Young Afghan refugee brings case after move to prevent those who arrived on ‘dangerous journey’ from citizenship
Plans to prevent refugees who arrive in the UK on a small boat, lorry or via other “irregular” means from becoming a British citizen are facing their first legal challenge.
The challenge is being brought by a 21-year-old Afghan refugee who arrived in the UK aged 14, after fleeing the Taliban and being smuggled to Britain in the back of a lorry. He was granted refugee status and after five years was granted indefinite leave to remain. He was due to apply for British citizenship on 1 March.
During the genocidal war on Gaza, UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, was a critical resource that distributed meals, blankets, and supplies to millions of people. For many, it was the only thing standing between them and starvation. Without UNRWA, our livelihood would have been unimaginable. Now, with Israel’s new law banning its activities in Gaza…
This week’s Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) proves that racist and imperial ideals still run Britain on both sides of parliament. Labour Party prime minister Keir Starmer and Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch jostled for the position of who’s the most anti-Palestinian, upholding a double standard when it comes to refugee status, based on ethnicity.
Mr Speaker, the Conservative government established the Ukraine family scheme. And in total, over 200,000 Ukrainians, mostly women, children and the elderly have found sanctuary in the UK from Putin’s war. However, a family of six from Gaza have applied to live in Britain using this scheme. And a judge has now ruled in their favour. This is not what the scheme was designed to do. This decision is completely wrong. It cannot be allowed to stand. Is the government planning to appeal on any points of law? And if so which ones?
In response, Starmer failed to point out that Badenoch is boldly championing a racist double standard. Apparently white Ukrainians facing Vladimir Putin’s war are worth more than Arab Palestinians facing Benjamin Netanyahu’s indiscriminate onslaught.
The Labour leader said at PMQs:
Mr Speaker let me be clear I do not agree with the decision, she’s right – it’s the wrong decision. She hasn’t quite done her homework because the decision… was taken under the last government, according to the legal framework of the last government. But Mr Speaker let me clear it should be parliament that makes the rules on immigration. It should be the government that makes the policy. That’s the principle. And the home secretary is already looking at the legal loophole that we need to close
So the issue for Starmer is which party is responsible for treating Ukrainians and Palestinians more equally in this case. As usual for Starmer, he has pledged the opposite to his actions – he vowed a “zero-tolerance approach to… racism” in 2023.
The Palestinian family of six includes a mother, a father, and four children aged seven, eight, 17 and 18. Israel destroyed their home in an airstrike. And the father’s brother is actually a British citizen.
Mr Speaker he did not answer the question. If he plans to appeal, then the appeal may be unsuccessful and the law will need to be changed… we cannot be in a situation where we allow enormous numbers of people to exploit our laws in this way. There are millions of people all around the world in terrible situations, we cannot help them all and we certainly cannot bring them all here.
But apparently we can help over 200,000 of them if they are white. The 1951 UN convention on refugees states its an international obligation to provide asylum for refugees.
Badenoch herself wasn’t a refugee when her mother traveled to the UK to give birth to her, specifically to secure a British passport, then went back to Nigeria to raise her. The Conservative leader now wants to pull up the drawbridge behind her.
At PMQs and more broadly, both party leaders are out of step with the public on refugees. 84% of Britons agree with the statement that “people should be able to take refuge in other countries, to escape from war or persecution”.
The UK should work with other countries to establish fair quotas for refugees, while stopping exporting the weapons that fuel the destruction.
UMPIEM MAI REFUGEE CAMP, Thailand — Saw Ba had been living in a refugee camp on the Thai-Myanmar border for 16 years when he got the news last month that he’d been waiting years for: He and his family would be boarding a plane to resettle in America.
It had been a long wait. Saw Ba, in his 40s and whose name has been changed in this story for security reasons, had applied for resettlement soon after getting to the camp in 2008.
With much anticipation, staffers from the International Organization for Migration, or IOM, brought his family and 22 other people from Umpiem Mai Refugee Camp to a hotel in the Thai border town of Mae Sot in mid-January.
There they were to wait to catch a flight to Bangkok and on to the United States.
Freedom and a new life awaited.
But three days later, the IOM staffers delivered bad news: All 26 people would have to return to the refugee camp because the incoming Trump administration was about to order a halt to the processing and travel of all refugees into the United States.
A poster is displayed inside a food distribution building at the Umpiem Mai Refugee Camp on the Thai-Myanmar border at Phop Phra district, Tak province, Feb. 7, 2025.(Shakeel/AP)
The executive order said the United States “lacks the ability to absorb large numbers of migrants, and in particular, refugees, into its communities in a manner that does not compromise the availability of resources for Americans, that protects their safety and security, and that ensures the appropriate assimilation of refugees.”
Back in his family’s barren, ramshackle hut in the camp, Saw Ba was crestfallen.
“We have lost our hope now,” he said.
Left in Limbo
Saw Ba’s family is among hundreds or perhaps thousands of refugees globally who were held back on the cusp of entering the United States.
According to the Associated Press, a little more than 10,000 refugees worldwide had already been vetted and had scheduled travel to the United States ahead of the Jan. 20 deadline. It was not clear how many actually entered the United States before that date.
At Umpiem Mai camp, around 400 refugees had been waiting for resettlement in the United States.
Now they will have to wait longer.
The Umpiem Mai Refugee Camp on the Thai-Myanmar border, at Phop Phra district, Tak province, a Thai-Myanmar border province, Feb. 7, 2025.(Shakeel/AP)
Saw Ba and his family had been so sure they would be resettled that they had given all of their belongings — including their clothes — to neighbors and friends, while their children had dropped out of school and returned their books.
“When we arrived back here [at Umpiem], we had many difficulties,” he told RFA Burmese, particularly with their children’s education.
“Our children have been out of school for a month, and now they’re back, and their final exams are coming up,” he said. “Our children won’t have books anymore when they return to school. I don’t know whether they’ll pass or fail this year’s exams.”
Missionary work
Saw Ba fled to the refugee camp because he was targeted for his Christian missionary work.
Originally from Pathein township, in western Myanmar’s Ayeyarwady region, he was approached by an official with the country’s military junta in 2009 and told to stop his activities.
When he informed the official that he was not involved in politics and refused to comply, police were sent to arrest him.
He fled to Thailand, where he ended up in the Umpiem Mai camp. There he met his wife and had a son and daughter, now in seventh and second grade, respectively.
Another woman in the camp, Thin Min Soe, said her husband and their two children had undergone a battery of medical tests and had received an acceptance letter for resettlement, allowing them to join a waitlist to travel.
She had fled her home in the Bago region in central Myanmar for taking part in the country’s 2007 Saffron Revolution, when the military violently suppressed widespread anti-government protests led by Buddhist monks.
Thin Min Soe and other refugees at the camp told RFA they are afraid of returning to Myanmar due to the threat of persecution. The country has been pitched into civil war after the military toppled an elected government in 2021. Many said they no longer have homes or villages to return to, even if they did want to go back.
With the U.S. refugee program suspended, “we are now seriously concerned about our livelihood because we have to support our two children’s education and livelihoods,” she said.
