Official records in Britain have revealed that immigration rose to unprecedented levels last year.

The net migration figure till September 2010, stood at 242,000, the third highest on record.

Immigration Minister Damian Green admitted migration rates were 'out of control' and blamed the previous Labour government for it.

"That is why we have already introduced radical changes to drive the numbers down and, we will shortly be consulting on a range of new measures," The Daily Mail quoted him, as saying.

Immigration levels have soared following Britain's policy of allowing Eastern Europeans to work in the country without restriction.

According to statistics, immigration from Eastern Europe rose by 50 per cent to 72,000 while the number of Eastern Europeans going back home dropped by nearly half to 29,000.

Though the government did succeed in cutting the numbers of student visas to non-Europeans by two percent, it was offset by a rise in work visas.

Andrew Green of Migration Watch has warned about the adverse consequences of immigration.

"Firm measures are now absolutely essential. The impact on British-born workers is a particular concern that has been brushed under the carpet for too long," he said.

hundreds of people are feared to have drowned off Libya, after a boat carrying some 600 refugees trying to reach Europe broke up at sea on Friday.

 

The UN's refugee agency said 16 bodies, including two babies, had been found.

UNCHR has said all ships using the Mediterranean should be ready to assist such vessels, as thousands continue to flee North Africa in inadequate boats.

Nato has denied claims that its naval units left dozens of migrants to die aboard another boat in distress.

It said it was unaware of the plight of the boat, which reportedly was adrift for more than two weeks.

The Guardian newspaper said 61 of the 72 people on board the boat died of hunger or thirst, despite being spotted by a military helicopter and Nato ship.

'Extra vigilant' journey
UNHCR's said migrants arriving on the Italian island of Lampedusa had reported seeing the boat carrying some 600 people foundering shortly after leaving the port at Tripoli on Friday.


Sybella Wilkes
UNHCR
If confirmed, this would be one of the largest accidents so far involving the thousands of often unseaworthy boats trying to reach Europe following unrest in North Africa.

Many of the witnesses were relatives of people on board, spokeswoman Sybella Wilkes told the BBC, adding: "There were a lot of distressed people on the quayside."

Ms Wilkes said it appeared that hundreds of people were missing - bodies were seen floating in the sea and those of 16 people, including two babies, have been washed ashore.

She said it was unclear whether anyone was looking for the missing people, but that Nato was not involved in the operation.

The nationalities of the passengers was also not known, but many of those waiting in Lampedusa were Somali, she said.

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said it had spoken to one Somali woman who had been on board the ship with her four-month-old baby. The baby died and the mother swam to shore, where she boarded another boat heading to Europe.

Ms Wilkes said "hundreds if not more than a thousand people" have now died making the "treacherous journey".

The agency has said all ships should be prepared to offer immediate help to such boats.

"We are calling on all ships in the Mediterranean - whether commercial, military or otherwise - to be extra vigilant and consider on sight that these boats are in distress and needing rescue," said the spokeswoman.

'Water dropped'
The Guardian reported on Monday that a small boat had left Tripoli on 25 March, hoping to make it to Italy but ran out of fuel and started drifting.


Italy has asked for international help to deal with the huge influx of refugees
Eventually food and water ran out, too.

"Every morning we would wake up and find more bodies, which we would leave for 24 hours and then throw overboard," one passengers, Abu Kurke, told the paper.

On 26 March, the passengers made contact with a priest in Italy, Father Mussie Zerai, who often plays a key role assisting migrants who hit trouble.

He confirmed to the BBC that he had alerted Italian coastguards, who said they would take action. But he lost contact with the boat when its phone battery went dead.


Any claims that a Nato aircraft carrier spotted and then ignored the vessel in distress are wrong”

Nato statement
Abu Kurke said that shortly afterwards a helicopter appeared and dropped bottles of water and packets of biscuits onto the boat - but that after that, no further help arrived.

