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Category: refugees

  • Tory MPs criticise Suella Braverman’s ‘alarmist’ speech on migration

    Two MPs distance themselves from home secretary’s talk of ‘existential challenge’ as she called for human rights reform

    Suella Braverman has been criticised by two Conservative MPs for an “alarmist” speech about the need for human rights reform due to the “existential challenge” posed by illegal migration.

    Speaking from Washington DC on Wednesday, the home secretary riled some in her party by suggesting that being gay or a woman and fearful of discrimination should not be enough to qualify as a refugee in the UK.

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Braverman sinks to a new low – attacking the 1951 Refugee Convention

    On 26 September, home secretary Suella Braverman gave a hate-fuelled tirade on the subject of asylum seekers as part of a keynote speech in Washington. In it, she stated that the United Nations Refugee Convention was not “fit for our modern age”.

    The address, which took place at the right-wing American Enterprise Institute, was billed as intending to lay out an international plan to deal with the refugee crisis. However, Braverman’s answer appears to boil down to simply redefining what a refugee is.

    Braverman: ‘A completely different time’

    The 1951 Refugee Convention legally defines the term “refugee” and outlines their rights. Braverman called it “an incredible achievement of its age”. However, she went on to cite a deeply questionable study stating that the convention now gives at least 780 million people the potential right to move to another country.

    She said that it is:

    incumbent upon politicians and thought leaders to ask whether the Refugee Convention, and the way it has come to be interpreted through our courts, is fit for our modern age or in need of reform.

    Regarding this perceived lack of reform, she stated that:

    The first [reason] is simply that it is very hard to renegotiate these instruments. The second is much more cynical. The fear of being branded a racist or illiberal. Any attempt to reform the refugee convention will see you smeared as anti-refugee

    ‘Very real danger’

    She also added that Western countries will not be able to sustain an asylum system:

    if in effect simply being gay, or a woman, or fearful of discrimination in your country of origin, is sufficient to qualify for protection.

    We are living in a new world bound by outdated legal models. It’s time we acknowledge that.

    The problem being, of course, that fearing discrimination should be sufficient grounds to qualify for protection. In a world with any measure of human decency, nobody should have been able to question that simple maxim without choking on their words. Unfortunately, I’m given to doubt that Braverman and her cronies have a shred of human decency to share between them.

    In a statement as part of his role at the AIDS Foundation, musician Elton John said he was “very concerned” about Braverman’s comments. He highlighted the fact that “simply being gay”, as the home secretary put it, was clearly cause to be fearful:

    Nearly a third of all nations class LGBTQ+ people as criminals and homosexuality is still punishable by death in 11 countries.

    Dismissing the very real danger LGBTQ+ communities face risks further legitimizing hate and violence against them.

    Colonialism and the refugee crisis

    Of course, this isn’t even to mention the UK’s role in the criminalisation of homosexuality in these countries. As the Migrant Rights Network put it:

    Sadly, out of the 69 countries where homosexuality is criminalised today, 36 of them are former British colonies. Many commonwealth African nations, for instance, still hold onto the colonial-era legislation and attitudes towards the LGBTQ+ community.

    Likewise, another key and growing driver of refugee movement is the ever-worsening climate crisis. The non-profit Climate Refugees stated that:

    Recent trends indicate more internal displacement due to climate-related disasters than conflict, where in fact, of the 30.6 million people displaced across 135 countries in 2017, 60 percent were as a direct result of disasters.

    And, in turn, those climate disasters are driven by the Global North and its energy colonialism. As the Canary’s Hannah Sharland documented:

    industrialised colonial nations have belched out the bulk of emissions that have fueled climate warming. However, the impacts of super-charged extreme weather have disproportionately hit the less industrialised nations least responsible.

    But far from acknowledging the dire issue of the refugee crisis – let alone taking ownership of the role that the UK and the rest of the Global North played in it – Braverman has an entirely different solution. She’s looking away.

    The solution? Ignore the problem

    Braverman has previously criticised the European Convention on Human Rights for blocking the Tory government’s Rwanda scheme. Hitting back, the non-profit Refugee Council said that – rather than taking aim at the UN convention – the UK should be:

    addressing the real issues in the asylum system, such as the record backlog, and providing safe routes for those in need of protection.

    Similarly, Yvette Cooper, Labour’s shadow home secretary, accused Braverman of having “given up on fixing the Tories’ asylum chaos” and “looking for anyone else to blame”.

