ISL News and Media

Asia: FIA Arrests Madam Babri In Fake Olympics Visa Scam - Federal Investigation Agency (FIA ) has arrested Nazhat Begum also known as Madam Babri here on Wednesday for scamming people out of millions with fake Olympics visas.  Sama South Asian News Agency – 7/25/12

US: O-1 Visas Gaining Popularity - For a long time, the H-1B visa, which allows employers to hire foreigners who have “specialty occupations,” was clearly the immigration solution of choice for skilled people wishing to enter the United States.  But in recent years, the O-1 visa, which is reserved for “individuals with extraordinary ability,” has become an increasingly popular alternative, especially for artists and entrepreneurs who are self-employed or may even employ others.  JDSUPRA – 7/25/12

US: Nonaccredited Flight Schools Giving Foreigners Students Visas A Decade After 9/11, Senators Told - A decade after 9/11, over a third of U.S. flight schools that give foreigners student visas are not accredited institutions, exasperated lawmakers learned Tuesday.  Daily News – 7/24/12

China:  China Asks Kazakhstan To Ease Visa Procedure - China hopes to sign an agreement with Kazakhstan in the near future to simplify work visa application for Chinese citizens, Chinese Vice-Minister of Commerce Jiang Yaopin said Tuesday at a meeting of the Kazakh-Chinese subcommittee on trade and economic cooperation in Astana.  ChinaDaily USA – 7/26/12

Myanmar:  Burma Rejects Visa For Pakistani Human Rights Leader - Burma has refused to grant visas to Pakistani human rights advocate Asnar Burney and a colleague, who wanted to come to Burma on a fact-finding mission regarding reports of Rohingya Muslims arbitrarily arrested and killed in Arakan State.  Mizzima – 7/25/12

Zambia: Why Nigerians Face Visa Hitches Visiting Zambia - Although Zambia says Nigeria is on its priority list on free entry into the country, The Guardian has learnt that such treatment is not accorded the country. The Guardian Nigeria – 7/25/12

UK: Up to 63,000 Bogus Students Given Visas In A Year - As many as 60,000 bogus students could have been allowed to move to Britain in a year, according to analysis of an official report.  The Telegraph – 7/24/12

UK: Visa-For-Cash Scandal – FIA Arrests A Dozen Suspects In London Travel Scam - The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has rounded up a dozen suspects in the London Olympics visa scandal uncovered a day earlier by British tabloid.  The Sun -7/26/12

UK: Visa Scam – The Sun Ready To Face Law Suit – Reacting to Pakistan’s decision to take legal action against ‘The Sun’, the British newspaper has said that it would stick to its claims about a Pakistani scam involving issuance of visas for London Olympics in exchange for one million rupees ($10,000).  Pakistan Observer – 7/26/12

World: Asset Freezes and Visa Bans Give Rich Countries Useful Weapons Against Wrongdoers - Britain and other countries are gaining support for a way of making the fruits of corruption even harder to enjoy: the public imposition of visa bans and asset freezes on foreign miscreants.  The Economist – 7/21/12

Australia:  Visa Backlog Forces Navitas Downgrade - Navitas shares slumped almost 10 per cent by the close of trade on Tuesday.  Navitas had in June forecast a five to 15 per cent growth in new student enrolments for the second semester, compared to first semester enrolments.  Herald Sun – 7/24/12

Australia: Visa System Frustrates Crop Farmers - A NSW farmer says the Federal Government's inflexibility with visas is causing mental and physical strain for growers of broadacre crops.  ABC Rural – 7/24/12

US: Microsoft Tops H-1B Visa Employer List - Microsoft, which has long argued that the United States needs to import more high-tech labor to fill what it says is a skills gap, filed more requests for H-1B visa workers over the past two years than any other company, according to a new study.  InformationWeek – 7/24/12

Russia: Nation Concerned About Visas For Olympics Volunteers - Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday its plans to showcase its preparations for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics in London were being jeopardized by delays in Britain issuing visas to the volunteers.  SBS World News – 7/25/12

Ireland: Work Visa Not Working for Tech Sector - While an effort has been made to turn out an increasing number of graduates with high-tech skills from Irish universities, companies are finding that other areas are lacking, particularly when they need experienced candidates for more senior roles. And it’s not just a problem for Ireland: other European countries are feeling the pinch from the lack of talent.  IrishTimes – 7/23/12