At one point - on 29 or 30 March, the Guardian says - the boat drifted close to an aircraft carrier. Survivors contacted by the paper said two jets took off and flew low overhead, while the migrants held two starving babies aloft. But no effort was made to assist them.

The Guardian said its inquiries suggested the ship must have been the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle.

Italy rescues 500 Libya refugees in 'miracle' operation

Italian coast guards and local fisherman saved all 528 refugees on a boat from Libya early Sunday after their vessel hit rocks off the island of Lampedusa, an operation one rescuer described as a "miracle".
Refugees threw themselves into the water in the night, with some clinging to ropes strung between the rusty fishing boat and the shoreline by rescuers, as officers and local residents dived in to help along the rocky coast.
"There were about 500 people on board. It was a difficult situation. Our patrol boats couldn't come close because of the shallow water and the undertow was very strong," said Antonio Morana, a coast guard spokesman.
Coast guards later said 528 had been on board, including 24 pregnant women.
Many refugees were later seen wrapped in thermal blankets on the rocks and in temporary housing in the port in footage released by coast guards.
"The sea was rough and it was pushing the boat towards the coast," said one coast guard, Davide Miserendino.
"When the first immigrants jumped into the water, we immediately dived in to try and rescue as many as possible," he added.
"When we finished, to be honest, we burst out crying and embracing. We all thought about those children in the sea. It was incredible. It was a real miracle that we managed to rescue everyone," he said.
Local residents brought food and clothes for the survivors and a Ghanaian woman with a baby called Wisdom was given diapers and toys.
A few of the refugees suffered slight injuries and have been hospitalised.
President Giorgio Napolitano later expressed "since admiration" for the rescuers and said: "Italy is showing solidarity and a spirit of hospitality."
Most of those on board were migrant workers from sub-Saharan Africa and Asia who have been living in Libya. Thousands of refugees fleeing Libya have been arriving in Lampedusa in recent weeks as the conflict there has escalated.
"The bombs forced us to flee. Right now the situation in Libya doesn't leave us any choice," a Pakistani refugee was quoted by ANSA news agency as saying.
Lampedusa, which measures 20 square kilometres (eight square miles), is Italy's southernmost point and is closer to North Africa than to the mainland.
Morana said an investigation was underway into what had gone wrong but he believed there had been "a malfunctioning of the rudder" on the vessel.
Also Sunday, another boat carrying 800 refugees from Libya arrived in Lampedusa, a day after two boats with 842 refugees including 101 women and 22 children also fleeing the North African state landed there.
Lampedusa, which has a population of only around 5,000 has been overrun by more than 30,000 migrant and refugee arrivals since the start of the year. Almost all have since been transferred to the mainland or sent back.
Almost all have been Tunisians in search of a better life in Europe amid continued upheaval in their homeland in the wake of a revolt in January.
Some 150 refugees fleeing Libya are believed to have died on April 6 after their boat capsized in stormy weather in the middle of the Mediterranean. Italian coast guards managed to pluck 53 survivors from the sea.
A week later, two women died and another person was reported missing after their overcrowded boat hit rocks on the Italian island of Pantelleria.

Conman who bluffed his way to job as head of Border Agency investigation unit is jailed

CONMAN with a few poor GCSEs who got a top job at the Home Office has been jailed for a £500million fraud.
Andrew Waldron, 38, was jailed for four and a half years – his third conviction in nine years.
No one checked his record and he became head of an investigation unit at the UK Border Agency.
He admitted lying about qualifications to get a job with Gloucestershire Police in 2002 and was jailed last December for lying to the Home Office, where he worked from 2005 until his arrest in August 2009.
Waldron, from Rugby, Warwickshire, was put in charge of scores of contracts to house asylum seekers worth £20million each and committed the frauds while on bail last year.
He took £69,000 from property firms by claiming he could give them £480million in contracts to house diplomats as director of a fictitious agency called the Cross Border Intelligence Service.
He pleaded guilty to six counts of fraud at Birmingham Crown Court. Judge Robert Orme said on Friday: “It does beggar belief some of the lies and falsehoods you put forward.”

