Race & Society

4WardEverUK

Child refugees exposed to great danger and abuses in Europe, says UNHCR

Domiciliary Prisonoriginally published by: The Guardian
14th June 2010

A drastic increase in the number of unaccompanied minors trying to enter Europe is exposing thousands of children to severe dangers and human rights abuses, the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR warned today.

Following UK government plans to set up a £4m “reintegration centre” in Afghanistan so that it can deport unaccompanied child asylum seekers to Kabul from Britain, the UNHCR warned that the measures may force children to go underground, putting them in further danger as they try to avoid the authorities.

According to the report many children consider returning to their home country both a personal failure and “a betrayal of the trust and money that their families have invested in them”.

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4WardEverUK

Returned asylum seekers killed or jailed

originally published by: ABC News
19th May 2010

Refugee advocates say at least nine asylum seekers returned to Sri Lanka by the Howard government were killed and those sent back in past year have been held in police custody and some assaulted.

Australia has suspended its processing of Sri Lankan asylum seekers pending a review of conditions in Sri Lanka. Immigration Minister Chris Evans says the Federal Government has a “major problem” returning asylum seekers who have been involved with the Tamil Tigers.

Phil Glendenning, the director of the Catholic Church’s Edmund Rice Centre, has recently returned from Sri Lanka and says the country is in danger of becoming a police state.

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4WardEverUK

Police shot girl, 7, during TV show filming

Aiyana Jones
Aiyana Jones

originally published by: The Daily Telegraph
18th May 2010

An attorney representing the family of a seven-year-old girl who was shot to death during a raid in Detroit said the police operation was flawed and was influenced by TV production concerns.

Aiyana Jones was shot and killed as she slept on a living room sofa after an officer’s gun went off as police searched the house for a suspect.

Attorney Karri Mitchell told The Detroit News that the police “were excited; they were on TV”. “They didn’t have to throw a grenade through the front window when they knew there were children in there,” the attorney said.

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