World: Asset Freezes and Visa Bans Give Rich Countries Useful Weapons Against Wrongdoers - Britain and other countries are gaining support for a way of making the fruits of corruption even harder to enjoy: the public imposition of visa bans and asset freezes on foreign miscreants.  The Economist – 7/21/12

EU: Kyiv Brussels To Extend Visa Facilitation Agreement - Ukraine and the European Union will sign the additional agreement to amend the already signed visa facilitation agreement.  It is expected that the document will be signed by the EU Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy Stefan Fule and the Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kostyantyn Hryschenko in Brussels.  forum – 7/23/12

Canada: Strip Clubs Set To Recruit From High School Due To Visa Ban - Strip club recruiters might be coming to a high school near you. And they're blaming new immigration laws.  This month, the federal government stopped issuing visas or extensions for foreign strippers. These strippers currently represent about 5 per cent of the 38,000 working strippers in Canada.  Daily Brew – 7/23/12

Egypt: Palestinian Visa-Free - Early yesterday morning, seven Palestinians were allowed entry into Egypt through Cairo International Airport. Nothing too special, you might think. But these seven were allowed in without the usual security clearances and visas, making it the first time in years that Palestinians had been allowed visa-free entry into Egypt.  TheNational – 7/24/12

Zambia: Nigeria excludes from Visa Free Countries List - Zambia has excluded Nigeria among the African and Commonwealth countries that do not require visa to enter the country.  Daily Trust – 7/23/12

UK: Up to 63,000 bogus Students Given Visas In A Year - Interviews carried out by the Home Office suggested that more than half of applicants from some countries were not genuine.  The Telegraph – 7/124/12

UK: Brit Visa Scandal - Why are we so prone to scandals? Just days before the 2012 Olympics get underway in London, a controversy, which could create huge waves, has broken out with the British tabloid The Sun reporting a criminal ring in Pakistan involved…  The Express Tribune – 7/24/12

EU: Commission Amends Visa Facilitation Agreement For Citizens of Ukraine - The European Commission signed an amended Visa Facilitation Agreement with Ukraine in Brussels today, further facilitating people-to-people contacts and strengthening ties between the citizens of Ukraine and the European Union.  The Information Daily – 7/24/12

Pakistan: Olympic Visa Scandal Surfaces - The Sun tabloid says it’s busted a racket involving politician in Lahore that could have given access to London Games as part of Pakistani contingent in return for Rs 1 million.  Daily Times – 7/24/12

Uzbekistan:  Country Has Refused Visas For Potential Investors For Decades - Instead of attracting foreign investment for the nation’s prosperity, Karimov’s regime purposefully hindered this for decades by refusing to issue visas to businessmen from Asian countries, Wikileaks reports.  UZNEWS.net – 7/23/12

The Department Immigration and Citizenship has revamped their cyber newsroom service.  This makes it easier for local and international members of the press to access breaking stories on Australian immigration issues.  It’s also an opportunity for local and oveseas immigration lawyers to keep ahead of pending changes and developments in Australia.  The newsroom site is also accessible to the public.

Some changes to the site include easier access to categorized media content, media-release translation modalities, links to social media and user-friendly media-kits.  The recent upgrades allow lawyers, journalists and other media representatives to keep pace with Australian immigration issues and with the ever changing demands of fast-moving media technologies.

The media release web page is now an online news page allowing users to view media releases and related photos or video when available in one location.  A DIAC spokesman says some media releases would, where applicable, be translated into a range of languages.

Another exciting new feature allows journalists and lawyers to follow the department on a range of social media platforms from Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Fickr. 

A DIAC representative says access to high-resolution audio-visual materials is still available and copyright stipulations remain the same.

“All photos have a creative commons license so they are free for newsroom subscribers to use.”

“Videos compliant with multiple formats can be downloaded from the newsroom in high definition, allowing journalists only, to pull videos straight from the site for immediate use on-air or online, in news stories.

All videos on the immigration cyber newroom service can be viewed here  This is probably one of the best ways to keep in touch with Australian immigration, border protection, human rights and refugees issues.