 

Malaysia agrees to take Australian asylum seekers

Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced Saturday that Malaysia has agreed to take hundreds of asylum seekers who land in Australia illegally, in a move described as a "big blow" to people smugglers.
Under the bilateral agreement, up to 800 boat people who try to reach Australia will be taken immediately to Malaysia instead, with their claims processed there by the United Nations.
In return, Australia has agreed to accept and resettle, over four years, 4,000 registered refugees currently living in Malaysia, Gillard and her Malaysian counterpart Najib Razak said in a joint statement.
"This landmark agreement will help take away the product people smugglers are trying to sell -- a ticket to Australia," said Gillard.
"The key message this will deliver to people smugglers and those seeking to make the dangerous sea voyage to Australia is: do not get on that boat.
"Under this arrangement, if you arrive in Australian waters and are taken to Malaysia you will go to the back of the queue."
The agreement, which has been negotiated with the Malaysian government over the last seven months, is expected to be finalised in the coming weeks with Australia covering all the funding arrangements.
Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said it would cost around Aus$300 million (US$320 million) over four years.
The figure of 800 is a one-off total with no time limit attached.
Thousands of asylum seekers head to Australia each year, usually on rickety boats from Indonesia, swamping already overcrowded immigration centres and prompting recent violent unrest in the often remote units.
Gillard had previously suggested that a regional processing centre be established in East Timor, but the idea was coldly received in Dili.
On Friday, media reports said her administration was considering reopening Papua New Guinea's mothballed Manus Island detention centre to asylum seekers.

 

Thailand, Cambodia Agree to Indonesian Observers at Border

Ahead of a regional summit, Indonesia's foreign minister has said Thailand and Cambodia agreed to allow Indonesian monitors to go to the border between the two countries to help prevent further military clashes.

In his role as the chairman of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa on Friday said there has been a breakthrough in ASEAN's efforts to mediate an end to the Thai-Cambodia border conflict.

"I can report to all of you that the two sides have agreed to the terms of reference for the observer team, the Indonesian observer team that we have been discussing for several weeks now," said Natalegawa.  "That is a done thing in the sense that the negotiations have been concluded.  Cambodia has formally acceded or formally agreed to the terms of reference.  Thailand has also agreed to it but they are yet to fully conclude the formal exchange of documents."

The terms of reference include how many Indonesian observers will be dispatched and the specific areas along the border where they will operate.

Since February, more than 20 people have died in repeated clashes between the two ASEAN members along their disputed border. Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes on both sides of the border.

The heart of the disagreement is a 900-year-old Hindu Khmer temple known as Preah Vihear in Cambodia and Prah Viharn in Thailand.  The temple sits in Cambodia, but Thailand claims adjacent land that includes a key access route to the complex.  The countries have fought sporadically over the border since 2008.

Natalegawa met with foreign ministers of the other ASEAN nations Friday. On Saturday, ASEAN national leaders begin a two-day summit in Jakarta.

The Indonesian foreign minister says talks Friday included the question of Burma's request to take over the chairmanship of ASEAN in 2014.  Human Rights Watch objects to the idea of Burma (also called Myanmar) leading the association, given it says, the country's long record of human rights abuses and its lack of democratic development.

While the ASEAN heads of states will decide if Burma's bid is accepted, Natalegawa said some concerns were expressed at the ministerial level.

"The state of readiness of Myanmar to chair ASEAN in 2014, which is quite a critical year for ASEAN, on the eve of its community in 2015, the state of readiness extends beyond practical arrangements readiness but also other dimensions that we need to ascertain ourselves," added Natalegawa.

Burma passed up its chance to take the rotating chairmanship in 2005, after the United States and European Union threatened to boycott ASEAN events if Burma's government was at the helm.

