From: TEX5HAD@CMS1.LEEDS.AC.UK (Haluk DEMIRBAG)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.turkish
Subject: Britain closes door on Bosnian refugees / 'FAMILY FACES
              DEPORTATION'
Date: 9 Nov 1992 18:33:33 -0600
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
Reply-To: Turkish Cultural Program List <TRKNWS-L%USCVM.BitNet@pucc.PRINCETON.EDU>
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>From: clarinews@clarinet.com (UPI)
Subject: Britain closes door on Bosnian refugees
Date: 6 Nov 92 11:16:59 GMT


	LONDON (UPI) -- Opposition members of Parliament Fruday criticized the
Home Office for issuing regulations making it all but impossible for
Bosnia-Herzegovina refugees to obtain British asylum.
	Tony Blair, the Labor Party Home Affairs spokesman, called the new
rules ``dangerously and momentously wrong'' for thousands of refugees.
	``(The government) is erecting an absolute barrier to entry for many
people who at present regard Britain as their sole means of survival,''
Blair told The Independent newspaper.
	Thursday, Home Secretary Kenneth Clarke announced new rules requiring
travelers from all the Yugoslav states except Slovenia and Croatia to
obtain visas from a British embassy or consulate before coming to the
United Kingdom.
	However, there are no such diplomatic outposts in Bosnia-Herzegovina,
so refugees would have to travel to a U.K. embassy in a third country to
obtain the needed visas.
	But in an apparent catch-22, Britain only admits only asylum seekers
who have traveled directly to the United Kingdom without stopping in any
third country.
	``There is nothing in our treaty obligations which requires us to
encourage asylum seekers to come to Britain,'' a Home Office spokesman
said, adding that airlines which bring Bosnian refugees to Britain in
violation of the new rules would face fines.
	Clarke Thursday told the House of Commons that Britain would only
accept a limited number of Bosnians with ``special humanitarian needs,''
as identified by international-relief groups.
	``At present we are receiving an increasing number of self-selected
people from the former Yugoslavia, including arrivals from safer parts
of the country well away from our war zone,'' he said. ``There is a
danger of our receiving uncontrolled numbers of citizens of former
Yugoslavia who are well able to afford the air fare, and random groups
(brought to Britain) by well-meaning organizations.''
	Clarke labeled many of those arriving in Britain as economic migrants
from Serbia, although immigration lawyers have said their Serbian
clients represented conscientious objectors who did not want to fight in
the Yugoslav civil war.
	Last month, 2,000 refugees from the former Yugoslavia claimed asylum
in Britain, bringing the total for the year to 4,700. More than 200,000
refugees have also gone to Germany.
	Claude Moraes, general secretary of the Joint Council for the Welfare
of Immigrants, Thursday predicted Britain's allies would not receive
Clarke's statement very warmly.
	``Britain already has the tightest (refugee laws) in Europe and has
been deporting Yugoslavs,'' he said.


FAMILY FACES DEPORTATION

By Rupert Hamer

A University  of Leeds  {UK} research  scientist and  his student
wife fear  they could be  numbered if  they are deported  back to
war-torn Yugoslavia.

Bosnian scientist  Nebojsa Lisonek, his Serbian  wife Vladislava,
and their toddler son are still  waiting for a ruling by the Home
Office which will decide whether they are sent back to Bosnia, or
allowed to stay in Britain as refugees.

Mr Lisonek,  who works for the  University's Chemical Engineering
Department, believes  if they are  not executed because  of their
mixed marriage they will be separated and forced to fight against
people who were once friends and neighbours.

Mrs Lisonek,  a Mining Engineering  student at the  University of
Leeds, said from their home at Autumn Place, Burley, Leeds:

"We would be sent  back to Bosnia. There is no  safe place for us
in Yugoslavia."

"We are  still waiting for  a decision  from the Home  Office. We
have not been told anything."

Mr Lisonek said:  "It's living hell out there.  We are devastated
that our country has fallen apart.

"God knows  what they would  do to our son.  He, like me,  is the
product of a mixed marriage."

The family  have been  living in  Leeds for  two years  and their
visas ran out about a month ago.

Leeds West  Labour MP  John Battle has  been campaigning  to give
them asylum in the city.

He said it would be an outrage to send them home and urged people
across Leeds to help keep them safe.

"I want people around the city  to urge the Government to let the
Lisoneks stay," he said.

battle has written to the  Home Secretary, Kenneth Clarke, asking
him to give the family refugee status.

A Home Office  spokesman this week told "Leeds Student"  "It is a
difficult situation  at the moment.  Obviously there is a  lot of
cause for compassion."

But he said  that he could not confirm that  Yugoslavs in Britain
would not be sent back to dangerous areas.

"It has been known that people are sent back to countries at war.
It depends on whether they are granted refugee status."

He added that details of individual cases could not be discussed.
"There  is no  set policy.  Each case  is considered  on its  own
merits," he said.

LEEDS STUDENT, Independent Newspaper, 6 Nov. 1992
            _
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