US:  License Plate Photos Could Catch Illegal Immigrants – The ongoing hunt for illegal immigrants could soon be going high-tech in Texas.  Dallas office of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has asked companies to assist in designing a way of using a national database to locate vehicles being driven by illegal immigrants.  The technology would work by tapping into a license plate database of images captured by a camera network.  These cameras mounted on stationary police cars would be used to scan and capture tags then compares them to a “hot list’ of images setup to alert authorities.  Full Story

Africa – Severe Food Crisis Could Kill Kids - 60,000 Mali refugees in Burkina Faso have arrived at a major camp during one of the worst food shortages since 2005.  Lack of rain has taken a toll on crops and donor countries have given just 13% of funding needed to provide food for the hundreds of thousands of stricken families.  The broader food crisis in Mauritania, Burkina Faso, northern Nigeria, Niger and Chad is placing more than 4-million children is a life and death struggle to survive.  More than 4-million children 5-years and under are now suffering from acute malnutrition, including 1.1 million who will potentially face starvation.  Full Story

 Indonesia:  Jakarta Getting Impatient With Australia - Both Australia’s Opposition Leader and asylum seekers are being accused of threatening Indonesia’s sovereignty.  Now Jakarta wants Australia to start accepting some of the 10,000 asylum seekers using Indonesia as a waiting room.  This issue they say is a growing domestic problem for them when they already struggle to house and feed 35-million of their own citizens.  Only 61-people from the 1200 recognized refugees from Indonesia have been settled in Australia.  Full Story

Canada: Massive Human Trafficking Ring Bust – They alluded police for almost 18-months, then finally on Tuesday, 3-people accused of running Canada’s largest human trafficking ring, were arrested.  Officers tracked them to an apartment block in Ontario where they were staying with friends.  The ring’s kingpin was arrested earlier in the year.  Ferenc Domotor, Hungarian mastermind of the human trafficking ring, lived the life of a successful immigrant while secretly building and managing his massive slave trade.  A regular churchgoer, Domotor was jailed for 9-years, Canada’s toughest sentence metered out for human trafficking.  Full Story

UK: Campaign Against New Forced Marriage Law Gathers Momentum – Ethnic minority campaigners and parliamentarians fear new government legislation banning forced marriages could drive the practice underground and deny victims justice.  They say the problem is the new law distinguishes between the illegalities of “forced marriages” while recognizing the legality of “arranged marriages” and herein lies the potential problem.  Campaigners point out that victims without knowing it, could be sweet-talked or black-mailed into agreeing to a “forced marriage” and in the eyes of the law that union transforms into a legally binding “arranged marriage”, exempt from prosecution.  Full Story

Pakistan: Women’s Rights Become Fight To The Death – Farida Afridi was shot to death for promoting women’s rights in northern Pakistan. Zar Ali Khan Afridi chair of the Tribal NGO’s Consortium says it’s the first time a Pakistani woman working for an NGO had been targeted and killed.    Islamic militants suspected of killing her, have been waging an ongoing war against anyone promoting equality for women.  Tribal elders are now accusing female NGO workers in the region, of “promoting Western agendas” and “spreading obscenities”.  Following the lead of other international NGO’s, the Red Cross has pulled out personnel.  Full Story

World: The Case Against Same-Sex Marriage – Many accused of bible bashing and old-fashioned thinking claim they’re not against homosexuals and they’ve not bigots, they’re just against same-sex marriage.  The Australian Christian Lobby argues that same-sex marriage denies the rights of children to have both a mother and a father as their parents.  These reforms they say - made with the intention of eliminating discrimination - have inadvertently discriminated against children. Catholic priest Frank Brennan says it’s wrong to label this debate as homophobic when the rights of children are at stake.  Full Story

US: Native American Migration Happened in 3-Waves – David Reich, professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School says "there are at least three deep lineages in Native American populations."  After exploring almost 300,000 gene variations, the genetic investigation concluded that the first migration wave likely occurred about 15,000 years ago, back in the last ice age.    Reich says most Native Americans have first wave DNA.   The two subsequent migration waves have Asian lineages and they apparently settled in Canada and the Artic.  The professor also found some Eskimo-Aleut speakers migrated back to Asia taking Native American genes with them.  The international team analyzed samples from 52-Native American and 17-Siberian groups.  Full Story

