair told the court that his client was drunk at the time of the attack and can offer no explanation for what he did.

Mr Sinclair sa id: "He appreciates that such behaviour is totally unacceptable and he is deeply ashamed of what he did."

The Daily Record

Former Nazi officer dies unprosecuted

A former Nazi SS officer died in Germany two months after the reopening of an investigation into his connection to massacres of Jews.

Erich Steidtmann, who as commander was accused of leading several Nazi police battalions who participated in the mass murder of Jews in Eastern Europe, died this week in Hanover, where he lived. He was 95.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center released a statement Tuesday expressing frustration that Steidtmann was never prosecuted for his crimes, saying it reflected decades of German judicial failure in the case.

“Had the prosecutors done their job properly in the sixties, he would not have escaped justice,” said Efraim Zuroff, the center's Israel director.

The case was reopened in April based on a letter that Steidtmann wrote in October 1943 that would have placed him in the area of the massacres at the time they occurred rather than at home on leave, as he told prosecutors during investigations in the 1960s, according to The Associated Press.

The case closed quickly for lack of evidence.

“It was only thanks to research by the Wiesenthal Center’s Dr. Stefan Klemp and the Sueddeutsche Zeitung Magazine that the case against Steidtmann was reopened," Zuroff said, "but unfortunately it will never come to court, nor will Steidtmann ever be punished.”

JTA

RAISING THE VISIBILITY AT THE OSCE OF HATE CRIME AND DISCRIMINATION AGAINST LGBT

As civil society organisations were invited to send their recommendations in advance, and to discuss them at a roundtable on 28 June, ILGA-Europe was particularly active. The OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) had invited us to speak at one of the roundtable’s panels dedicated to hate crime, and to join the working group in charge of editing the final recommendations.

NGOs had other ways to have their say, and ILGA-Europe, together with other LGBT organisations, made a number of interventions during the conference’s relevant sessions: combating racism, xenophobia and discrimination; the role of legislation, law enforcement, data collection and civil society in combating and preventing intolerance and discrimination; the role of education to promote mutual understanding and respect for diversity; and addressing public manifestations of intolerance. As this high-level conference was organised in Kazakhstan by the 2010 Chairmanship-in-Office of the OSCE, it was also a unique opportunity to help the local LGBT partners of the PRECIS project, Amulet (Kazakhstan) and Labrys, (Kyrgyzstan) to gain visibility. To that end ILGA-Europe organized a side event on the situation of LGBT people in Central Asia, which was attended by other NGOs and members of diplomatic delegations. ILGA-Europe, Amulet, COC Netherlands and Labrys also had a number of meetings with various national delegations: Belgium, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands, Spain, and the United States. The final declaration of the conference, delivered by the Kazakh Chairperson-in-Office, makes no reference to LGBT fundamental rights, which was unsurprising, given that the OSCE decision-making is by the unanimous consensus of the 56 participating states. On a positive note, ILGA-Europe notes that the United States, as well as a growing number of European States, including the European Union’s Spanish Presidency, now ensure they mention LGBT fundamental rights in relevant interventions.

ILGA-Europe

TRAFFIC POLICE START SEARCHES FOR RELIGIOUS LITERATURE(Russia)

Russia continues to stop and search Jehovah's Witnesses and Muslim readers of Said Nursi's works for literature banned under anti-extremism legislation. However, Forum 18 News Service notes that a new development is the use of the Traffic Police - which is not part of the ordinary police, but is also under the Federal Interior Ministry - to conduct such searches. In another new development, police officers seized a Nursi title which is not one of the banned titles on the Federal List of Extremist Materials. They justified this by claiming that the text is identical to a banned title. A legal case following the seizure is pending. Police refused to tell Forum 18 how they knew that three minibuses they stopped and searched contained Jehovah's Witnesses, or how they knew that a person detained on arrival at Novosibirsk railway station would be carrying translations of works by Said Nursi. In another development, imports of every print edition of two Jehovah's Witness magazines - "The Watchtower" and "Awake!" - and not just editions on the Federal List of Extremist Materials, have been banned in Russia. An official denied to Forum 18 that this is censorship.


Forum 18 News

Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu stopped and searched by police EIGHT times

The Archbishop of York yesterday revealed he has been stopped and searched by police eight times, as he  warned new anti-terrorist powers are a threat to civil liberties.

Dr John Sentamu said police should not be able to ask for someone's bank accounts to be frozen merely because they are suspected of terrorism.

The Ugandan-born Archbishop told peers that he had been stopped and searched by officers because he had been suspected of crime, warning that the new asset-freezing law could lead to people losing their money and property just because their faces did not fit.

His warning is likely to carry weight with ministers because of his powerful record both as an opponent of racism and a critic of left-wing 'multiculturalism'.

Dr Sentamu, who is second to the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Church of England hierarchy, was speaking in the Lords on the Terrorist Asset-Freezing Bill.

The law, which is not opposed by Labour, would allow the courts to freeze assets on 'reasonable suspicion' that someone is a terrorist, rather than the more demanding rules that there must be a 'reasonable belief' of their involvement in terrorism.

Revealing his experience of being stopped and searched, the Archbishop said: 'When the policeman suddenly realised that I was a bishop, that didn't stop me being stopped and searched.'

