Are Rescue Workers really Smugglers of Illegal Aliens??
Germans falsely claim that Refugees are from Dufar Sudan.
But they are Not Refugees, but merely Illegal Aliens from Nigeria and Ghana!!

How did the Aliens get from Nigeria and Ghana to the middle of the Mediterranean.
Did they walk across the Sahara and then buy a Dinghy to sail across the Sea??
And how did the Rescue Boat "happen" to find that Dinghy in that vast area?  Why?

Smugglers instruct Aliens to claim they will throw themselves overboard,
if Italy does not "land" them. Italy does, but detains them.

The Humanitarian Germans demand Italy accept Refugees.
Germany could easily solve the problem by accepting them, But will Not!!!

We'll discuss at another time as to whether a country has the right to control their borders, and if you think not, then do you also not think a person has a right to determine who comes into their house to live. There is a parrallel there.

Here, in this Smuggling case,  pretend your Judge Judy. What's your verdict??

Don't let me influence you. Germans want to rescue Illegal Immigrants and dump them in Italy, but Not take them into Germany, But call the Italians heartless!!! ??

German rescue sparks conflict with Italians
Ship crew held after bringing Africans to port

F.A.Z. Weekly.
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Jul. 16, 2004

Elias Bierdel thought he was fulfilling his mission in life on Monday. “We are bringing the shipwrecked ... into a safe harbor,“ said the head of a German non-governmental organization that got its start rescuing Vietnamese boat people 25 years ago.

Hours later, though, group members' feelings changed from glee to gloom. Bierdel was arrested in Sicily, and a member of his organization,  Cap Anamur, was cursing Italy's “ridiculous reaction.“

The mood swings grew out of a rescue that one of the organization's ships made on June 20 and the subsequent Italian resistance to the attempts of Bierdel's ship to bring the 37 Africans to safety.

But the good deed has produced political acrimony: Italians are working to show that they can control their borders, German politicians are demanding that Bierdel be released, and international officials are calling for new rules on asylum seekers.

The ship pulled the 37 people from a dinghy floating on the Mediterranean. Thirty-six of the people were reported to be refugees fleeing from the fighting in the Sudan region of Darfur. The ship waited for 10 days outside the Sicilian port of Porto Empedocle. It was allowed to enter on Monday only after the ship's captain, Stefan Schmidt, said an emergency was developing.

Shortly thereafter, Bierdel, Schmidt and another crew member were being held and could face charges of abetting illegal immigration. A judge will consider their case on Friday. The 37 refugees could be deported soon because officials said none came from Darfur.

The arrests triggered protests from Berlin officials. “It just can't be possible for Elias Bierdel to be punished for wanting to help people who are in distress,“ said Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul.

The case also gave new fuel to a debate about agreements on refugees. Angelika Beer, a co-leader of the Green party, said the issue needed to be resolved on the European level. And a spokesman for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said the 10 new members of the EU could face problems if a uniform solution were not reached.

F.A.Z. - English Version
http://www.faz.com/IN/INtemplates/eFAZ/docmain.asp?rub=
%7BB1311FCC-FBFB-11D2-B228-00105A9CAF88%7D&doc=
%7B910EE746-8B8F-4865-A8C2-8DB55B469350%7D

Row Simmers Over Arrest of German Aid Workers

The African refugees face an uncertain future

The founder of a German aid group, whose boat helped 37 African asylum-seekers reach Italy this week, has criticized members of his own organization for their handling of the situation in the Mediterranean Sea.

Scouting for refugees in the Mediterranean last month, German aid group Cap Anamur's boat spotted an allegedly stranded rubber dinghy carrying nearly forty supposed Sudanese asylum seekers.

It picked them up and waited for three nerve-wracking weeks for Italy to give permission to dock.

Once the group was allowed to come ashore earlier this week in Sicily, Italian police arrested three members of Cap Anamur's crew, including Captain Stefan Schmidt and the organization's head, Elias Bierdel, on charges of aiding illegal immigration.

Italian police had discovered once the refugees had disembarked that they weren't Sudanese asylum-seekers, but illegal immigrants mostly from Ghana and Nigeria.

Boat should have docked in Germany

The arrest of the German aid workers has sparked an outcry in Germany and Italy and triggered a debate on the fate of the illegal immigrants.

Rupert Neudeck, Cap Anamur's founder and former head has now weighed in and said the group's boat should have docked in a German harbor instead.

"If I was asked what to do in the situation -- a ship registered in Germany with the name Cap Anamur crossing the Mediterranean, that could have rescued 37 people -- I would have advised it to go right back to the city of registration," Neudeck said.

"Go right back to Hamburg or Lübeck, because you're always in a better situation there.  Regardless of the way that German Interior Minister Otto Schily has described the legal situation," Neudeck said.

"Just aid workers, not criminals"

Schily has said that if Cap Anamur was smuggling humans, it was a serious offence.

"If the suspicion is confirmed that members of Cap Anamur's crew were participating in smuggling immigrants, this would be a serious matter that may have to be taken up by Germany's criminal prosecution authorities," Schily said in a statement.

Neudeck however doesn't agree.

"The three sailors aren't criminals.  They are aid workers and the German government should put pressure on Italy to release them from jail.  Only then, could we talk about whether there were possible mistakes in the operation," he said.

Restrictive immigration policy

Not everyone in Germany agrees with Schily's stance.

German Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul has called for the release of Cap Anamur's crew workers.

Bierdel should not be punished "because he wanted to help people in dire need," Zeul said in a statement. "Humanitarian actions must not be criminalized," she added.

Pro Asyl, a refugee aid organization has said that Schily is responsible for helping conceive a highly restrictive European immigration policy that reinforced the notion of Europe being a fortress to outsiders.

A German Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said a diplomatic official had been sent to Sicily "to provide consular support for those involved."

An Italian judge is scheduled to rule at a hearing Friday whether the three German workers should remain in custody.  Prosecutors have not said for certain whether to go ahead and charge the sailors, who would face up to 12 years in prison and a €15,000 fine for each of the 37 immigrants.

Asylum-seekers' future unsure

The fate of the 37 African asylum-seekers remains uncertain. Germany has refused to accept them. Italy is meanwhile insisting that under EU rules, their case for political asylum should be heard in Malta -- a country with stricter immigration rules than Italy -- because it was their first port of call.

Erik Campano