Canada: A Switch To Detainment For Illegal Aliens

Canada has undertaken a pilot project at one international airport to detain arrivals whose identity is unverified. The goal of Project Identity is to detain those who have destroyed or concealed papers, such as passports or other identification, or who are evasive and uncooperative with immigration officers.

The targets most likely to be detained are refugee claimants, whom often arrive without valid documents. Such travelers have previously been released unless they posed a specific security or criminal threat.

Some observers claim the 180-degree shift brought by Project Identity is an attempt to please the US government.

Those detained are held at an immigration center near Pearson airport. Since the project began in October, 24 people have been detained. Eleven of those have been able to establish identity, and the other 13 remain in detention.

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Asylum Applications Rise 11% in UK

Asylum applications to the UK rose by an "unacceptable" 11% this summer over the previous quarter, according to government estimates released last Friday.

It is an astonishing increase in the face of measures designed to tighten the system. But officials stressed that the increase in the number of applications predates new measures to overhaul and tighten the UK's asylum and immigration policy. The Home Office said the closing of the Sangatte refugee camp in France and the new Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act, which became law earlier this month, were too recent to have affected the figures.

Government leaders said they plan to end the policy of Exceptional Leave to Remain - in which asylum seekers are allowed to stay despite the rejection of their application, because they have need of protection, have family in the country, or have started a higher education course.

"We are now significantly tightening the basis on which leave will be granted to all those who have been refused asylum. We are determined that protection should only be granted to those who really need it. Our asylum system is not a short-cut to work or settlement in the U.K.," said Home Office minister Beverley Hughes.

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France To Close Sangatte Refugee Center Four Months Early

The refugee camp at Sangatte, near the Channel Tunnel, was set to shut its doors for good in April, but that closure has been sped up, as part of a deal between the UK and France.

At a joint press conference in London, U.K. Home Secretary David Blunkett and his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy said the Sangatte refugee camp will close Dec. 30. In return, the U.K. will grant working visas to up to 1,000 Iraqi Kurds and 200 Afghan refugees at the camp. France will be responsible for the remaining 3,600 refugees who have registered with the camp since September.

The first group of about 40 Iraqi Kurds arrived in Britain on Thursday, where they will be given four-year work visas and help finding jobs. They will receive accommodation and living allowances for three months until they have undertaken training required to find work under their renewable visas.