World - Players Turn “Virtual Refugees” in New SmartPhone Game App:  United Nation has gone commercial!  To celebrate World Refugee Day, the agency has released a smartphone app aimed at creating a cyber experience of what it’s like to be a refugee.  It's called: My Life As a Refugee.  The player must think like a refugee on-the-run and make heart-stopping decisions faced by millions who flee conflict and persecution on a daily basis.  The game with all the drama of a Hollywood blockbuster movie, highlights an intricate matrix of danger, disaster and heartache as the player escapes his/her situation while searching for loved ones who maybe dead or alive.  The app is available on Android phones, with an iPhone version to be launched.  Full story - NewsTrackIndia

Australia - Asylum Boat Sabotaged:  A senior official from Indonesia’s search and rescue agency claims a second asylum boat that capsized in Indonesian waters just days ago, may have been sabotaged by those onboard in a misguided effort to guarantee entry into Australia.  The official says, “they probably feared that if the boat is still in good condition they would be rejected and must sail back.”   Australia’s Prime Minister Julian Gillard confirmed 123-asylum seekers were rescued.  In just days, this is the second incident of an overcrowded boat capsizing en route to Australia. Full story - Ninemsn

World - Outlawing Circumcision: A German court says “no” to circumcision ruling religious ritual is an assault on baby boys.  Last week a regional court in Cologne West Germany ruled that the fundamental right of a child to bodily integrity outweighed the fundamental rights of their parents. "The religious freedom of the parents and their right to educate their child would not be unacceptably compromised, if they were obliged to wait until the child could himself decide to be circumcised," The case was brought against a doctor after a circumcision procedure was botched on a 4-year old Muslim boy.  Full story - Yahoo! News

Israel – Cast Out - South Sudanese Face Risky Future: Many blame the colour of their skin for being deported from Israel and question the legality of being cast out.  Starting this month Israel has begun weekly airlifts to send back South Sudanese.  Many say it is part of a government crackdown to rid the country of African migrants who come illegally to work. Others argue it’s being done because Africans threaten the demographic of the Jewish state.  Since the creation of South Sudan and its secession from its neighbour, an Israeli court has revoked refugee protection status for all South Sudanese.  Full story - Chicago Tribune

EU – VIDEO - Unwanted Children & The Troubling Rise of Baby Boxes:  They look like boxes, but inside they’re warm and cozy.  This is where parents leave their babies when they cannot care for them.  Supporters argue a heated baby box monitored by nurses is better for babies than abandoning them in dangerous places.  The UN disagrees saying it violates the rights of the child.  The official claims baby boxes prevent children from knowing who their parents are, he also says it denies the child the possibility of learning about his/her genetic identity, makeup and background and worse it denies the child the love and support of relatives. Full story - BBC News

Norway – Progress Party Tells Asylum Seekers Be Norwegian!  In a shock statement Norway’s right-wing populist party sent a strongly worded message to all asylum seekers:  if you’re serious about living in our country then act Norwegian.  They say this should be part of the mandatory path to permanent residency.  Upset by immigrants who fail to assimilate, the party is calling on would be residents to dress like Norwegians, speak the language, get jobs and respect Norwegian culture and values.  The party also wants immigrants to adhere to the proper use of Norway’s benefits system.  Full story - The Local Norway’s News In English

UK:  Academic Accused of Running Racist Website – What was he thinking? A Cambridge University academic is under fire for operating a website featuring Nazi imagery.  On it he apparently claims black people are "impulsive” with low IQs and describes immigrant women as  “exotic fruit”.  There’s even a picture of Hitler entitled “Political Correctness” where he praises a convicted Holocaust denier as a “brilliant historian”.  His student say, articles on his WebPages are deeply “racist” and “sexist” and now they want the 43-year old expelled from the university.   Full story - The Independent

World: VIDEO - Behind The Veil -  This is a fascinating, in-depth television report on Australian women who have converted to Islam and now chose to wear the niqab – It’s that loose piece of clothing that covers everything but the eyes and continues to divide opinion in many western countries.  Local women who wear it say they feel liberated because they get to choose who sees their beauty. The women also claim the niqab stops the possibility of “adultery with the eyes” which they intimate, can lead to illicit affairs and fornication.   Full story - Channel 7 & Muslimvillage