When RFA contacted the camp manager and the refugee affairs office, they responded by saying they were not allowed to comment on the matter.
US has resettled 3 million refugees
Since 1980, more than 3 million refugees — people fearing persecution because of their race, religion, nationality, politics or membership in a social group — have been resettled in the United States.
During the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, the United States resettled 100,034 refugees, the highest number in 30 years. The most came from the Republic of the Congo, followed by Afghanistan, Venezuela and Syria. Myanmar was fifth, accounting for 7.3%, according to the Center for Immigration Studies.
Over the past 30 years, the United States accepted the highest number of refugees from Myanmar — about 76,000 — followed by Canada and Australia, according to the U.S. Embassy in Thailand.
Hundreds of Myanmar refugees from Thailand were brought to the U.S. in November and December, before the end of former President Joe Biden’s term.
The entrance to the Ohn Pyan refugee camp near Mae Sot, Thailand, undated photo.(RFA)
RFA requests for comment on the situation sent to the IOM, the U.S. Embassy in Thailand and The Border Consortium — the main provider of food, shelter and other forms of support to the approximately 120,000 refugees from Myanmar living in nine camps in western Thailand — were not immediately returned.
But an aid worker from the region told RFA that the refugees who were sent back to Umpiem Mai were sure to face challenges reintegrating in the camp.
“When they return, they will have difficulty getting food and finding accommodations,” said the aid worker, who also declined to be named. “They have already given their belongings to relatives, and some have been sold.”
Thai medical services
Thai officials, meanwhile, are working to provide medical care at camps for Myanmar refugees where health services have been affected by a recent suspension of U.S. foreign aid, also activated by Trump under an executive order.
The suspension prompted a Feb. 3 meeting of officials from the nine camps for Myanmar refugees along the border and Thai authorities and hospital officials.
They agreed that the camps will continue to use clinics and equipment provided by the U.S.-based humanitarian aid provider International Rescue Committee, or IRC, to treat camp residents, according to Saw Pwe Say, the secretary of the ethnic Karen Refugee Committee.
“I felt relieved … they said the IRC has approved the camps to continue using their clinics and equipment for medical treatment,” he said.
The Ohn Pyan refugee camp near Mae Sot, Thailand, undated photo.(RFA)
Thai health workers will provide healthcare during the day from Monday to Friday, while refugee camp health professionals will be on duty at night and on weekends.
The U.S. freeze on foreign aid has also impacted the work of other humanitarian groups at the Thai-Myanmar border, including the Mae Tao Clinic, which provides free medical care to those in need, as well as health education and social services, officials told RFA.
Translated by Aung Naing and Kalyar Lwin. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Burmese.
Parliament is having the second reading of the Labour Party government’s latest answer to the “hostile environment” for so-called ‘illegal’ migration, the Border Security, Asylum, and Immigration Bill. So, a migrant rights group has called on MPs to ditch the racist piece of legislation.
Border Security, Asylum, and Immigration Bill: second reading begins
On Monday 10 February, the House of Commons carried out the second reading of Home Office head Yvette Cooper’s Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill.
It’s part of the Labour government’s plans for a supposed ‘crackdown’ on criminalised migration.
The bill would give more powers to the UK’s Border Security Command. Notably, it would:
Criminalise immigration to the UK by targeting the people who facilitate the travel of undocumented people, particularly across the Channel
Extend already intrusive powers to seize people’s devices at the border including the ability to access, examine, copy and retain information on a person’s device related to (facilitating) criminalised travel
Criminalise providing and possessing supplies and information that could conceivably be used to help someone travel without the required immigration documentation
Introduce sanctions against people suspected of facilitating criminalised travel using Serious Crime Prevention Orders (SCPOs)
Expand immigration detention by removing the requirement for a deportation order against someone to be in place.
Crucially, in particular, the bill targets people crossing the English Channel via small boats. The powers build on the recent Tory-introduced racist immigration bills, including the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 and the Illegal Migration Act 2023.
The Nationality and Border Act 2022 introduced powers with parallels to counter-terror powers like Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000, but specifically applying to migrants crossing the Channel in small boats over the last three years. Now, Labour’s new “hostile environment” policies is set to ramp up the attack on migrant rights.
Bill criminalising asylum seekers in a ‘crisis’ of Labour’s own making
So, the Migrants’ Rights Network is urging MPs to vote against the bill. The group has sent a vital briefing to MPs ahead of the second reading. It details a litany of harms the bill poses to migrants seeking asylum in the UK.
Significantly, they have called out the government’s flagship legislation as:
yet another attempt to steadily cut off routes to migrate,
including to claim asylum, which does not require legally sanctioned travel under the Refugee Convention.
That is, under the Refugee Convention which the UK is party to, there’s nothing ‘illegal’ about people trying to reach the UK and make asylum claims. Instead, the issue is that the UK’s limited routes to asylum is pushing migrants into these treacherous, and often deadly crossings in the first place. As the briefing summed up:
the Border Security Bill is yet another attempt of the
Government to further criminalise people in relation to a ‘crisis’ that is manufactured by them.
On top of this, the group lambasted the provisions in the bill that would see migrants detained for longer. It pointed out that this is:
despite the UK already being the only country in Europe
without a time limit on detention and the well-documented abuse, including racism, in immigration detention.
Furthermore, its briefing made clear in no uncertain terms how:
Expanding detention with the effect also of extending detention can amount to a breach of human rights.
Given this, the Migrants’ Rights Network’s briefing recommends firstly that MPs reject the bill. However, it argues that this new parliament needs to go further to fix the harm of previous Tory government bills.
Repeal racist policies that already exist
Notably, the briefing calls on MPs to repeal existing legislation that has provided the foundation for the policies. It states that they should:
Repeal the policy of seizing phones at the border
End criminalisation of facilitating crossings
It issued the first demand noting that:
● While the new Bill would extend powers to seize electronic devices including phones from migrants, including people seeking asylum, this policy is not unprecedented in UK law
● The Home Office operated a policy of seizing phones from migrants crossing the Channel between 2018 and 2020. Despite being ruled as unlawful in 2022, an amendment to the Illegal Migration Act 2023 implemented powers to seize and retain electronic devices, as well as the ability to access, copy and use information stored on them.
● We urge the Government to repeal existing powers to seize electronic devices as set out in the Illegal Migration Act 2023
Meanwhile, it stated that it should end criminalisation of facilitating crossings because:
● It is government policy that forces people to become intermediaries, because “safe” routes do not exist for the majority of nationalities. Rather than address this, successive governments have stripped back routes to come to the UK while criminalising people who are forced into making dangerous Channel crossings.
● The Bill would extend powers to criminalise people who act as intermediaries to facilitate migration along ‘irregular’ routes. This builds on legislation in the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 which introduced the new offence of ‘illegal arrival’ and criminalised ‘assisting an unlawful immigration or asylum seeker”.
● It is Government legislation that forces people to turn to
intermediaries, and then punishes them. This must end now.
