Immigration

EU Parliament passes law detaining, expelling illegal immigrants

The European Parliament passed a tough immigration law Wednesday that will detain illegal immigrants for 18 months before expelling them and then banning them re-entry into Europe for five years.

The law, which will take effect in 2010, also requires the 27 European Union nations to either issue residency or other permits to illegal immigrants or return them to their original countries. Exempted from the law are asylum-seeking refugees.

The 18-month detention was meant to prevent an illegal immigrant from fleeing and to establish a uniform detention period, which currently varies from 32 days in France to indefinite custody in Great Britain and six other countries.

The number of illegal immigrants in the EU is estimated to be eight million. In 2006, one million migrants were prevented from entering Europe while half a million were caught mostly in Spain, Italy and Greece. About 200,000 of those caught were deported.

(Published by AHN - june 19, 2008)