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E.U. Passes Tough Migrant Measure
STRASBOURG, France — European Union lawmakers voted Wednesday to allow undocumented migrants to be held in detention centers for up to 18 months and banned from European Union territory for five years.
Protesters outside the European Union office in Madrid
on Tuesday denounced immigrant detentions and deportations.
Criticized by groups like Amnesty International as “severely
flawed” and an erosion of human rights standards, the so-called return
directive was passed in the European Parliament here by a 369-to-197 vote, with
106 legislators abstaining.
Manfred Weber, the German center-right legislator from Bavaria
who shepherded the measure through Parliament, said that it provided minimum
common standards for the treatment of migrants throughout the European Union
while still showing citizens it was tough on illegality.
Rest of story: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/19/world/europe/19migrant.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
