Immigration news

The Australian Law Reform Commission published a report this week stating that Australia needs to bring in new immigration laws to protect migrant women fleeing family violence. The commission's report recommended several immigration law reforms to allow migrants affected by domestic violence on temporary visas to stay and seek help in Australia.Their recommendations included:

Greece announced this week that they will soon begin building a 6-mile-long fence to secure their border with Turkey in order to deter illegal immigrants.Thousands of illegal immigrants cross from Turkey into Greece at the 6-mile-long point each year. Greek Public Order Minister Christos Papoutsis announced the fence plans at the border village of Kantanies. The fence will be 13 feet tall and building will start next month, expecting to finish by September. It will cost more than €3 million.

Canada is a very popular destination for Indian immigrants. An increasing number of Indians are immigrating to Canada to attend university and work in skilled professions. Many emigrate to Canada under permanent immigration programs. Others who do not qualify for skilled immigration right away may qualify for a permanent visa at a later date.

US Immigration officials announced this week the appointment of a new public advocate in charge of addressing questions and complaints about immigration law-enforcement policies. A public advocate is a governmental position similar to an ombudsman. They are a government official who investigates citizens' complaints against the government.

A former UK education minister claims that stricter immigration rules are harming UK universities because they are missing out on students from India. Labour's former education minister Baroness Blackstone has stated her concerns in a debate in the House of Lords; She said that this could be bad for universities who rely on funding from foreign students.She said the UK risked putting itself in a "very unfortunate position" when it came to attracting overseas students.

UK Immigration is pushing to install facial recognition technology at London's Heathrow airport for the Olympics. UK Border Agency (UKBA) originally planned to install facial recognition technology in all five of its terminals in time for the Olympics but there have been several delays in getting the system up and running.Last July, UKBA received approval to install e-gates facial recognition technology at Heathrow airport that allows registered non-EU nationals to use electronic self-service immigration controls.