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Confinement and obscurity in Europe

We have all read about the attempts, many not successful - to the extent of people drowning in rickety boats - of people trying to enter Europe by one means or another. The lure of a better life propels many, desperate as they are, to search out a new home in supposedly affluent Europe - well, certainly more affluent than their home countries.

IHT reports on a "hidden" problem - those illegal immigrants detained in camps effectively out of sight and mind:

'They are in railroad depots. They are in old grain stores and recycled factories. Some are brand new, others are in adjuncts of prisons. One is on a ship anchored in the Dutch port of Rotterdam.

From Ireland to Bulgaria, from Finland to Spain, detention camps for foreigners have mushroomed across the European Union. They have emerged mostly over the past decade, as the region has grown less and less welcoming to migrants.

There are now 224 detention camps scattered across the European Union; altogether they can house more than 30,000 people - asylum-seekers and illegal immigrants awaiting deportation - who are often held in administrative detention for as long as 18 months. In a number of EU countries, there is no upper limit on detention length.

"Detention is a very serious measure in a democratic society - governments deprive people of their liberty when they are convicted of a serious crime," said Katrine Camilleri, a refugee lawyer in Malta with the Jesuit Refugee Service, which on Dec. 18 published a report on conditions in detention centers in the 10 newest EU states.

"These people have committed no crime, and though human rights law allows for detention in very specific cases, even then you can't detain people forever. Even 18 months is a very long time; it destroys them," said Camilleri, who has just been honored by the UN refugee agency for her work in the face of arson attacks on her car and home."

It's a humanitarian issue which the world must not, and cannot in good conscience, ignore.

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