    This attitude typifies Tory responses to social issues across the board. Rather than working to find a solution, they change definitions in order to sweep a problem under the rug. From plans to redefine child poverty, to changing targets for cancer care in order to reduce damning figures, to funneling foreign aid into investment portfolios, the Conservatives are no stranger to moving goalposts.

    So, simply defining a refugee more narrowly as someone immediately at risk of violence or death is barely even a stretch.

    Everyday cruelty

    The Guardian went as far as reporting that:

    Asked after the speech whether the UK would consider leaving the convention if changes were not delivered, Braverman said the government would do “whatever is required” to tackle the issue of migrants arriving via unauthorised routes.

    To state this simply, the home secretary appears to prefer that the UK removes itself entirely from the Refugee Convention, rather than facing up to the fact that refugees are human beings in need of help.

    Truly, I wish I could say that I was shocked – or even surprised. Unfortunately at this point, Braverman is beyond the point where her naked cruelty is anything more than an everyday occurrence.

    Featured image via the Guardian/screengrab

    Additional reporting via Agence France-Presse

    By Alex/Rose Cocker

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • ‘How did he die and I didn’t?’: Hungary’s spate of car crashes involving police and migrants

    People injured in crashes involving Hungarian police are being pushed back to Serbia from hospital, say human rights groups

    When he woke up in the hospital, Karim* had no idea what had happened to him. All he remembered was that he had fallen asleep next to his friend, Yousef*, in the back of the car. Days before, in the summer of 2022, they had climbed the border fence between Serbia and Hungary and were heading towards Austria.

    Karim, 22, had left his home in northern Syria at the end of 2021. After making his way from Turkey through Bulgaria, he reached Serbia. From there he still had to cross Hungary and then on to Austria. “My dream was to reach Germany,” he says.

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Fleeing Violence, LGBTQ+ Ugandan Refugees Face Long Journey to Resettlement

    When Paul Canary Kanyamu fled his home in Uganda to escape violent persecution, he lost everything. He left behind a full life and close family members — though the horror of his circumstances was heightened by the fact that these relatives were among his tormentors. Kanyamu’s crime, the source of this grievous oppression, was to love his partner: to be a gay man in Uganda. For that…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Thousands of refugees enter Armenia after Azerbaijan attacked separatist region

    Nearly 3000 people have fled Nagorno-Karabakh, a region inside Azerbaijan, for neighbouring Armenia. The refugees fled after Azerbaijan carried out military operations in the area on 20 September.

    Ethnic Armenians fleeing Azerbaijan

    According to a statement from the Armenian government, published by Russian state media, more than 2900 refugees had entered Armenia by 25 September. Agence France-Presse (AFP) had previously witnessed several hundred refugees entering the country, most of whom were women and children.

    This came after a day-long military operation by Azerbaijan in the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh on 20 September. The region’s rights ombudsman, Gegham Stepanyan, said on social media at the time that Azerbaijan killed 200 people and wounded a further 400. Amongst them were 10 civilians, including five children.

    Laurence Broers of the Chatham House think tank wrote on Twitter that the attack:

    follows nine months of (Azerbaijan) blocking access to the territory, a blockade that grew in severity since mid-June.

    Meanwhile, Azerbaijan claimed it was carrying out an “anti-terrorist” campaign in Nagorno-Karabakh.

    Exploiting the global situation

    As a result of Azerbaijan’s successful attack, Armenian separatists agreed to lay down arms. The surrender was part of a ceasefire brokered by Russia.

    Azerbaijan has made the most of a favourable political climate to launch its attack. It has the strong support of NATO member Turkey. Meanwhile, Russia – the traditional heavyweight in the area, and Armenia’s ally – is busy with its war in Ukraine. However, it is worth noting that Russia has also previously supplied large amounts of arms to both Azerbaijan and Armenia.

    At the same time, the EU signed a gas supply agreement with Azerbaijan in 2022 as part of an attempt to reduce dependence on Russian gas.

    On the other side of the border, in Azerbaijani settlements such as Terter and Beylagan, locals celebrated their government’s victory over Nagorno-Karabakh. State television played music paying tribute to the nation and its army. Flags and portraits of dozens of local “martyrs”, who died fighting during the previous 30 year-conflict between the two nations, lined the roads.

    Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse

    Featured image via AFP News Agency/YouTube

    By Glen Black

  • NATO Destroyed Libya in 2011; Storm Daniel Came to Sweep Up the Remains

    Shefa Salem al-Baraesi (Libya), Drown on Dry Land, 2019.

