A/52/471 English Page 8 but unable to attend. presentations made. However, he received the texts of some of the 17. In his presentation on globalization and immigration, Mr. Jean-Pierre Page, officer in charge of international trade union relations and activities at the Confédération Générale du Travail (France), commenting on the restrictive, discriminatory policies of the industrialized countries of the North towards foreign workers from the South, said: "The European Union advocated the free movement of labour, while each country of the European Community attempted to restrict immigration from outside the Community. The United Kingdom continued to give preference to immigrants from the Commonwealth. As for France, migrants from the former colonies were always admitted more easily, then preference began to be given to migrants from countries whose political regimes seemed more favourable. There were also, in France's case, migrants from the overseas departments and territories, whose numbers were not included in the statistics on aliens. Germany gave preference to Turkish workers, then to Yugoslav workers, mainly Croats, and to asylum-seekers from the Eastern European countries, before finally adopting more restrictive legislation. "The United States of America also pursued an immigration policy guided primarily by specific manpower requirements but also by its economic and strategic interests. Its policies towards Israel, the Philippines and China were guided by strategic concerns. As for Mexican immigrants, the opening up of the North American market (North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)) and the opportunity to put pressure on wages made them particularly attractive to United States employers. Nowadays, the focus is on the "brain drain", on those highly qualified in the arts, culture and science. The confluence of all these interests has led the United States to gradually increase the overall quota, and that does not include the high proportion of illegal immigration into the country. This policy has also been accompanied by particularly repressive measures against Mexican nationals and those working in the maquiladora industry and in free zones." B. Human rights violations in holding areas in France 18. The Association nationale d'assistance aux frontières pour les étrangers (ANAFE) (France) states in its 1997 report on visits carried out to holding areas by the authorized organizations (Service oecuménique d'entraide (CIMADE), Amnesty International, the French Red Cross and ANAFE itself)2 that: "In the minds of the legislature in 1992, access by humanitarian organizations to persons in holding areas for the provision of humanitarian and legal assistance was a vital safeguard, and they made giving up an amendment to that effect subject to the Government's committing itself to establishing the procedures by decree. This first year of operation of the decree has unfortunately confirmed the fears which ANAFE expressed when it was published in May 1995: the restrictions imposed, particularly in terms of the frequency of visits allowed, prevent the organizations from doing their job. /...