Mediaboss Marketing

An asylum seeker, whose detention became the focus of protests, has been deported back to Iraq where he faces persecution, his Sydney lawyer says.

The 58-year-old Iraqi man, known only as Saeed, fled Iraq with his brother and arrived in Australia in 2012.

Illiterate, penniless and in poor health, Saeed is a member of a persecuted ethnic minority, his legal representative, Alison Battisson from Human Rights For All, told AAP.

His brother and others from his region were granted asylum, but Saeed was denied on an administrative technicality, Ms Battison said.

As he languished for years in a Melbourne detention centre, protesters paid attention to his case and campaigned for his release.

He was hospitalised for hunger strikes and, Ms Battisson said, he currently weighs less than 50 kilograms and is very weak as a result of heart conditions.

In March Saeed was transferred to Sydney's Villawood detention centre where protesters blockaded the entrance and clashed with police - four were arrested.

Ms Battisson said she called her client on Sunday afternoon and another Villawood detainee answered. He told her more than a dozen guards had taken Saeed away and he was being deported.

"As far as we know, approximately 15 officers took Saeed away from Villawood at about 4.30pm today," Ms Battisson said.

"He's at the end of his legal processes - they can deport him."

She said no one had alerted her.

Ms Battisson said she raced to Sydney international airport to try to find Saeed and his escorts.

She said she had been preparing one final appeal, directly to the Immigration Minister, to grant Saeed a visa on compassionate grounds.

"I'm in tears," Ms Battisson said.

"Saeed is a vulnerable old man. He has been deported to his death. The process failed him."

The Department of Immigration has been contacted for comment.

Read more from the original source:
Refugee Saeed quietly deported to Iraq: lawyer - SBS

The Latest on Europe's response to the large number of refugees and migrants trying to reach the continent (all times local):

1:15 p.m.

The Romanian coastguard has intercepted a boat carrying 69 Iraqi migrants in Romanian waters of the Black Sea.

A spokeswoman for the coastguard says a patrol boat spotted the motorized yacht sailing under a Turkish flag on Sunday, about 10 miles from the port of Mangalia, in southeast Romania, close to the border with Bulgaria.

Authorities escorted the boat to shore. The boat was carrying 30 men, 10 women and 29 minors. It was driven by a Cypriot and Bulgarian.

Police are investigating.

1:00 p.m.

A second humanitarian group is suspending migrant rescues in the Mediterranean Sea due to Libyan threats.

Germany-based Sea-Eye said Sunday that "with a heavy heart" it was forced to halt its ship's rescue activity for its crew's safety.

A day earlier, NGO Doctors Without Borders similarly cited Libyan threats in saying it's suspending sea rescue activities.

Libya has warned that it's extending its own search-and-rescue area to beyond the 12-mile limit Italy and other countries consider the boundary of Libyan territorial waters. A Spanish NGO rescue ship reported that the Libyan coast guard last week fired warning shots at them while the vessel was in international waters.

Humanitarian groups say migrants returned to Libya risk inhumane treatment.

Italy's foreign minister says fewer smuggler boats mean less earnings for human traffickers.

Go here to read the rest:
The Latest: Romanian coastguard intercepts Iraq migrant boat - ABC News

African refugees wait aboard the Golfo Azurro, the Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms rescue ship, to disembark at the Italian port of Reggio Calabria, on Feb. 25, 2017. Santi Palacios / AP

Immigration is dominating Italy's political agenda before elections early next year, with public opinion increasingly hostile to migrants. Almost 600,000 migrants have arrived in Italy over the past four years.

Most sailed from lawless Libya in flimsy vessels operated by people smugglers. More than 13,000 migrants have died trying to make the crossing.

Ships manned by charities have played a growing role in rescues, picking up more than a third of all migrants brought ashore so far this year, compared with less than one percent in 2014.

Aid groups and some Italian politicians warn that migrants intercepted by the Libyan coast guard are taken back to inhuman conditions in detention camps on the Libyan mainland.

However, prosecutors in Sicily have opened investigations against some NGOs, which they suspect of collaborating with people smugglers, and Rome has proposed a Code of Conduct setting stricter rules on how the groups can operate.

Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano said in a newspaper interview on Sunday that Libya's growing role in controlling its waters was curbing people trafficking and producing a welcome "readjustment" in the Mediterranean.

MSF's decision to halt its rescue operations was part of this positive process, he told the newspaper La Stampa.

Save the Children said its rescue ship, the Vos Hestia, would dock in Malta until it received assurances about the intentions of the Libyan authorities.

Libya was trying to increase the range of the waters its ships controlled from 12 nautical miles around its coast to 70 nautical miles, the humanitarian organisation said.

"The necessary pause in operations from charity rescue ships likes ours and others will undoubtedly put lives at risk," its operations director, Rob MacGillivray, warned.