Border Security, Asylum, and Immigration Bill must be thrown out
CEO of the Migrants’ Rights Network Fizza Qureshi said:
The introduction of a counter-terror approach to migration, particularly in relation to refugees and people seeking asylum, is alarming.
This Bill makes it clear that the Government intends to ignore its responsibility to provide protection while introducing a wide range of measures that will restrict civil liberties, penalise people for supporting undocumented migrants, and a vast expansion of counter-terror and surveillance powers in blanket seizures of phones. The Border Security Bill is explicitly designed to target and restrict the movement of racialised people and frame them as a national security threat.
We call for this Bill to be thrown out and urge the Government to repeal existing powers that criminalise seeking protection in the UK.
The Labour Party just ramped up its racist political theatre for the far-right with another disgusting anti-immigration stunt.
As first reported in the Times, it seems that Keir Starmer is taking the fight right to Reform and Nigel Farage’s front door. Like some grim reality TV show, the government is planning to:
publish a series of videos showing the “journey” of an illegal immigrant, from detention in early morning raids to transfer from bleak immigration removal centres to waiting planes and — subject to approval — footage aboard flights out of the country
NEW: From Monday, the Government will release videos of illegal immigrants being detained and deported to convince voters that it is taking action
It comes as voters say Labour’s boast of 16,000 deportations is ‘not true’ because it hasn’t appeared in the news
Is this serious?? It’s the anti-immigration mugs from 2015 all over again – and that didn’t end well. Desperate attempts to out-Reform Reform simply reinforce their messaging. Why not try offering meaningful change, & investment in public services & local communities instead? https://t.co/01HMfyJ4d1
It’s obvious this is Labour continuing its lurch to the right, all in a gross bid to win-over racist Reform voters.
Labour seem to be having a bit of an identify crisis.
Of course, in reality, this is the Labour right to a Tory ‘T’. They’ll be cracking out the Miliband “Controls on Immigration” mugs any day now. So no “change” there then:
When the Labour Party promised “change,” folk naturally assumed they meant “change for the better.” They didn’t expect “we’re about to change into the Reform Party.” https://t.co/zuEnYozLD3
Jeremy Corbyn highlighted that its all about demonising migrants making dangerous journeys to reach the UK. Political scapegoating like this will put more lives at risk:
Scapegoating refugees has always been a deliberate ploy by governments to distract from their own domestic failures.
Pandering to Reform UK will backfire — and vulnerable people will pay the price.
End dangerous crossings by opening safe routes for fellow human beings instead.
Of course, the stunt will do nothing to stop people making these fatal journeys. To do that, the government needs to expand safe routes to asylum in the UK – something which doesn’t fit Labour’s narrative of being tough on immigration.
Ultimately though, the point isn’t to save migrant lives. It’s to bolster Labour’s popularity with the racist voters it now sees as its base:
the government continuing to try and appeal to the very worst of reform voters rather than show anyone any meaningful change or progress because they know they will never have any, scapegoating immigrants like this in the process. This is gross on so many levels. https://t.co/bNU3ckFcH0
What kind of dystopian shit is this? Oh wait, it’s the Labour right
Labour’s Clive Lewis was quick to point out a potential new revenue stream. Seeing as though Labour are not usually afraid of making money from people suffering, it doesn’t even seem as far-fetched as his sarcasm intended:
Why not show all 16,000 arrests of people being dragged off, restrained, screaming, sobbing on a 24hr looped channel?
— should be writing not scrolling (@itsjacksonbbz) February 8, 2025
£5 a month for basic subscription
£10 a month enables ad-free 4k playback so you can really see the fear in their faces
£25 a month gives you premium tier access to livestreams of foreign children crying, downloadable so you can enjoy those moments again and again https://t.co/hhxKhTVmIN
How much is this negative racist demeaning action costing ? Vulnerable people’s lives are not a reality TV show. What a country. Grim. https://t.co/7Al2JumPlt
Very ‘Tory DWP minister donning a stab vest and swaggering about in a dawn benefit raid‘ video. A poster on X pitched that maybe Labour could roll out a whole series:
Maybe a box set entitled ‘Tougher than Tories’
Season 1 People being deported
Season 2 Chronically sick people forced to work
Season 3 People being refused benefits
Season 4 Stopping Winter fuel payments
Season 5 Two child cap
Ultimately though, it won’t end well for Labour. Pandering to Reform will only fuel the rise of the far right. However, it’s going to end worst of all for asylum seekers – because that’s who its racist showboating will continue to harm.
Because when it comes down to it, Labour is using the same, racist, “hostile environment” playbook that’s continued to devastate migrant lives. And when it inevitably does fail, Reform will be grinning gormlessly and spewing its fascist plans to finally put a stop to immigration – which also wouldn’t work obviously – but that won’t matter. Come the next election, Labour’s vote will collapse much like the Tories’ did.
Instead of making a show out of migrants suffering, the government should treat migrants with the dignity and respect they deserve, and open up safe passage to them. Migrants lives should never be a political football – least of all to win-over the far-right fascist shitheads fawning over Farage’s racist vanity show-turned-political party. The return of the Labour right nasty party is sure giving it a run for its money on that front though.
A Palestinian man living in Aotearoa New Zealand who has lost 55 relatives in three Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, says his remaining family will never leave, despite a US proposal to remove them.
“Toxic wasteland” . . . Palestinians take shelter in tents set up amid heavily damaged buildings in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip. Image: Al Jazeera screenshot APR
Abdulaal said they and their husbands — all teachers — could have left at the start of the bombing but refused to abandon their land — and they would not be leaving now.
“After the ceasefire and with Trump’s statements, they are definitely not going to leave Gaza, regardless of what he says and what [the US] does. It’s their land.”
He said New Zealand should recognise Palestine as a state and sanction Israel in accordance with international law.
It should also call for more funding for international aid to Gaza, he added.
‘Two-state solution’
“New Zealand voted for a two-state solution and we have been asking the government to enforce that. Many countries during the genocide already recognise Palestine as a state but our government sees it as ‘not the right time’.
“I think it is the right time, and New Zealand should recognise Palestine immediately.”
Abdulaal said he reached a moment during the war where he could not bring himself to call his sisters.
“I didn’t know what to say, remotely, from New Zealand.
“It’s a really hard time for everyone, they’ve been in tents for more than eight months, both [my sisters’] houses have gone, they are completely rubble.
“They are still in tents despite the ceasefire because they have no other place to go to.”
Israeli tanks in area
“One of my sisters can’t even go and see her house as there is still Israeli tanks in that area [the Philadelphia corridor]. But we know from footage — as she says — the height of my house now is half a metre, it was two levels but now it’s half a metre.
“It’s mixed emotions. The killing and bloodshed has stopped, but I have lost 55 [relatives] in the airstrikes, most of them women and children.
“They haven’t even had a proper funeral . . . it’s really hard, people are just trying to get food for their kids, those basic human rights for people which they don’t have.
“They are happy with the ceasefire, and we hope it will be a permanent ceasefire, but we have also lost lots of people . . . [the rest] have lost their houses, their jobs, everything.
