Australia offers asylum seekers up to A$ 4,000 grants to return home

thestar online

MELBOURNE: The Australian government is offering asylum seekers facing deportation to Malaysia up to A$4,000 (about RM12,725) in grants to return home instead.

The government has handed the grants to 77 asylum seekers since the "reintegration assistance" programme was introduced in November, The Daily Telegraph in Sydney reported Tuesday.

The programme provides failed asylum seekers with cash and other payments to go back to their country of origin, and hundreds are expected to take packages this financial year after the government set the programme's budget at A$7mil (about RM22.2 mil).

While the majority of the grants will be taken up by asylum seekers currently in detention who are refused protection visas, the Australian Immigration Department has confirmed that those arriving under the Malaysian Solution can also take up the offer.

"It encourages voluntary return, which represents a significant cost-saving to the government compared to enforced removals," the department spokesman for Immigration Minister Chris Bowen is quoted as saying.
If they accept the packages, which can include business start-up grants and up to A$550 (about RM1,750) in cash, they would not be counted in the "up to 800" asylum seekers in the Australian government's deal with Malaysia which is being challenged in the High Court.

The court's decision is due on Wednesday. - Bernama

Nunu Sung fights for custody of baby she abandoned

Chicago Tribune

The imprisoned mother of a 2-year-old boy named Joshua is fighting for custody of the child she left whimpering in a neighbor's yard in Wheaton shortly after his birth.

Nunu Sung, 26, is due to be paroled in January after serving part of a three-year prison term for lying to police about her pregnancy.

Sung pleaded guilty in October 2010 to felony obstruction of justice. In exchange, prosecutors dropped a charge of endangering the life of a child and agreed they would not seek to terminate the woman's parental rights.

On Wednesday, DuPage County Circuit Judge Blanche Hill Fawell denied a request by Sung's attorneys to find prosecutors in contempt because they now are involved in terminating Sung's parental rights in favor of a Wheaton couple who are the child's foster parents.

Fawell said prosecutors may have erred in making the promise but they were legally obligated to get involved in the parental termination proceedings. Sung's only option now is to file a post-conviction request to reopen her plea and sentence, the judge said.

Sung, of Myanmar, has drawn support from family members and a Wheaton church attended by other immigrants from that Southeast Asian country formerly known as Burma. Supporters say she escaped the war-torn nation after Catholic Charities brought her to the United States about three years before Joshua was born.

Her attorneys said authorities have not allowed Sung to see Joshua since she was sent to prison in 2010.
"She came here to escape the injustices of a corrupt government, and she ends up falling victim to the injustice of not being given the full benefit of her plea agreement," said Jennifer Wiesner, one of her lawyers. "Her main priority always has been that her parental rights not be terminated."

The Wheaton foster parents declined to comment, but their attorney, Chuck Rohde, said they simply want what is best for Joshua.

In recent juvenile court proceedings, a civil attorney appointed by the judge as Joshua's guardian filed paperwork to terminate Sung's parental rights based largely on the crime.

The ruling came two months after DuPage Associate Judge C. Stanley Austin ruled the goal of the civil proceedings should no longer be to reunite mother and child. Rather, it should be to place the child in substitute care pending termination of Sung's parental rights, the judge said.

Austin has not ruled on the parental termination petition, but during a July hearing he denied Sung's request to dismiss it.

In June 2009 a Wheaton man noticed the newborn with its umbilical cord still attached after his dog spotted the child under a tree and barked.

Prosecutors alleged the child might have died if he hadn't been discovered that morning.

"The baby, who was left outside on the cold, hard ground, had a body temperature in the low 80s and was hypothermic," Assistant State's Attorney Anne Therieau wrote earlier this year in court records. "But for a dog, who was let out in the morning hours, this baby would have died."

After his release from the hospital, Joshua was placed in the custody of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.

Prosecutors said Sung relocated from Texas to Wheaton to live with cousins after the child's father said he had no interest in helping to raise him.

Sung's attorneys said she hid her pregnancy because she was afraid she would be punished and scorned by her family and other community members.

Immigration officials are expected to interview Sung after her release from prison. Her attorneys are investigating their legal options if she faces a deportation fight.

Last call for illegal immigrants registration

thestar online

PUTRAJAYA: Illegal immigrants who fail to register and legalise themselves under the current amnesty period will risk being detained under a major enforcement exercise that is scheduled to start in November.
However, Home Ministry secretary-general Tan Sri Mahmood Adam said that under the amnesty programme, the Government will guarantee that illegal immigrants would not be arrested if they come out and register themselves.

He said to date, 1.8 million legal and illegal workers have registered until the close of the registration on Thursday, with 885,156 being the legal workers.

It is estimated that there are at least 1.5 million illegal foreign workers in the country.

“It (registration exercise) should be seen as the last opportunity for them (illegal immigrants to be legalised) before the Government mounts a major enforcement operation in November,” he said.

Mahmood also announced in a statement yesterday that the deadline for biometric registration of illegal foreign workers under the 6P amnesty programme had been extended by a week to Aug 21.

He also called on state authorities, government agencies and all community leaders in districts, sub-districts and villages to come up with a good mechanism to convince the illegal immigrants in their areas to come out and register.

“The main priority is to convince them (the illegals) of the Government's guarantee that they will not be arrested and it should be seen as the last opportunity for them before the Government mounts the major enforcement operation in November,” he said.

Mahmood said the decision to extend the deadline was made following Thursday's call by Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein for the 6P Implementation Committee to consider extending the registration period.

He said the Government had also decided that every illegal immigrant who registered through an agent should refer and use their services again for the amnesty period scheduled for mid-September.
The 6P programme entails registration, legalising, amnesty, monitoring, enforcement and deportation of illegal immigrants.

The biggest number of workers registered were Indonesians, followed by Bangladeshis, Myanmar, Indians, Nepalese, Filipinos, Cambodians, Pakistanis, Vietnamese, Thais, Sri Lankans, Chinese and others.