    Three days before the Abu Mansur and Al Bilad dams collapsed in Wadi Derna, Libya, on the night of September 10, the poet Mustafa al-Trabelsi participated in a discussion at the Derna House of Culture about the neglect of basic infrastructure in his city. At the meeting, al-Trabelsi warned about the poor condition of the dams. As he wrote on Facebook that same day, over the past decade his beloved city has been ‘exposed to whipping and bombing, and then it was enclosed by a wall that had no door, leaving it shrouded in fear and depression’. Then, Storm Daniel picked up off the Mediterranean coast, dragged itself into Libya, and broke the dams. CCTV camera footage in the city’s Maghar neighbourhood showed the rapid advance of the floodwaters, powerful enough to destroy buildings and crush lives. A reported 70% of infrastructure and 95% of educational institutions have been damaged in the flood-affected areas. As of Wednesday 20 September, an estimated 4,000 to 11,000 people have died in the flood – among them the poet Mustafa al-Trabelsi, whose warnings over the years went unheeded – and another 10,000 are missing.

    Hisham Chkiouat, the aviation minister of Libya’s Government of National Stability (based in Sirte), visited Derna in the wake of the flood and told the BBC, ‘I was shocked by what I saw. It’s like a tsunami. A massive neighbourhood has been destroyed. There is a large number of victims, which is increasing each hour’. The Mediterranean Sea ate up this ancient city with roots in the Hellenistic period (326 BCE to 30 BCE). Hussein Swaydan, head of Derna’s Roads and Bridges Authority, said that the total area with ‘severe damage’ amounts to three million square metres. ‘The situation in this city’, he said, ‘is more than catastrophic’. Dr Margaret Harris of the World Health Organisation (WHO) said that the flood was of ‘epic proportions’. ‘There’s not been a storm like this in the region in living memory’, she said, ‘so it’s a great shock’.

    Howls of anguish across Libya morphed into anger at the devastation, which are now developing into demands for an investigation. But who will conduct this investigation: the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity, headed by Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh and officially recognised by the United Nations (UN), or the Government of National Stability, headed by Prime Minister Osama Hamada in Sirte? These two rival governments – which have been at war with each other for many years – have paralysed the politics of the country, whose state institutions were fatally damaged by North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) bombardment in 2011.

    Soad Abdel Rassoul (Egypt), My Last Meal, 2019.

    The divided state and its damaged institutions have been unable to properly provide for Libya’s population of nearly seven million in the oil-rich but now totally devastated country. Before the recent tragedy, the UN was already providing humanitarian aid for at least 300,000 Libyans, but, as a consequence of the floods, they estimate that at least 884,000 more people will require assistance. This number is certain to rise to at least 1.8 million. The WHO’s Dr Harris reports that some hospitals have been ‘wiped out’ and that vital medical supplies, including trauma kits and body bags, are needed. ‘The humanitarian needs are huge and much more beyond the abilities of the Libyan Red Crescent, and even beyond the abilities of the Government’, said Tamar Ramadan, head of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies delegation in Libya.

    The emphasis on the state’s limitations is not to be minimised. Similarly, the World Meteorological Organisation’s Secretary-General Petteri Taalas pointed out that although there was an unprecedented level of rainfall (414.1 mm in 24 hours, as recorded by one station), the collapse of state institutions contributed to the catastrophe. Taalas observed that Libya’s National Meteorological Centre has ‘major gaps in its observing systems. Its IT systems are not functioning well and there are chronic staff shortages. The National Meteorological Centre is trying to function, but its ability to do so is limited. The entire chain of disaster management and governance is disrupted’. Furthermore, he said, ‘[t]he fragmentation of the country’s disaster management and disaster response mechanisms, as well as deteriorating infrastructure, exacerbated the enormity of the challenges. The political situation is a driver of risk’.

    Faiza Ramadan (Libya), The Meeting, 2011.

    Abdel Moneim al-Arfi, a member of the Libyan Parliament (in the eastern section), joined his fellow lawmakers to call for an investigation into the causes of the disaster. In his statement, al-Arfi pointed to underlying problems with the post-2011 Libyan political class. In 2010, the year before the NATO war, the Libyan government had allocated money towards restoring the Wadi Derna dams (both built between 1973 and 1977). This project was supposed to be completed by a Turkish company, but the company left the country during the war. The project was never completed, and the money allocated for it vanished. According to al-Arfi, in 2020 engineers recommended that the dams be restored since they were no longer able to manage normal rainfall, but these recommendations were shelved. Money continued to disappear, and the work was simply not carried out.

