Immigration newsletter 09 Aug 2006

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The British government is considering if it will impose a seven-year transitional ban on migrant workers for new EU Member States. Prompted by the imminent entry of Bulgaria and Romania into the European Union the government does not want to repeat the mistakes of 2004 with the EU-25 expansion.

Overseas sub-contracted labour to specified sectors in the UK now requires a license from the Gangmaster Licensing Authority. Beginning 01 October, it will be a criminal offence to operate in these sectors without a GLA licence. The agreement allows some financial charges to be imposed on a worker by an overseas agent to offset licensing costs.

13 per cent of British students, workers, and pensioners hope to emigrate in the "near future". According to a BBC London poll, the top reasons given: better quality of life, better weather, and dissatisfaction with government policy.

A proposed labour agreement with the Australian meat processing industry will increase quotas to import more temporary skilled workers. Employers might bring workers into the country for up to four years.

Australian Members of Parliament from the majority party may join the opposition over the Federal Government's controversial border protection legislation. Liberal moderates are concerned that a key concessions - such as keeping children out of detention centres - will be overturned.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the UN's International Maritime Organisation will issue an information leaflet soon to provide guidance on relevant legal provisions and procedures to all affected parties involved in rescue at sea situations. Vessels fulfilling their humanitarian duty in waterways around the world have encountered problems as states have occasionally refused to let some migrants and refugees rescued at sea disembark into their territories.

A class-action lawsuit has been filed against the U.S. government over excessive delays in processing citizenship requests. The claimants have experienced delays from six months to four years. Homeland Security says extensive background checks have been conducted since September 11, 2001.

The United States court system has an increasing need for multi-lingual employees. Spanish speaking professionals are required, but a general need for other languages is being felt, too. As the Asian population reaches 32 percent of all immigrants, interpreters fluent in Cantonese, Korean, Mandarin and several Indian dialects, for other examples, are also required.

Economic growth in Canada was projected to be 3.2% for the second quarter, but actual growth was just over 2%. This is not entirely bad news since the Canadian dollar was seen as too strong. 

Overall and core inflation are both down by 0.3%, at 1.7% & 2.5% respectively. The over-all jobless rate for Canada is at 6.4%. There was a gain of 21,600 full-time jobs for July.

Canada is expediting applications from Lebanon for permanent residence in Canada. Similar to a 1999 program for Kosovo, the program will be made through family-class sponsorship by Canadian citizens and permanent residents. 

Applicants are instructed to make sure they write the words "Situation In Lebanon" on the completed application.

New, hi-tech electronic passports are designed to prevent or greatly inhibit forgery and counterfeiting. Embedded Radio Frequency ID (or "RFID") memory chips are one key security feature. 

A German security consultant demonstrated at the Black Hat Security Conference in Las Vegas that a duplicate RFID chip may easily be cloned. There are many other protections in place, but manual inspection of passports and ID cards is still considered one of the best protections against forgery.