Families returning to northern #Gaza are shocked by the scale of destruction.
UNICEF’s Tess Ingram shares the reality on the ground and the immense challenges people are facing. pic.twitter.com/IRYrN9AsNM
— UNICEF MENA – يونيسف الشرق الأوسط وشمال إفريقيا (@UNICEFmena) February 9, 2025
“When I close my eyes and I think about losing 55 people, and that’s just the ones we know about. It’s horrific, I can’t believe it . . . they’re all relatives: cousins, uncles, extended family.”
Trump’s proposal was a “dangerous statement and outrageous”, Abdulaal said, likening it to “a reward to Netanyahu and the Israeli government who have been bombing everything in Gaza, killing everyone, committing genocide”.
“[President Trump] says he wants to drive the people out of Gaza, meaning he wants to ethnically cleanse the people from Gaza, which is another war crime,” said Abdulaal.
Donald Trump’s outrageous plan to remove the Palestinian people from Gaza, assume U.S. ownership of the Gaza Strip and make it into the “Riviera of the Middle East” reveals his intent to commit a war crime and a crime against humanity. What Trump proposed during a February 4 news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House is “unlawful…
A longtime immigration enforcement official has been tapped to run the agency responsible for managing unaccompanied migrant children, in a move that has alarmed experts and advocates who are concerned that information about children and their families will be shared for arrests and deportations. For the past two decades, an office within the Department of Health and Human Services has…
Both Egypt and Jordan have stated that this is a non-starter and will not happen.
Israeli extremists have welcomed Trump’s comments with the hope that the forced expulsion of Palestinians would pave the way for Jewish settlements in Gaza.
But the truth is that Israeli leaders likely feel deceived by Trump more than anything else. Benjamin Netanyahu and most of Israeli society were once clamouring for Donald Trump.
Since then, Israeli leaders and Israeli society, are seemingly taken aback by Trump’s more restrained approach toward the Middle East and desire for a ceasefire.
While the current ceasefire in place is a precarious endeavour at best, Israeli reactions to the cessation of hostilities highlight a profound point: not only did Netanyahu misread Trump’s intentions, but the entire Israeli political system itself seemingly only thrives during conflict in which the US provides it with unfettered military and diplomatic support.
Geostrategic calculus
Firstly, Israel believed that Trump’s second term would likely be a continuation of his first — where the US based its geostrategic calculus in the Middle East around Israel’s interests. This gave Israeli leaders the impression that Trump would give them the green light to attack Iran, resettle and starve Gaza, and formally annex the West Bank.
Trump blessing an Israel-Iran showdown seems to be off the table. Trump himself stated this and is backing up his words by appointing Washington-based analyst Mike DiMino as a top Department of Defence advisor.
The Trump effect As it pertains to his vision for the Middle East, Trump has been adamant about expanding the Abraham Accords, deepening US military ties with Saudi Arabia, and possibly pioneering Saudi-Israeli “normalisation”.
While there is an explicit pro-Israel angle to all these components, none of Trump’s objectives for the Middle East would be feasible if the genocide in Gaza continued or if the US allowed Israel to formally annex the occupied West Bank, something Trump stopped during his first term.
Witkoff’s willingness to meet with PA, along with the quiet yet growing relationship between Trump and Abbas, was likely something Netanyahu did not anticipate and may have also factored into Netanyahu’s acquiescence in Gaza.
Of equal importance, the Gaza ceasefire deal proves that Israeli politics can only survive if it’s engaged in perpetual war.
Brutal occupation
This is evidenced by its brutal occupation of the Palestinians, destroying Gaza, and attacking its neighbours in Syria and Lebanon. Now that Israel is forced to stop its genocide in Gaza, at least for the time being, fissures within the Israeli government are already growing.
Such dynamics within the Israeli government and its necessity for conflict are only possible because the US allows it to happen.
In providing Israel with unfettered military and diplomatic support, the US allows Israel to torment the Palestinian people. Now that Israel cannot punish Gaza, it has shifted their focus to the West Bank.
Since the ceasefire’s implementation, the Israeli army has engaged in deadly raids in the Jenin refugee camp which had displaced over 2000 Palestinians. The Israeli army has also imposed a complete siege on the West Bank, shutting down checkpoints to severely restrict the movement of Palestinians.
All of Israel’s genocidal practices are a direct result of the impunity granted to them by the Biden administration; who willingly refused to impose any consequences for Israel’s blatant violation of US law.
Joe Biden could have enforced either the Leahy Law or Section 620 I of the Foreign Assistance Act at any time, which would ban weapons from flowing to Israel due to their impediment of humanitarian aid into Gaza and use of US weapons to facilitate grave human rights abuses in Gaza.
Instead, he chose to undermine US laws to ensure that Israel had everything it facilitate their mass slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza.
The United States has always held all the cards when it comes to Israel’s hawkish political composition. Israel was simply the executioner of the US’s devastating policies towards Gaza and the broader Palestinian national movement.
Abdelhalim Abdelrahman is a freelance Palestinian journalist. His work has appeared in The New Arab, The Hill, MSN, and La Razon. Tis article was first published by The New Arab and is republished under Creative Commons.
What will happen to Australia — and New Zealand — once the superpower that has been followed into endless battles, the United States, finally unravels?
With President Donald Trump now into his second week in the White House, horrific fires have continued to rage across Los Angeles and the details of Elon Musk’s allegedly dodgy Twitter takeover began to emerge, the world sits anxiously by.
The consequences of a second Trump term will reverberate globally, not only among Western nations. But given the deeply entrenched Americanisation of much of the Western world, this is about how it will navigate the after-shocks once the United States finally unravels — for unravel it surely will.
Leading with chaos Now that the world’s biggest superpower and war machine has a deranged criminal at the helm — for a second time — none of us know the lengths to which Trump (and his puppet masters) will go as his fingers brush dangerously close to the nuclear codes. Will he be more emboldened?
The signs are certainly there.
President Donald Trump 2.0 . . . will his cruelty towards migrants and refugees escalate, matched only by his fuelling of racial division? Image: ABC News screenshot IA
So far, Trump — who had already led the insurrection of a democratically elected government — has threatened to exit the nuclear arms pact with Russia, talked up a trade war with China and declared “all hell will break out” in the Middle East if Hamas hadn’t returned the Israeli hostages.
Will his cruelty towards migrants and refugees escalate, matched only by his fuelling of racial division?
This, too, appears to be already happening.
Trump’s rants leading up to his inauguration last week had been a steady stream of crazed declarations, each one more unhinged than the last.
Denial of catastrophic climate consequences
And will Trump be in even further denial over the catastrophic consequences of climate change than during his last term? Even as Los Angeles grapples with a still climbing death toll of 25 lives lost, 12,000 homes, businesses and other structures destroyed and 16,425 hectares (about the size of Washington DC) wiped out so far in the latest climactic disaster?
The fires are, of course, symptomatic of the many years of criminal negligence on global warming. But since Trump instead accused California officials of “prioritising environmental policies over public safety” while his buddy and head of government “efficiency”, Musk blamed black firefighters for the fires, it would appear so.
