Photo: European Commission

June 20th was World Refugee Day. Plenty of celebrations all over the world. Cool things happened all over the world, even in Romania – where, surprisingly to some, there are quite a bunch of refugees, some living here for many years now (15000 refugees have received protection from the Romanian government since 199), and having become more attached to Romania than Romanians themselves. EVZ presented some of their stories, in a very nice Sunday article. Last week however was also the week when the European Parliament passed an highly debatable new laws on illegal migrants.

In April 2008, European institutions agreed on new procedures of addressing “illegally staying third-country nationals”. If a person deemed “illegal” (how ironic is it for a person, not an act, to be considered illegal) refuses to respect a “voluntary departure order” for more than 4 weeks, than he/she can be issues a removal order, and, “when there are serious grounds to believe that the illegal immigrants would hide” (how precise!), EU states would have to keep people under “temporary custody” for up to 18 months. Yes, one can get imprisoned for one and a half years in a EU member-states without committing any crime! Just a day before the celebration of the World Refugee Day, the European Parliament agreed to issuing this new set of laws.

The European Union has disappointed me. It’s the same Union engaged in a continuous cry for workforce that decides to treaty its migrants with great brutality. The United Nations, Amnesty International and all other human rights defenders are deploring this recent conservative shift in EU migration policies.

PS: A very beautiful article on Italy’s feelings towards migrants in NY Times today.

Berlusconi’s won a third term as prime minister. Who’s Berlusconi? The guy who’s cornered the market in Italy, controlling everything from the media to football. Read some very interesting portraits of the guy here and here.

But wait. It gets only worse. Gianni Alemanno is Rome’s new mayor. He’s set goals and targets for the expulsion of migrants, promising his constituency at least 20000 expelled folks in the next couple of months; he’s proudly wearing the Celtic cross round his neck (a symbol quite well known to Europe’s Far Right movement for decades); and he’s the former youth leader of a famous fascist organization. His supporters welcomed him publicly with the Nazi salute. Details about him here, and an interesting interview here (unfortunately in Romanian).

Their party – the Northern League – has a guard that’s patrolling Italian cities pretty much like the Iron Guard used to do in Romania back in the days when right wing extremism was sweeping up Europe. Mayors belonging to the Northern League have issued laws forbidding poor people to live in certain Italian towns.

What’s interesting is how, once again, nationalist rhetoric is covering up real issues at stake. Such as the fact that Italian economy is doing really bad, with figures estimating that by 2020 Romania’s economy will have become stronger than Italy’s. Or the fact that population is aging in Italy, and immigration is the only solution to tackle employment issues.

Tomorrow’s May 1st. Labour Day. Last year I was spending Labour Day in New York. All businesses in Manhattan that had hired or had any other business connections with illegal migrants closed down on May 1st, to protest against US immigration policies. The outcome: there was no way you could buy a can of Coke in Manhattan all day long on May 1st. Why? Countries need migrants to address demographic and employment issues. Both in Europe and overseas.

Should I ever become a politician, one of my main targets will be responsible migration policies.

Photo: Gianni Alemanno celebrating victory (via BBC News)