Effects of Dutch Election on Immigration Policy

"Dutch Anti-Immigration Party Wins Cabinet Seats" Reuters, July 11, 2002

"This whole (immigration) process will now be our responsibility. From the moment that an asylum seeker comes to our country until he is integrated... That's what Pim Fortuyn always wanted," his successor as LPF leader, Mat Herben, told the Dutch news agency ANP.

The zero immigration demand, however, was rejected by the coalition. According to the Washington Post, the Dutch governing coalition intends to toughen regulations governing family reunification and admitting immigrants "who are in danger of ending up in a disadvantaged situation."

HRW criticizes Spain

DISCRETION WITHOUT BOUNDS: The Arbitrary Application of Spanish Immigration Law: Vol. 14, No. 6 (D), July 2002.

The Human Rights Watch study of Spain finds that "the fate of migrants arriving in Spain frequently depends on their point of entry. Spanish authorities responsible for implementing Law 8/2000 and its regulation appear to interpret and apply the law in the way that they feel makes the most sense for their particular locality, without regard for requirements of consistent, predictable, and non-arbitrary implementation of the law. Serious violations of migrants' rights result."