Libyan coastguard officials have previously said they have rights over operations dozens of miles beyond the territorial limit of 12 nautical miles, without clearly detailing the claims to such rights or how they could be enforced.

Read the original:
Aid Groups Suspend Migrant Rescues Over Libyan Threats - NBCNews.com

Despite continuing efforts of the Federal Government to evacuate stranded Nigerians from Libya, efforts which have been on since 2016 with over 2000 Nigerians assisted back home, more Nigerians still throng the North African country, Daily Trust can report.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM), a United Nations humanitarian agency, has been collaborating with the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and other agencies of government to return Nigerians back home.

From 2006 till date, no fewer than 42 trips have been carried out to bring back the stranded thousands of Nigerians, with virtually all of them recounting horrible experiences in Libyan detention facilities.

Most of them spent months and years in detention before help came to them while some died in the process, according to accounts narrated by the returnees.

The latest set of Nigerians evacuated from Libya arrived the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) cargo terminal on Thursday with 128 making the trip. Six of them had medical cases with one having three gunshot wounds and was brought out from the airplane with a stretcher.

But the horrible tales have not helped to dissuade people from embarking on the trip.

An IOM official who spoke with our correspondent, said, More people are still going to Libya from Nigeria. They embark on the dangerous trip through the desert hoping to cross the Mediterranean Sea to proceed to Europe. I dont know what they are doing in Libya because the country is battling with its internal security challenges. There are these militia groups involved in organized crimes against undocumented immigrants. And Libya at the moment is facing disintegration threat. When you say you are going there for greener pastures, can you achieve anything meaningful in that direction?

But a retired Assistant Controller General of Immigration, Alhaji AbdulMumeen Abdulmalik who spoke to our correspondent said Nigerians would continue to leave the country unless the government tackled the economic recession and lack of jobs.

People go outside the country to seek economic opportunities that are lacking here, Abdulmalik said.

The Zonal Coordinator of NEMA in the South West, Alhaji Sulaiman Yakubu who received the latest returnees on behalf of the Director General, Engr. Mustapha Maihaja, said the agency had stepped up enlightenment campaign on the risk of travelling to Libya.

We are also telling the youths that the Federal Government has put in place a lot of initiatives to empower the youths. We have the YouWin programme, we have the N-Power programme and others, Yakubu said.

Original post:
Despite massive repatriation, Nigerians still troop to Libya - Daily Trust

Libyas biggest oil field has reduced crude production by more than 30 percent in recent days and the Zueitina export terminal ceased loadings over the weekend, throwing the OPEC countrys output back on a downward spiral.

Output at the Sharara field was down to 200,000 barrels a day on Sunday, compared with 300,000 barrels a day about a week ago, a person familiar with the matter said Sunday, asking not to be identified because the information is confidential. Workers were being kept from certain areas for their own safety after two company vehicles were stolen at gunpoint, the person said. Zueitina port ceased loading on Saturday after employees demanded better working conditions, according to Merhi Abridan, head of the workers union.

The most important market news of the day.

Get our markets daily newsletter.

Libyas crude output and exports reached a three-year high last month as fighting among armed militias abated and leaders of the countrys rival administrations agreed in principle on steps to unite the nation. Production had been on the decline for years due to clashes between armed groups and closures of fields. Libya was exempted from production cuts by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries because of the instability.

West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. marker, was unchanged at $48.82 a barrel at 12:25 p.m. Singapore time. Brent crude, the benchmark for more than half the worlds oil, fell 7 cents to $52.03 a barrel.

An official for Libyas state-run National Oil Corp., which operates Sharara in a joint venture, wasnt available for comment. The field has experienced several brief shutdowns caused by different groups.It was closed for two days in June due to a protest by workers there. Pumping was interrupted for hours last week after armed protesters shut some facilities, the NOC said at the time.

The countrys crude production may be further hampered by the port halt. Zueitina is the export terminal of Zueitina Oil Co., a joint venture between NOC, Occidental Petroleum Corp. and Vienna-based OMV AG, according to its website. Zueitina exports an average of six crude cargoes a month, each 600,000 to 630,000 barrels, according to Abridan, the union head.

Employees are demanding that Zueitina Oil and NOC pay 20 months of delayed salary, Abridan said by phone Saturday. They also want health insurance, annual leave, overtime and more port maintenance. Workers will not receive a tanker due to arrive at the port on Aug. 19 if their demands arent met, he said.

In 2015, Libyas NOC declared force majeure at Zueitina and said the port was closed for all exports due to a deteriorating security situation.Force majeure, a legal status protecting a party from liability if it cant fulfill a contract for reasons beyond its control, was lifted. Force majeure was lifted in November.

More here:
Libyan Oil Supplies Disrupted by Security Threats, Shut Port ... - Bloomberg