Irregular Migrants Coming Soon to a State Near You

For the moment (and it will only be a moment) Gitmo is not sitting on the top burner at Amnesty International.

Italy is.

Italia is the latest villain for daring to create a “climate of discrimination”. In fact, their newly enacted immigration procedures have AI worried. In a normal world, such measures would be seen as customary regulations for a sovereign state to enact in order to secure its borders. However, Amnesty International does not breathe the air of a normal world and they are worried, very worried.

Things are so bad in Italy that AI says:

politicians from both sides of the spectrum were legitimizing the use of racist language.

Unbelievable. Next thing you know Italy will be pressuring Italians to practice xenophobia. Get this:

Last week, Italy’s new centre-right government introduced a series of measures aimed at improving security.

Illegal immigration will become punishable by up to four years in prison, it will be easier to expel illegal immigrants and there will be a three-year prison sentence for using minors to beg for money.

Attacks on Roma

But the head of Amnesty International in Italy, Daniela Carboni, said the moves represented “heavy restrictions and new crimes that will target, above all, immigrants”.

This is her DUH moment, surely. The laws are designed to target illegal immigrants. How hard is that to understand?
- - - - - - - - -

She said the organisation was particularly worried by the measure that would mean attempted illegal immigrants could be held for up to 18 months in a detention centre.

“Amnesty International is extremely alarmed both by the contents and haste of these measures… and by the climate of discrimination which preceded them,” Ms Carboni said in the report.

While the rest of us, needless to say, are breathing a sigh of relief at Italy’s courageous stand on protecting Italians…

AI is the enemy of nation-states and the champion of “irregular migrants.”

Here are parts of the cover letter - full text here - from Amnesty International (with editorial comments supplied by GoV) to the President of the EU; the letter accompanied Amnesty International’s 2008 Report (pdf), published to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

Dear Mr Barroso,

It is with pleasure that I present to you herewith the Amnesty International Report 2008…

…it documents human rights abuses occurring in 150 countries and territories around the world. Regrettably, the European Union (EU) is by no means free of such problems and with 26 of its member states included in this year’s report, it has no reason for complacency.

According to Amnesty International’s report, in 2007 there was a pattern of discrimination in at least 16 EU countries, mostly on grounds of gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation. In as many member states individuals continued to suffer police brutality and ill-treatment while in custody.

A breach of rights of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees was also identified in at least 18 member states and, as in the previous year, counter terrorism policies continued to be a source of human rights violations in at least 15 EU countries.

Oh, dear. It would seem that unless a nation is willing to concoct an ineffective, wimpy wet noodle counter terrorism “policy” that is designed to fail in protecting its own citizens, then any measures against terrorism are like, you know, really not nice and they’re violating human rights of people just like you and me…except for the fact that they like to engage in such civic activities as blowing up you and me and the mindless bureaucrat who wrote this letter -- while their confederates proceed to video the encounter.

On this last point it is important to stress that EU member States have still not condemned or fully investigated evidence of collusion with the US-led renditions and secret detention programme.

[…]

While Europe remains a magnet for those seeking to escape persecution, violence or poverty,it still fails to sufficiently protect people in dire need because of its repressive approaches to irregular migration.

Imagine that! The EU represses “irregular migration.” That’s the brave new world p.c. speak for illegal immigrants; they’ve all been magically transformed into “irregular migrants.” It makes those who violate a nation’s borders sound like a group of constipated squatters.

The letter earnestly puffs on:

Such approaches undermine the fundamental rights of migrants and impact severely on those of refugees and asylum seekers. The lack of collective political will to address key human rights abuses at home, seriously limits the EU’s credibility to promote human rights in its external relations, where it is also not doing enough.

Thus, according to Amnesty International, unless a nation is willing to let the “irregular migrants” overrun its borders -- causing crime waves, the breakdown of civil infrastructures and general chaos -- then it can’t protest, say, China’s grip on Tibet. What a bunch of malarkey.

As for the “lack of political will” to tear down national borders and welcome the irregulars with open arms…let’s congratulate those who lack the suicidal tendencies to want such an outcome.

The EU has not used its leverage sufficiently in the run up to the Beijing Olympics to make a real impact on the human rights situation in China. By significantly downgrading the input of civil society in the human rights dialogue it diluted its principled approach to one of pure tactical politics, blah, blah, etc., ad nauseam.

Sorry, the bureaucratese began to melt one word into the next, like an overheated box of crayons. What nation on earth - or collective suprastates of same - has sufficient “leverage” to get China to do anything? So here’s the bottom line, here is what Amnesty International wants the EU to do:

to adopt, by the Declaration’s anniversary in December, a Council resolution launching an overall review of its human rights policies and mechanisms, with the aim of finally designing and implementing a coherent human rights policy for the EU.

Yours sincerely,

Dr. Nicolas

Oh, of course, I should I have known…the UN’s mini-me, the EU, is going to pass a Resolution, making the world safe for oligarchy. You’ll notice there is no corresponding resolution outlining the concomitant responsibilities to accompany the rights endowed to all these irregular squatters.

Be still, my heart.