Will the madman, for surely he is one, also gift even greater protections to oligarchs like Musk?
“…pave the way for my Administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures and restructure Federal agencies”.
So, this too is already happening.
All of these actions will combine to create a scenario of destruction that will see the implosion of the US as we know it, though the details are yet to emerge.
The flawed AUKUS pact sinking quickly . . . Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese with outgoing President Joe Biden, will Australia have the mettle to be bigger than Trump. Image: Independent Australia
What happens Down Under?
US allies — like Australia — have already been thoroughly indoctrinated by American pop culture in order to complement the many army bases they house and the defence agreements they have signed.
Though Trump hasn’t shown any interest in making it a 52nd state, Australia has been tucked up in bed with the United States since the Cold War. Our foreign policy has hinged on this alliance, which also significantly affects Australia’s trade and economy, not to mention our entire cultural identity, mired as it is in US-style fast food dependence and reality TV. Would you like Vegemite McShaker Fries with that?
So what will happen to Australia once the superpower we have followed into endless battles finally breaks down?
‘Trump has promised chaos and chaos is what he’ll deliver.’
His rise to power will embolden the rabid Far-Right in the US but will this be mirrored here? And will Australia follow the US example and this year elect our very own (admittedly scaled down) version of Trump, personified by none other than the Trump-loving Peter Dutton?
If any of his wild announcements are to be believed, between building walls and evicting even US nationals he doesn’t like, while simultaneously making Canadians US citizens, Trump will be extremely busy.
There will be little time even to consider Australia, let alone come to our rescue should we ever need the might of the US war machine — no matter whether it is an Albanese or sycophantic Dutton leadership.
It is a given, however, that we would be required to honour all defence agreements should our ally demand it.
It would be great if, as psychologists urge us to do when children act up, our leaders could simply ignore and refuse to engage with him, but it remains to be seen whether Australia will have the mettle to be bigger than Trump.
Republished from the Independent Australia with permission.
RAF Akrotiri has been participating in Israel’s genocide in Gaza for over a year. But the Telegraph is one of many mainstream media outlets in the UK which have failed to report on that. Instead, the Telegraph thinks its big and clever to publish a “small boats tracker” focusing on the people who have been escaping war, poverty, and repression to seek a better life in the UK.
The threatened deportations from Thailand of a Vietnamese ethnic minority activist and 48 Uyghurs detained after trying to flee China have cast a harsh spotlight on Bangkok.
But a flood of war refugees from Myanmar poses a bigger test for Thailand’s relatively generous policies toward migrants.
The Uyghurs, held in Thailand since 2014 after attempting to use the Southeast Asian nation to escape persecution in China, have said they fear they are about to be repatriated and staged a hunger strike to highlight their plight.
Vietnamese ethnic minority rights activist Y Quynh Bdap, who Hanoi wants to extradite and jail for terrorism, denies Vietnamese accusations that he committed 2023 attacks on government offices that resulted in nine deaths.
A Thai Immigration Bureau spokesperson said Thailand has “no policy” to deport the Uyghurs, while enforcement of a Bangkok court ruling calling for Bdap’s extradition to Vietnam is still pending.
These high-profile rights cases are playing out amid a bigger crackdown on hundreds of thousands of Myanmar citizens who have taken refuge in Thailand since a military takeover four years ago.
The displaced Myanmar citizens include junta opponents, but are largely ordinary people who seek safety and work as the civil war at home grinds into its fifth year, say those who help migrants in Thailand.
Many have been subject to arrest, involuntary repatriation and arrest again back in Myanmar as Thailand moves to regulate labor migration flows with stricter registration policies and stringent inspections.
“While all nationalities face similar risks, Myanmar nationals face dual risks – both political opposition groups and ordinary workers uninvolved in politics. If deported, they might be drafted into military service, risking their lives,” said Roisai Wongsuban, policy advocacy advisor for the Migrant Working Group, an NGO in Thailand.
Mecca for migrants
Along with scrutiny from rights and labor groups, Thailand gets plenty of credit from the United Nations and others for hosting more than 5 million non-Thai nationals.
“Because of its relatively prosperous and stable economy, Thailand has attracted millions of migrants from neighboring countries looking for a better standard of living,” said the International Organization for Migration, or IOM.
However, Thailand is not a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, meaning it doesn’t recognize refugees, and those who seek asylum can face detention and deportation.
But it is a main base of humanitarian U.N. agencies and NGOs that help refugees in the region.
“The country has also traditionally hosted hundreds of thousands of nationals from neighboring countries, who have fled their homelands due to war, internal conflict or national instability,” the IOM, a UN agency, said in a statement.
“Khaing,” a former teacher with the Civil Disobedience Movement folds clothes at her current home in Bangkok, Thailand, June 4, 2024, after fleeing Myanmar to avoid conscription by the military junta.(Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP)
Thai law has since 2016 recognized the principle of non-refoulement, or not deporting people to places where they face torture and other abuse.
But in practice, politically sensitive cases involving neighboring authoritarian states are handled differently, and Bangkok has cooperated with the rendition of Vietnamese, Lao and Cambodian dissidents by those nations’ security agents.
A middle-income country with more than a fifth of its 67 million people over 60 and a low birth rate, fast-aging Thailand needs the workers.
“We must maintain a balance between providing employment for Thai nationals and managing migrant workers to meet business needs, enabling efficient operations across the manufacturing, agricultural and industrial sectors,” Thai Labor Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn told reporters in Bangkok last month.
Thailand’s neighbors need the jobs and money.
Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar –- poorer states that border Thailand and have endured war, political violence and economic stagnation -– provide the “vast majority of Thailand’s migrant stock,” the IOM noted.
Laos said it took in more than US$600 million in remittances in 2023 from 400,000 migrant workers, mostly in Thailand.
Vietnamese ethnic minority rights activist Y Quynh Bdap in an undated photo.(Y Quynh Bdap via Facebook)
An IOM report last month estimated that 5.3 million non-Thai nationals were living in Thailand as of December 2023, up from 4.9 million five years earlier.
The Thai Ministry of Labor says that more than 3 million Myanmar nationals were legally living in Thailand as of March 2024, while 286,000 Lao workers were legally working there as of last November.
The tally of registered Cambodians was 460,000 as of January 2024. Cambodia’s labor ministry published a figure of 1.2 million last year.
The IOM says that more than a third of the 5.2 million migrants estimated to be in Thailand as of July 2024 are in “irregular” situations, without proper documents and not captured in ministry statistics.
Such migrants suffer abuses such as unpaid wages, excessive working hours, and unsafe working conditions – or get trafficked to work scam centers in compounds neighboring states’ borders with Thailand, advocates say.
Conscription law exodus
What makes a Thai crackdown on illegal migrants dangerous for Myanmar ‘s war-displaced citizens are policies the Myanmar junta and the Thai government adopted in 2024, migrant advocates say.
After a military offensive launched across northern Myanmar by ethnic armies in late 2023 started to turn the tide against the junta, the regime last February passed a law imposing mass conscription.
