Chávez calls Europe’s immigrant deportation law outrageous

TUCUMÁN, Argentina, June 30.–– President Hugo Chávez of Venezuelan said the so-called Returns Directive law passed recently by the European Union is “outrageous,” in comments after arriving in the northern Argentine province of Tucumán to attend the Mercosur Summit, the AFP reported.

“It is outrageous,” Chávez stated. “It is the law of shame, of ignominy,” he told journalists who met him at the airport, commenting that the law “is a reflection of the great hypocrisy of the European elite, as Fidel said recently.”

The Venezuelan president praised the angry opposition to the law that has been expressed in South America, and which Mercosur was to set down explicitly in a document at the end of its summit.

“I think it is very good how we Latin American governments have unanimously and firmly stood up to Europe’s ignominy and called on them to reflect,” he said.

A law providing for the deportation of undocumented immigrants was passed on June 17 by the European Parliament in Strasbourg. It stipulates that those accused of being in Europe illegally may be held for up to 18 months in jail and banned from Europe for five years.

Translated by Granma International