Natalegawa says the foreign ministers also addressed the issue of the South China Sea where China and some ASEAN countries have competing claims to small islands and areas believed to be rich in oil. He says ASEAN and China are continuing to work together to develop a declaration of conduct to help resolve disputes.

Al-Qa'ida confirmed the death of Osama bin Laden yesterday, serving notice it will take revenge on the United States and its allies and carry forward its campaign of terror.

A text, posted on the internet and dated 3 May, from the "general leadership" of the group, said the "blood of the holy warrior sheik, Osama bin Laden, God bless him, is precious to us and to all Muslims and will not go in vain". It added: "We will remain, God willing, a curse chasing the Americans and their agents, following them outside and inside their countries."

As much a warning to Washington, the statement was meant also to galvanise followers to rise up, including in Pakistan where Bin Laden was found and killed.

Ironically, however, this may actually be helpful to the US as it obviates the need to publish the pictures of the dead terrorist leader to quell conspiracy theorists claiming he is still alive.

As the killing of the perpetrator of 9/11 and other atrocities continued to reverberate around the globe, US officials said a first analysis of intelligence data seized from his house showed that far from being just a figurehead for al-Qa'ida, Bin Laden had been personally involved in hatching new plots against the US, including one to target trains possibly on the 10th anniversary of the Twin Towers attack in September.

Also coming into focus yesterday were new details of the surveillance the Abbottabad compound had been under since it was first identified as a possible al-Qa'ida hideout last August.

US officials revealed that CIA agents and informants had scrutinised the three-storey structure and its grounds for months from a nearby safe-house using telephoto lenses and long-range hearing devices. At the same time it was under satellite surveillance.

Even as President Barack Obama gave the order a week ago to send in the Seals, US intelligence officials were not completely sure that Osama bBin Laden would be found inside. Over the months, the CIA had seen saw a tall man spending twenty 20 minutes or longer each day walking back and forth in the compound garden.

Teams of experts will be raking through the data taken from the compound for months, translating from Arabic to English and trying, first of all, to discern any evidence of pending attacks against the US. Officials said the possibility of a train attack was one of the first to be spotted, though they do not think it was ever approved by Bin Laden or even finalised.

The indication that Bin Laden stayed involved in potential plots over the last several years from inside the compound contradicts those who argued he had faded into the background as al-Qa'ida's leader.

"He wasn't just a figurehead," one US official who had already been briefed on the first findings from the data told The New York Times. "He continued to plot and plan, to come up with ideas about targets and to communicate those ideas to other senior al-Qa'ida leaders."

As to why Bin Laden chose Abbottabad, a Pakistani army garrison town two hours north of Islamabad, to base himself, US officials supposed it had been to escape the danger of strikes by US drones flying over border tribal areas. Even yesterday, a drone killed 17 people in north-west Pakistan.

In its statement, al-Qa'ida indicated it is preparing to release an audio tape made by Bin Laden in the days before his death. On the revenge that it vows will be taken against Americans, the statement said: "Their happiness will turn into sorrow, and their blood will be mixed with their tears."

The risk of attacks

*Pipe bombs, a targeted car crash, a lone gunman: Western intelligence officials said yesterday that they are seeing increased internet and phone chatter about cheap, small-scale terror attacks to avenge the death of the 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden. More than 100 protesters, meanwhile, gathered yesterday outside the US Embassy in London shouting, "USA, you will pay!" and warning of such revenge attacks. European security officials say there is no specific plot that would justify raising the threat level. But one of their biggest fears is the possibility of a Mumbai-style attack like the 2008 shooting spree that killed 166 people and paralysed India's business capital for days.

The cleric Anjem Choudary, who helped organise the demonstration outside the US Embassy, said revenge attacks in Britain and abroad were likely because of Bin Laden's importance to al-Qa'ida and its affiliates. "I think Britain is more likely to face a 7/7 today than ever," he said in reference to the London bombings. "Osama bin Laden was a high-profile leader. If the Americans talk of justice, they shouldn't have killed him."