Fear of getting drafted by the unpopular junta drove so many young men to flee to Thailand in 2024 that they set a record for the highest annual number of undocumented Myanmar migrants to arrive in Thailand.
This sparked anti-migrant protests in several Thai cities and waves of mass arrests for illegal cross-border entry.
Migrant labor advocates who tracked a 120-day Thai government crackdown on illegal workers from June to September said the drive led to the arrest of 300,000 people, including about 210,000 Myanmar nationals.
“When illegal immigrants entered Myanmar due to the conscription law, hundreds of thousands were arrested,” said Min Oo, a labor official at the Thailand-based Federation of Education and Development.
People from Myanmar cross the Moei river on the Thai-Myanmar border on April 11, 2023.(Royal Thai Army /AFP)
As a result of repatriations of migrants from prisons in Ranong, a Thai border town near the southern tip of Myanmar, about 800 people were handed over to the junta for conscription last year, said Thar Kyaw, head of the Meikta Thahaya Self Administrated Funeral Welfare Association.
According to Ranong locals, young men under the age of 35 were sent to three different Myanmar military units in the next-door Tanintharyi region. Disabled people were also arrested and their families had to pay ransoms to free them.
“Deporting Myanmar nationals is a violation of human rights and effectively a handover to the oppressors of the Myanmar people,” Thar Kyaw told RFA.
Tightening Thai policies
The surge in migrants from Myanmar prompted other Thai measures, including limits on daily entry visa applications at its embassies, elimination of visa renewal options and university places for students, and inspections and closures of migrant schools in southern Thailand.
“Although we pay taxes to Thailand in accordance with their laws, we still feel a sense of inferiority,” said Aung Kyaw, a Burmese student in Chiang Mai, the biggest city in northern Thailand. “And we constantly live on the brink of becoming illegal residents.”
Wongsuban of the Migrant Working Group said Thailand wants short-term workers but doesn’t want Myanmar war refugees to stay permanently – “which is why they don’t make it easy to apply for refugee status or get residence permits.”
Thailand is fine-tuning the “MOU system” it uses to manage the employment of migrant workers through bilateral Memoranda of Understanding with Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and others.
“Managing migrant workers in Thailand must consider employment opportunities for Thai citizens, national security and prevention of labor trafficking or forced labor,” said Ratchakitprakarn, the labor minister.
The minister called on businesses employing migrant workers whose work permits are set to expire in mid-February to submit renewal applications or face “strict legal action against illegal migrant workers, as well as migrant workers and employers and businesses.”
Migrant workers and activists from Laos and Myanmar told RFA the high cost – often many months’ pay – and long wait for work permits under the MOU system drives workers to try illegal entry and work in Thailand. Illegal workers keep trafficking profitable, they add.
Myanmar nationals cross over into Thailand at the Tak border checkpoint in Thailand’s Mae Sot district on April 10, 2024.(Manan Vatsyayana/AFP)
Phyo Ko Ko, who works legally at a garment factory in Thailand, told RFA Burmese the military junta back in Myanmar is now collecting taxes on registered migrant workers’ earnings, in another hit to her income.
“Workers only get a basic salary, so the money is spent on these visas and documents all year round,” said Phyo Ko Ko.
Thai media have reported on some promising developments for migrants, such as cabinet approval in October of a plan to grant citizenship to nearly half a million people, including long-term migrants and children born in Thailand, and new visas for digital, medical and cultural pursuits.
Despite the protests and crackdown of 2024, Wongsuban says the same economic priorities and necessities behind Thailand’s decision to accept migrant workers during the COVID-19 pandemic will ensure the flow of workers continues.
Even critics and activists work with the understanding that “Thailand is the only country in the region that accepts a high number of migrant workers, war refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants,” he said.
Reported by Nontarat Phaicharoen and Jon Preechawong for BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service, RFA Burmese and Phouvong for RFA Lao. Translated by Aung Naing and Phouvong. Written by Paul Eckert.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Paul Eckert.
Detainees fear their return could be imminent despite UN experts urging Bangkok to halt possible transfer
Relatives of Uyghurs detained in Thailand for more than a decade have begged the Thai authorities not to deport the 48 men back to China, after the detainees suggested their return appeared imminent.
A UN panel of experts this week urged Thailand to “immediately halt the possible transfer”, saying the men were at “real risk of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment if they are returned”.
Allegations of rape, beatings and collusion by EU-funded security forces prompt shift in migration arrangements
The European Commission is fundamentally overhauling how it makes payments to Tunisia after a Guardian investigation exposed myriad abuses by EU-funded security forces, including widespread sexual violence against migrants.
Officials are drawing up “concrete” conditions to ensure that future European payments to Tunis can go ahead only if human rights have not been violated.
A senior coroner in Kent has found that three men who were killed trying to cross the Channel were unlawfully killed. Mohamed Lamine Toure, Moussa Kouyae, and a third unnamed person were killed when a rubber dinghy holding 39 people “literally fell apart at the seams.”
The Guardian reported that:
The survivors were brought to shore in Dover after a UK fishing boat crew came across the sinking dinghy and rescued them, with help from the RNLI, air ambulance and UK Border Force.
The Guardian also reported that investigating police officer, DI Ross Gurden, said that each of the people on the dinghy were there:
of their own free will.
A disgrace in the Channel – and after
The officer’s comments are a disgrace. Before even examining any further facts of the case, we know that a number of desperate people got into a dilapidated dinghy in an attempt to cross the Channel. Why would someone do that? What must they be running from that is worse than risking an awful death at sea?
Gurden’s comments went unremarked in the Guardian report, a banal comment on the horror of sea crossings. They show a lack of empathy, but it’s a lack of empathy writ large across borders.
Ibrahima Bah, who piloted the boat, was sentenced to just under ten years detention “for manslaughter and facilitating illegal entry to the UK.” A fourth person, Hejratullah Ahmadi, also died but he was not included in the coroner’s inquest because he was part of the criminal trial of Bah. However, the Independent did note that:
Bah was also a migrant but he piloted the boat in lieu of payment to the people smugglers.
There must be some consideration of how and why Ibrahima had to be on that boat. Last month, a Free Ibrahima campaign statement read:
We are devastated at the Court of Appeal outcome which leaves Ibrahima imprisoned as a scapegoat for border policies which continue to cause people to die in the Channel. We will keep fighting for Ibrahima and others as they are criminalised for seeking safety and a better life in the UK.
The criminalisation of Ibrahima is typical of a broken and rotting system that punishes people trying to survive, and ignores the criminals in governments and border forces who view people dying in the sea as disposable non-humans.
A broken and rotting migrant system
Gurden’s remark that the people on the boat chose to be there call to mind poet Warsan Shire’s poem Home, and particularly the concluding stanza:
no one leaves home until home is a sweaty voice in your ear
saying-
leave,
run away from me now
i don’t know what i’ve become
but i know that anywhere
is safer than here
Imagine, how hard you would have to run to risk drowning in a freezing cold body of water, knowing that if you somehow survive the plastic boat you’re crammed into with other desperate people, you’ll face border patrol, police officers, and a government who’ll make you pay through the nose for daring to survive on its shores. Imagine that, whether you live or die, you know that the people you encounter along your last ditch journey will claim you had a ‘choice.’
