International Roundup

In a ruling that could affect up to 1,000 foreigners who are parents of Irish-born children, the Supreme Court of Ireland has overturned a landmark High Court ruling which found that the rights of five Irish-born children had been breached when their parents were refused permission to remain there under the Irish-Born Child Scheme.

The Irish Independent reports that the five-judge court said the Minister for Justice had acted correctly when he sought to deport the parents and said their challenge to the minister's actions was 'misconceived'  It also said the Constitutional and European Convention rights of the foreign-national parents and their children are unaltered by its decision.

The ruling was greeted with dismay by the parents, who now face deportation, and immigrants' rights groups who criticized the Government for failing to introduce an independent appeals mechanism for the parents.  The Immigrant Council of Ireland said the Supreme Court decision effectively meant an Irish child's rights would now not need to be considered until his or her parent was threatened with deportation.

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Visitors to China will no longer have to fill in health declaration forms from next month as a way of simplifying entry procedures ahead of next year's Beijing Olympics, according to Chinese state. Instead, visitors would have to tell border officials of any illness.  'The move aims to simplify immigration procedures and improve efficiency,' it quoted a joint issued by the national quarantine watchdog and civil aviation regulator as saying.

The China Daily says that the health forms were started during the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which began in the southern province of Guangdong in late 2002.   Passengers would still have to fill in entry and customs declaration forms, the newspaper added.

'The complicated procedures have led to growing public complaints as passenger flows increase rapidly,' it said. Olympic organizers expect 70 million visits by foreigners next year, up from 44 million in 2006.  "The rapid increase in passenger traffic poses a challenge. So we're making great efforts to simplify immigration procedures," the report quoted quarantine official Xia Wenjun as saying.

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