FM Alert, Vol II, No. 13
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Date: Tue, 31 Mar 1998 22:06:44 +0300 (EET DST)
Message-Id: <[email protected]>
Subject: FM Alert, Vol II, No. 13
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Original sender: Justin Burke <[email protected]>
FM Alert, Vol II, No. 13
FM Alert, Vol. II, No. 13
KOSOVO VIOLENCE FORCES OVER 23,000 TO FLEE
Ethnic violence in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo has created over
23,000 refugees and displaced persons. Bujar Berisha, an activist with
the New York-based organization Support for the Democratic League of
Kosovo, said 23,716 persons had registered as forced migrants with
relief agencies. The actual number of displaced is likely higher,
Berisha said. Dozens have died since the beginning of 1998 in clashes
between Serbian security forces and the ethnic Albanian Kosovo
Liberation Army. The overwhelming number of displaced are ethnic
Albanians. In the latest counterinsurgency incident on March 24, 330
persons fled from four Kosovo villages after Serbian forces surrounded
the towns and opened fire. Overall, hundreds of Albanians have escaped
abroad, most of them finding shelter with relatives in Albania,
Macedonia and Turkey. About 5,100 persons have gone to the neighboring
Yugoslav province of Montenegro. The remainder are internally
displaced, many of them housed with Albanian families in and around
Kosovo's capital, Pristina. �migr� organizations in the United States
and Western Europe are raising money to help the Albanians' shadow
government in Kosovo, headed by Ibragim Rugova, accommodate the
displaced. "Living conditions are poor (in Kosovo), but we are well
organized," Berisha said.
(For background see FM Alert of February 13, 1998. Also see Letter to
the Editor from FMP Director Arthur C. Helton, published by the New
York Times on March 11, 1998).
GERMANY PRESSES ON WITH BOSNIAN RETURNS
The German federal government is backing an aggressive stance on the
compulsory return of the majority of the more than 200,000 Bosnian
refugees still enjoying temporary protection in Germany. A two-tiered
strategy outlined by federal officials earlier this year would raise
the pressure on Bosnians to repatriate, while increasing Germany's
financial commitment towards rebuilding the Balkan nation's shattered
infrastructure. Implementation of return policies is left to the
discretion of Germany's 16 state governments. So far, authorities in
the states of Berlin and Bavaria have been most aggressive in
promoting forced returns. More than 100,000 Bosnians who had found
temporary protection in Germany have returned to their homeland since
officials introduced coercive administrative measures, including the
reduction of welfare. In addition, authorities have carried out
selected deportations, creating a climate of fear and insecurity among
Bosnians. About 1,000 Bosnians have been deported. German officials
claim that the vast majority of Bosnians are returning voluntarily.
The Forced Migrations Projects assert that forced removals of Bosnians
from Germany and other Western European countries exposes the affected
individuals to harm, and is potentially destabilizing and should
therefore be suspended.
(For background consult FM Alert of July 25 and May 30, 1997.)
US DETENTION CONDITIONS FACED BY NON CITIZENS
A recent meeting hosted by the Open Society Institute examined the
hardships faced by non-citizens in detention facilities. The
Immigration and Naturalization Service currently detains approximately
13,000 non-citizens at any given time during the year. By the year
2001, that number is expected to rise to 24,000. The March 23
gathering featured presentations by Don Kerwin of the Catholic Legal
Immigration Network, Christophe Matanga, a former detainee at a
facility in Elizabeth, NJ, and John Boston of the Prisoners' Legal
Rights Project at the Legal Aid Society of New York City. In addition
to facing physical hardships and abusive treatment by prison
authorities, non-citizen detainees are effectively isolated from
relatives and legal support because many facilities are situated in
remote areas, the speakers said. The speakers also identified the
growing trend of "indefinite detention" of non-citizens as an issue in
need of attention. Many meeting participants called for the
establishment of clear and uniformly enforced standards to govern
conditions at immigration detention facilities. According to
prisoners' rights advocates, the prospects for redressing complaints
via traditional legal channels are slim. Political action may be a
more effective method of promoting the rights of non-citizens in US
detention facilities, they added. The March 23 meeting was part of a
series on detention sponsored jointly by the Forced Migration Projects
and the Emma Lazarus Fund.
(For additional information see FM Alert of October 22, 1997).
For more information contact:
The Forced Migration Projects
400 West 59th Street, 4th floor
New York, NY 10019
tel: (212)548-0655
fax: (212) 548-4676
e-mail: [email protected]
website: www.soros.org/migrate.html
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