Is something really a choice if there is no other option?
If you stay, you’ll die.
If you go, you’ll die.
If you die, your memory will be left with the cold words of an officer who insists that you made a ‘choice’ with your “free will.”
And, the media that reports on your death, if you are even to be named, won’t bother to correct that officer’s callousness, because there are so many of you that have found a grave in the sea.
A bishop pleaded with newly-inaugurated US president-come-petulant child Donald Trump to “have mercy.” Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington addressed Trump, his family, and the new vice-president, J.D. Vance:
The culture of contempt that has become normalised in this country threatens to destroy us.
Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde: on point
She continued:
Let me make one final plea, Mr. President. Millions have put their trust in you. And as you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. There are gay, lesbian, and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and independent families, some who fear for their lives.
Trump remained stony-faced, occasionally smirking and muttering to his wife. Nevertheless, the bishop pleaded with Trump as a person of faith:
The people who pick our crops, and clean our office buildings, labour in poultry farms and meatpacking plants, who was the dishes after we eat in restaurants, and work the night shifts in hospitals, they may not be citizens, or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbours. They are faithful members of our churches and mosques, synagogues, gurdwaras, and temples. I ask you to have mercy Mr. President on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away, and that you help those who are fleeing warzones and persecution in their own land to find compassion and welcome here.
Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde poignantly concluded:
Our God teaches us that we ought to be merciful to the stranger, for we were all once strangers in this land.
Trump’s Meltdown
How did Trump respond to this eloquent and impassioned plea that asked for humanity and humility for the most marginalised people in America? Of course, he had a child-like meltdown and went on a rant. He posted on his own social media platform, Truth Social, that:
She brought her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way. She was nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart.
Apart from her inappropriate statements, the service was a very boring and uninspiring one.
Clearly, Budde’s pleas for honesty and humility didn’t move Trump who remained as belligerent as ever. Trump referred to Budde as a “Radical Left hard line Trump hater,” exactly the type of behaviour Budde referred to with her commentary on a “culture of contempt” in America.
Mike Collins, a Republican congressman, even called for Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde to be deported:
Budde grew up in New Jersey and Colorado – not that the likes of Collins and Trump would let being an American citizen stand in the way of trying to deport someone.
A senior fellow from the American Immigration Council expressed shock at Collins’ tweet:
A sitting member of Congress calls for the deportation of a bishop who asked Trump to show mercy to those in the country who are afraid.
We are in a dark moment in this country and have abandoned our founding principles. God have mercy on us. https://t.co/rB8FHMowJf
Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde’s concerns were well-founded. Trump has signed a flurry of executive orders, including an insistence that federal government refer to only two sexes:
As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female.
It is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female. These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.
This particular executive order is a targeting of trans people, and denies the lived reality of many Americans. It will have far-ranging consequences for trans people’s use of passports, identity cards, healthcare, work opportunities, and more. As the Guardianreported:
The executive order also prevents the use of taxpayer funds for gender-affirming healthcare, and mandates that prisons are designated by sex assigned at birth, not gender identity – which means trans women could be housed in male prisons.
Executive Director of GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD Law) Ricardo Martinez said:
Today’s promised executive order is a direct attack on transgender Americans, deliberately making it harder for people to live their everyday lives. It is cruel, and it is wrong.
The administration is trying to create fear and sow chaos by its statements and orders, but no executive action can change the fundamental truth that transgender people are vital members of our families and communities.
Trump’s government can expect to face robust opposition and protest from trans activists, charities, and queer allies.
Birthright citizenship
Another of the executive orders Trump has already signed seeks:
to end birthright citizenship for children born in the US to immigrant parents who are in the country illegally, as well as those born to parents who are in the country on a temporary basis.
There have been reports that the administration will enforce the order by withholding documents, such as passports, from people it deems ineligible for citizenship.
Birthright citizenship is enshrined in the US constitution, which means Trump will find it very difficult to force this change through. Constitutional law expert Saikrishna Prakash said:
This is not something he can decide on his own.
Nevertheless, Trump has promised mass deportations.
Just as Trump’s first term began with the shock and awe tactics of a series of outrageous and quickly signed executive orders, his second term is off to the same start.
Trump has repeatedly shown that he doesn’t care about legal barriers, moral pleas, or even public pressure. He jumps to call anyone who doesn’t shower him with praise a “hater” and has no concept of humility.
The next four years will require more people like Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde to look Trump in the eyes and call him out. Then, we must realise that appealing to his good sense or humanity simply will not work; he won’t care. We must learn our lessons from his first term and organise in our communities to fight back against his regressive policies.
Arrest of Osama Najim puts spotlight on pact with Italy amid claims he used detained migrants in ‘a form of slavery’
A Libyan general wanted for alleged war crimes and violence against inmates at a prison near Tripoli has been arrested in the northern Italian city of Turin.
Osama Najim, also known as Almasri, was detained on Sunday on an international arrest warrant after a tipoff from Interpol, a source at the prosecutors office for the Piedmont region confirmed.
The humanitarian pathway for those affected by the conflict was introduced in October 2024 for the more than 1,300 Palestinians in Australia on visitor visas but prevents them from applying for permanent protection.
Home Office official says data protection laws caused the cost of its forced removal programme to increase
The Conservative government spent more than £130m on IT and data systems for the scheme to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, which will never be used, the Observer can reveal.
More than half a million TikTok users have piled onto the Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu, known in English as RedNote, days ahead of a looming ban on the app in the United States, according to data from app stores and social media videos.
Styling themselves “TikTok refugees,” many young Americans, seeking an alternative to TikTok, are flocking to join RedNote’s 300 million existing users — who are mostly in China — taking what they see as refuge from the ban, which could be enforced on Jan. 19.
On Wednesday, Xiaohongshu, which literally means “Little Red Book” — a reference to the famous book of quotes from Mao Zedong, the founder of communist China — topped the list of most popular free downloads on the Apple Store and the Google Play store for Android users in the United States.
RedNote allows users to share videos, photos and text posts, along with various shopping features. Known as China’s version of Instagram, it is particularly popular for sharing travel, makeup and fashion tips.
It is owned by Shanghai-based Xingyin Information Technology.
People walk past advertising for Chinese social networking and e-commerce app Xiaohongshu, also known as RedNote, at a shopping centre in Beijing, Jan. 15, 2025.(Adek Berry/AFP)
More than 700,000 new users joined the app, a person close to the company told Reuters, although the company didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Estimates from app data research firm Sensor Tower showed that U.S. downloads of RedNote up by more than 200% year-on-year this week and 194% higher than the previous week, Reuters reported.
The apparent exodus comes ahead of a Jan. 19 deadline for the banning of TikTok in the United States under a bipartisan bill, should its Chinese parent ByteDance not have sold it by that time.
In April, U.S. President Joe Biden signed the bill amid concerns that China’s government was using TikTok both to collect sensitive data about Americans and feed them propaganda.