And he claimed that such police checks were often on the basis of 'he doesn't look like one of us'.

Calling for automatic judicial review of asset-freezing orders, the Archbishop said that 'otherwise you have no money and your assets have gone'.

'I am not very happy with this very low bar in court.' He told ministers: 'I think you are going in a wrong way.'
Acknowledging terrorism is a 'heinous crime' he added: 'I don't think we need to have a law which almost doesn't say that, when you are taken before a court in this country and people are about to seize your assets, you will know that it has been done justly and not simply on reasonable grounds to suspect.


'And, because terrorism is a crime, should the lawyers who are intending to participate in it also be seen as criminals?'

Dr Sentamu, right, was a member of Sir William Macpherson's inquiry which in 1999 accused the Metropolitan Police of 'institutional racism' in its bungled handling of the 1993 murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence.

He has spoken in the past of his view that police unfairly use stop and search powers against people because they are black, and of his own experiences of being stopped.

However he has also defended the record of the British Empire, stood up for British culture against the multiculturalists and criticised migrants who fail to integrate into British life.

His Lords intervention won support from cross-bencher Lord Pannick, a leading QC, who said: 'To freeze a person's assets is a very substantial restriction on their liberty.'

Treasury Commercial Secretary Lord Sassoon said the Government would 'think about' Dr Sentamu's points.


Daily Mail

White students plead guilty in racism video case (South Africa)

Four white former students pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges surrounding a video they made humiliating black university employees in a case prompting bitter protests that racism remains entrenched in South Africa more than a decade after the end of racist white rule.

The men pleaded guilty to charges of illegally and deliberately injuring another person's dignity. The video showed the employees being forced to consume food and drinks that appeared to be tainted with urine. The students later described it instead as a "harmless" liquid.

The court accepted the guilty plea and adjourned to Wednesday for closing arguments from attorneys on sentencing that is unlikely to include imprisonment.

The video, which was shot in 2007 at the University of the Free State some 250 miles (400 kilometers) southwest of Johannesburg, used the university employees to re-enact the initiation rights normally given to students trying to get into the residence hall. The employees included four middle-aged women and one man.

After the video first emerged in 2008, police dispersed stone-throwing students on the sprawling campus and classes were cancelled.

Students Roelof Malherbe and Schalk van der Merwe were banned from the campus and two fellow students living in the university accommodation known as the Reitz men's residence, Danie Grobler and Johnny Roberts, were implicted in making the video after they graduated and had left the campus.

The men's residence was also shut down after video received worldwide publicity.

The university in the city of Bloemfontein has been regarded as a bastion for Afrikaners, descendants of Dutch settlers who are often most closely linked with white apartheid rule.

Commentary on the video in the Afrikaans language included sarcastic references to the university's policy of integrating the campus dorms years after the end of apartheid.

Black students make up 60 percent of the Free State university's 25,000-strong student body. Most of the support staff are black but the teaching staff are mainly white.

Multiracial elections in 1994 ended decades of white rule in South Africa but racial undercurrents remained strong.

Amid tensions on the campus in 2008, lawyers for the students said although it appeared as if the food had been urinated on, a "harmless" liquid had been squirted from a bottle.

Apologizing in the statement, two of the students said they had been "crucified as racists" and regretted making the film, meant as a "satirical slant" on the issue of racial integration at the university hostels.

In a sign of the gravity of the case, South Africa's most senior prosecutor, Johan Kruger, appeared for the state Tuesday. Renowned defense attorney Kemp J. Kemp, who represented Jacob Zuma before he took office as president last year, represented the students. Prosecutors dropped the corruption charges against Zuma.

Associated Press

Muslim leaders call on communities to prevent all groups 'disrupting peace' (UK)

Bradford’s Council for Mosques has backed the Telegraph & Argus campaign supporting calls for a ban on a proposed English Defence League rally in the city.

The EDL has planned to flood the streets with thousands of supporters during August Bank Holiday weekend.

Today, Muslim leaders in Bradford called on all of the city’s diverse communities to stop any groups “disrupting the peace”.

A spokesman for the Council for Mosques said in a statement: “All communities in Bradford must unite to say that EDL or other organisations of its type are not wanted in Bradford.”

He said that the Council for Mosques was united in its determination to keep such elements out of neighbourhoods and the city.

“EDL is committed to disrupting the peace and harmony of our neighbourhoods, towns and cities,” he added. “They do this through propaganda, which encourages and incites racial and religious hatred, and by setting communities against each other. We must not allow ourselves to be drawn into their web of hatred.”

The Council for Mosques is working with Bradford Council, West Yorkshire Police and Bradford District Faith Forum, as well as voluntary groups, to make people aware of EDL tactics.

A campaign against the rally has been started by groups under the Bradford Together Banner and is backed by politicians in the city, business and faith leaders, academics and members of the public.

Khadim Hussain, president of the Council for Mosques, said: “Some people may think that EDL is only targeting Muslims and that therefore they should not get involved.

“The EDL is against everyone who does not fit into their misguided and false definition of what constitutes Britishness.

“This time its Muslim; next time it will be someone else. Therefore, let us work together – Muslim, Christians, Sikhs, Hindus, Jews, humanists – to say to EDL: ‘We are not interested in your type of politics’.”


The Telegraph and Argus