U.S. Expands Definition of ‘Close Family’ in Travel Ban
The U.S. has expanded its definition of the “close family” ties that refugees and nationals of six countries must have in order to enter the U.S. under President Trump’s executive order.
The state of Hawaii filed a legal challenge against the U.S. State Department’s initial definition, which excluded grandparents and other relatives.
Shortly after a U.S. district judge ruled in the state’s favor, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson sent a cable to diplomatic posts saying that “grandparents, grandchildren, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, aunts and uncles, nephews and nieces, and cousins” will be eligible for visas.
The Trump administration had asked the Supreme Court to block the Hawaii decision. Last month, the Supreme Court ruled that Trump’s executive order suspending refugee resettlement and immigration from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen could be implemented, with the exception of people with a “bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the U.S.” This has prompted several legal challenges seeking clarity on what constitutes a bona fide relationship.
Meanwhile, 40 former diplomats and national security officials wrote to Tillerson urging him not to move the agency responsible for refugee resettlement out of the State Department. CNN had reported earlier that the Trump administration was considering moving the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) to the Department of Homeland Security.
Tillerson’s second in command, John Sullivan, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that Tillerson “does not have at present that intention,” but if the move were recommended during the reorganization of the State Department, “we would consider” it.
Italy Mulls ‘Nuclear Option’: Issuing Temporary Visas to Boat Migrants
Italian officials are threatening to issue temporary visas to asylum seekers who arrive by boat, enabling them to continue their journey north.
Italy says it cannot cope with the number of arrivals – some 93,000 people this year – while the E.U. scheme to relocate migrants around the bloc has been all but abandoned, with just 20,000 of the 160,000 people envisaged by the scheme relocated to date, a few months before its September expiry.
Mario Giro, the deputy foreign minister, and Luigi Manconi, a senator with the ruling Democratic Party, told the Times that they were mulling their legal options, either of which would likely spark a backlash from E.U. members who are obliged to keep their borders open to visa holders under the Schengen treaty.
One is to invoke European Council Directive 2001/55, which gave temporary European entry permits to people fleeing the Balkans war. Another option would be to use Italy’s Bossi-Fini law, under which the country gave thousands of Tunisians humanitarian visas after the Arab Spring.
“We’d rather not use unilateral methods, though, because the resulting dispute could wreck the Schengen treaty,” Miro told the Times.
“If migrants continue to arrive and Italy decides to give them papers to cross borders and leave Italy it would be a nuclear option,” the European Council on Foreign Relations’ Mattia Toaldo told the newspaper. “Italians have lost any hope of getting help from the E.U. and may say, ‘If you won’t make it a common challenge, we will.’”
E.U. ‘Grasping at Straws’ With Dinghy Ban
The E.U. said member countries can ban the export of inflatable boats and outboard motors to Libya, in an anti-smuggling gesture experts described as tokenistic and impractical.
A statement from E.U. foreign ministers said the ban could be applied “where there are reasonable grounds to believe that they will be used by people smugglers and human traffickers” but not to fishermen or others who need boats, with no details of how this distinction could be enforced in lawless Libya.
“Tunisian maritime equipment importers and smugglers along the Tunisia-Libya border will do quite well off of this E.U. decision,” wrote organized crime researcher Matt Herbert, while trafficking expert Peter Tinti described the measure as “the E.U. grasping at straws.”
Meanwhile, the U.N. refugee agency launched an appeal for $421.2 million to “help provide meaningful alternatives to refugees and others undertaking dangerous journeys to Europe.”
As well as support for asylum systems and anti-trafficking measures, the plan includes “targeted training support to coast guard services” in North Africa, a UNHCR statement said.
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