Lawyers for Chinese-owned TikTok asked the Supreme Court on Jan. 10 to postpone implementation of the ban, which takes effect the day before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
Navigating in Chinese
Since RedNote uses Mandarin Chinese, new users were using translation tools to navigate the site. Some were confused; others were gleeful.
“I have no idea what I’m doing here,” commented Elle Belle from the United States under the video that cited a desire to avoid platforms run by Zuckerman. “I can’t even read the RULES.”
“I’m literally emotional right now bc we are so freaking awesome,” wrote @Unty Tan.
Women search on the Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu, in Hong Kong, China, April 30, 2024.(Tyrone Siu/Reuters)
Some hoped to relocate entire communities that existed on TikTok, while others said the move is a form of protest, or a way to avoid using platforms owned by Meta.
“I would rather stare at a language I can’t understand than to ever use a social media [platform] that Mark Zuckerberg owns,” says one former TikToker in a video posted to the platform on Jan. 13, referring to the Facebook CEO.
The aversion to Meta was apparently linked to reports that the company had paid online activists to boost messages calling TikTok a threat to American children.
‘Give me all your datas’
But the surge of new RedNote users from the United States prompted a series of jokes and memes by long-term Chinese Xiaohongshu users, riffing on fears of spying and data collection.
“Welcome to spy station, give me all your datas,” quipped user @BubbleTea from Guangdong on Jan. 14, in a comment reposted to social media app Bluesky, accompanied by a cat photo. “American datas!” replied another user, also with a cat photo.
Meanwhile, Xiaohongshu user BigTooth donned a cowboy hat to address new arrivals in a broad Texas accent, teaching them how to comment on Chinese posts.
“You came over to this app, wanting to learn some Chinese, but you ain’t even got a Chinese keyboard on your phone,” he says. “But it’s OK. Don’t worry about that.”
“I’m gonna teach you three Chinese expressions, and you can even type them out with your English keyboard,” he adds, suggesting “6,” “66” or “666” to indicate approval, XSWL, “Dying laughing,” and NB, a somewhat rude expression that nonetheless means something is admirable.
American users started putting the tips into practice in comments.
“66 (am I doing it right?),” commented U.S.-based RedNote user @KotaGibbs, gaining more than 1,000 likes. “You’re missing one 6, should be 666,” answered user @Cold from Canada.
Comparing notes
Many users compared notes about each other’s countries, according to screenshots of conversations posted to Bluesky on Jan. 15.
“Can you guys tell us what’s wrong with our country, looking at it from your perspective outside of America?” asks one user.
“Just wondering if it is true that Americans need to have 2-3 jobs to survive?” @momo_yu wanted to know.
“yes, the economy is not great so people work multiple jobs just to live,” user @ally replied from the United States.
“People have guns and shoot children for no reason,” answered @thisisjiaming from Beijing. “Sadly this is true,” commented @kimkimchii from the United States.
“You people still believe election can improve your life,” wrote @Vivianfunny from Hong Kong, where only “patriots” approved by Beijing are allowed to run in elections.
A smartphone displays the Chinese social networking and e-commerce app Xiaohongshu, also known as RedNote, in Beijing on January 15, 2025.(Adek Berry/Reuters)
Some American users embraced the new experience.
“I’m having a lot of fun over there, we share a sense of humor and beefs with our governments,” Bluesky user DarbyMae Shaw commented on Jan. 15.
But others weren’t too sure.
“ less funny is that it censors posts from people of color and the lgbt community,” user @kluggin responded, in a reference to the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s far-reaching social media censorship.
Can you add a translation feature?
According to a Jan. 13 article on the website Advocate.com, one “TikTok refugee” reported being banned for posting content about transgender people.
While some memes and videos crossed the language barrier by using subtitles, other users were crying out for automatic translation, according to a comment on the Apple Store.
“Please please please!!! I love this app so so so much but I only speak english,” said a review by Sour_emy. “A lot of people in the us are moving to this app … so I was hoping there could be a translation feature added for things like comments and descriptions!!”
“It would bring a lot of new people coming from tiktok,” the review said.
Users seemed relatively unworried by the security concerns that also surround Xiaohongshu.
The government of democratic Taiwan banned its officials from using Xiaohongshu, Douyin and TikTok amid concerns that the Chinese-owned platforms could compromise the island’s security.
Meanwhile, a Chinese journalist now living in the United States who declined to be named for fear of reprisals said the exodus seemed ironic to him.
“It’s hilarious that they’re escaping from an American prison run by the Chinese to a Chinese prison that’s also run by the Chinese,” the journalist said.
Additional reporting by Wang Yun for RFA Mandarin. Edited by Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Luisetta Mudie.
Largest known deportation of people back to Niger to date comes as EU is accused of outsourcing cruelty to reduce Mediterranean crossings
More than 600 people have been forcibly deported from Libya on a “dangerous and traumatising” journey across the Sahara, in what is thought to be one of the largest expulsions from the north African country to date.
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) confirmed 613 people, all Nigerien nationals, arrived in the desert town of Dirkou in Niger last weekend in a convoy of trucks. They were among a large number of migrant workers rounded up by the authorities in Libya over the past month.
Australia violated the rights of asylum seekers arbitrarily detained on the island of Nauru, a UN watchdog has ruled, in a warning to other countries intent on outsourcing asylum processing.
The UN human rights committee published decisions in two cases involving 25 refugees and asylum seekers who endured years of arbitrary detention in the island nation.
In 2015, hundreds of thousands of people fleeing war and repression were trying to reach safe havens in Europe. From his home in Norway, Tommy Olsen decided to travel to Greece, a major gateway for migrants and refugees. He joined hundreds of volunteers helping the new arrivals and later created an NGO, the Aegean Boat Report, which monitors the plight of asylum seekers in Europe.
Today, Olsen is a wanted man in Greece, caught up in a crackdown on refugees and people trying to defend their right to asylum.
“I didn’t know what I walked into,” Olsen says.
Mary Lawlor, the UN special rapporteur on human rights defenders, has condemned Greece’s harsh migration policies and the way its government is targeting activists like Olsen. But she says Europe as a whole is also to blame.
“The whole notion of migration is a dirty word now,” she says. “The whole notion of refugees is a dirty word now.”
This week on Reveal, reporters Dinah Rothenberg and Viola Funk from the Berlin podcast studio ACB Stories take us to Greece, where refugees and human rights defenders face legal and sometimes physical attacks from authorities trying to seal the country’s borders.
Figure includes hundreds of children, who make up one in five migrants trying to reach Europe fleeing war and poverty
More than 2,200 people either died or went missing in the Mediterranean while trying to reach Europe in search of refuge in 2024.
The figure, cited in a statement from Regina De Dominicis, the regional director for Europe and central Asia for the UN’s children’s agency, Unicef, was eclipsed on New Year’s Eve when 20 people fell into the sea and were reported missing after a boat started to take in water in rough seas about 20 miles off the coast of Libya.
NEW: From Monday, the Government will release videos of illegal immigrants being detained and deported to convince voters that it is taking action
