In the Dutch town of Groningen, an asylum seeker expulsion center will be established, averting a feared crisis in housing for deportees.  Over the strong objections of protestors, the town council approved the new center, which will house 400 asylum seekers awaiting deportation.  Over the next three years, the Dutch government plans to deport around 26,000 asylum seekers. 

*****

In Australia, almost one-fifth of overseas students at some universities have had their visas cancelled by the Department of Immigration.  Often visas are cancelled when students do not meet the minimum standard of 80% minimum attendance because of work-related responsibilities.  In response, some colleges and universities have offered to provide illegal flexible attendance regimes to attract students, and the Department of Immigration is cracking down on these and other schemes taking advantage of the restriction.

*****

In England, the Medical Practitioner’s Union has started a petition against government rules that withhold NHS hospital care from asylum seekers with failed asylum claims.  The physicians are demanding that health care workers be allowed to refuse to identify asylum seekers for the purpose of denying them medical care.  The medical community highlights its professional and moral responsibility to respond to the medical needs of individuals without regard to non-clinical factors such as asylum status, and emphasizes that health care is a right for everyone.  Advocates for these asylum seekers are quick to point out that the asylum seekers are not the cause of the NHS financial problems, but that the cause is more than two decades of severe under-funding.