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Over 450 million people live in the European Union
Within the borders of the EU, 2% of citizens live outside their homeland. Of these, 25% left their home country in search of work, another 24% chose better living conditions, and 30% moved for a loved one or to start a family. According to the European Commission press service, the remaining portion of EU citizens living outside their home country are students. Today, the population of the 25 EU states combined exceeds 450 million people.
European education lags behind Asian
A report criticizing the education system in a number of European countries was published in Paris by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The document says, in particular, that Europe as a whole lags behind Asia in training a large number of highly qualified specialists.
The report says that France and Germany "are no longer among the world leaders in the production of knowledge and skills." At the same time, the successes of South Korea and a number of other states are noted. "Nowadays, countries like China and India are beginning to provide people with high qualifications at low cost," the OECD report says.
UAE to improve visa application processing system
A new electronic visa issuance system has been introduced in the UAE Department of Naturalisation and Immigration. It will allow applications to be processed much faster. In addition, the use of digital technologies to support transactions and visa printing will not only speed up the issuance of documents, but also identify fraudulent ones.
Despite this, tour operators for the UAE do not expect noticeable improvements. As they explain, online visa application processing in the UAE using all the mentioned technologies has already existed for more than a year, and in this case, most likely, we are talking about increasing the reliability and stability of the working system. Experts say the system needs improvement, as failures occur from time to time and tourists still have to keep a "paper" copy of their visa in case of problems.
However, not everyone agrees with this statement. Some operators note that such cases are the exception to the rule, and the process of obtaining visas to the United Arab Emirates via the Internet is already quite functional. The Moscow office of the Dubai Government Department of Tourism and Commercial Marketing declined to comment on the report of a possible acceleration of visa issuance, only noting that there was no official information about any changes in the application processing system.
Italian premier against "harmful" foreigners
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi opposes Italy becoming a multinational country. He stated this while speaking on Italian radio.
"We do not want Italy to become a multicultural, multinational country. We are open to those foreigners who flee countries where their freedom is in danger and to whom our country can guarantee a decent reception. But we are against those foreigners who want to come to Italy to harm the Italians themselves," Berlusconi said.
Meanwhile, in recent days, about 200 illegal migrants from Africa landed on the Italian island of Lampedusa, arriving on a fishing boat. In early March, the Italian authorities agreed to open a representative office of the UN High Commission for Illegal Immigrants on this island, which should determine which of the new arrivals actually need political asylum and which do not.
The head of the Italian Interior Ministry, Giuseppe Pisanu, has repeatedly called for vigilance regarding illegal migrants, as terrorists may be hiding among them. In addition, the smuggling of immigrants is a mafia business that, according to the minister, "can only be compared in profitability to drug trafficking." Quite recently, Italian authorities arrested 10 people involved in transporting people from African countries to Italy and other EU states. For this service, criminals charged €1,500 per person.
Migrants harm Russia by 200 billion rubles a year
The annual damage from the activities of illegal migrants in Russia amounts to more than 200 billion rubles. This was stated by the director of the Federal Migration Service (FMS) of Russia, Konstantin Romodanovsky.
"Together with the Federal Tax Service, we calculated the damage from illegal migrants in Russia, and it amounted to more than 200 billion rubles a year," Romodanovsky said. "Today, the issue of changing migration legislation is being considered, which will make it possible to more strictly punish employers who prefer cheap and powerless illegal immigrants over the country's native residents. After all, this is why the competitiveness of our labor market is disappearing."
At the same time, the head of the FMS said that the deportation of illegal migrants is also unprofitable. "Expelling one illegal immigrant from Russia costs $1,000, and if you consider that there are about 10 million illegal migrants on Russian territory, and that is the case, then it is not difficult to calculate how much this procedure will cost the budget."
He noted that since January 1, 2006, a unified FMS management system has been created, which included the passport and visa service and the migration affairs department. "Also, migration inspections are being created in all territorial bodies, through which we will more effectively distribute migration flows, fight against unlawful employers, and better identify illegal labor migrants," the head of the Russian FMS noted.
About 20 million people enter Russia annually, Romodanovsky said. “The work we are doing will soon allow us to increase the flow of people entering the country annually,” the head of the FMS noted. According to him, today mainly citizens of the former USSR enter the country, as well as residents of China, Turkey, Finland, and Germany. Romodanovsky stressed that the draft laws being adopted will make it possible to streamline migration processes. “Our legislation is in line with international practice,” he said.
The United States to legalize immigrants
The US Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill that would allow 11 million illegal immigrants to count on obtaining American citizenship. The bipartisan committee also rejected a proposal for criminal prosecution of illegal immigrants, reports Associated Press.
In addition, under the new program, 1.5 million foreign workers will be admitted to the United States, who will be employed in agriculture.
The new immigration legislation sparked fierce debate in American society. Thousands-strong demonstrations took place across the country, both in support of and against the bill. Now the committee's proposals must be approved by the US presidential administration, after which the bill will be put to a vote in Congress.
More than 10 million counterfeit coins in EU countries
More than 10 million counterfeit euro coins are in circulation in the European Union member states, the European Commission press service reported.
According to experts, since the introduction of the euro in EU countries in 2002, 365,000 counterfeit coins have been withdrawn from circulation, of which about 96,000 were last year. This is 29% higher than in 2004. Counterfeiters most often fake two-euro coins.
In total, there are currently 63 billion coins in circulation in the EU, of which 15 billion are one- and two-euro coins. To date, the activities of 11 underground counterfeit workshops have been shut down in the EU countries, six of them in Italy.
Based on materials from news agencies.