    Impunity has defined Libya since the overthrow of the regime led by Muammar al-Gaddafi (1942–2011). In February–March 2011, newspapers from Gulf Arab states began to claim that the Libyan government’s forces were committing genocide against the people of Libya. The United Nations Security Council passed two resolutions: resolution 1970 (February 2011) to condemn the violence and establish an arms embargo on the country and resolution 1973 (March 2011) to allow member states to act ‘under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter’, which would enable armed forces to establish a ceasefire and find a solution to the crisis. Led by France and the United States, NATO prevented an African Union delegation from following up on these resolutions and holding peace talks with all the parties in Libya. Western countries also ignored the meeting with five African heads of state in Addis Ababa in March 2011 where al-Gaddafi agreed to the ceasefire, a proposal he repeated during an African Union delegation to Tripoli in April. This was an unnecessary war that Western and Gulf Arab states used to wreak vengeance upon al-Gaddafi. The ghastly conflict turned Libya, which was ranked 53rd out of 169 countries on the 2010 Human Development Index (the highest ranking on the African continent), into a country marked by poor indicators of human development that is now significantly lower on any such list.

    Tewa Barnosa (Libya), War Love, 2016.

    Instead of allowing an African Union-led peace plan to take place, NATO began a bombardment of 9,600 strikes on Libyan targets, with special emphasis on state institutions. Later, when the UN asked NATO to account for the damage it had done, NATO’s legal advisor Peter Olson wrote that there was no need for an investigation, since ‘NATO did not deliberately target civilians and did not commit war crimes in Libya’. There was no interest in the wilful destruction of crucial Libyan state infrastructure, which has never been rebuilt and whose absence is key to understanding the carnage in Derna.

    NATO’s destruction of Libya set in motion a chain of events: the collapse of the Libyan state; the civil war, which continues to this day; the dispersal of Islamic radicals across northern Africa and into the Sahel region, whose decade-long destabilisation has resulted in a series of coups from Burkina Faso to Niger. This has subsequently created new migration routes toward Europe and led to the deaths of migrants in both the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea as well as an unprecedented scale of human trafficking operations in the region. Add to this list of dangers not only the deaths in Derna, and certainly the deaths from Storm Daniel, but also casualties of a war from which the Libyan people have never recovered.

    Najla Shawkat Fitouri (Libya), Sea Wounded, 2021.

    Just before the flood in Libya, an earthquake struck neighbouring Morocco’s High Atlas Mountains, wiping out villages such as Tenzirt and killing about 3,000 people. ‘I won’t help the earthquake’, wrote the Moroccan poet Ahmad Barakat (1960–1994); ‘I will always carry in my mouth the dust that destroyed the world’. It is as if tragedy decided to take titanic steps along the southern rim of the Mediterranean Sea last week.

    A tragic mood settled deep within the poet Mustafa al-Trabelsi. On 10 September, before being swept away by the flood waves, he wrote, ‘[w]e have only one another in this difficult situation. Let’s stand together until we drown’. But that mood was intercut with other feelings: frustration with the ‘twin Libyan fabric’, in his words, with one government in Tripoli and the other in Sirte; the divided populace; and the political detritus of an ongoing war over the broken body of the Libyan state. ‘Who said that Libya is not one?’, Al-Trabelsi lamented. Writing as the waters rose, Al-Trabelsi left behind a poem that is being read by refugees from his city and Libyans across the country, reminding them that the tragedy is not everything, that the goodness of people who come to each other’s aid is the ‘promise of help’, the hope of the future.

    The rain
    Exposes the drenched streets,
    the cheating contractor,
    and the failed state.
    It washes everything,
    bird wings
    and cats’ fur.
    Reminds the poor
    of their fragile roofs
    and ragged clothes.
    It awakens the valleys,
    shakes off their yawning dust
    and dry crusts.
    The rain
    a sign of goodness,
    a promise of help,
    an alarm bell.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • What is the controversy over the EU migration deal with Tunisia?

    Human rights abuses have led to concerns over agreement that was aimed at addressing issue of people-smuggling to Italy

    The EU’s deal with Tunisia to combat people smugglers moving migrants across to Italy in often life-threatening conditions has been mired in controversy since it was first signed.

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Basic Needs Approach And Missing Refugee Label: Strengthening The Refugee Regime For Environmental Refugees In India

    International law guarantees certain inherent rights which cannot be violated by states. It imposes an obligation on states with regards to economic, social, and cultural rights that can be achieved through international cooperation and assistance. Such extraterritorial obligations on states are necessary for the protection of fundamental rights of refugees.

    However, as India is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention, it is only bound by the rules of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation. Further, there is no formal refugee policy in India. These can be considered a major reasons for the improper treatment of refugees in India. Although bilateral agreements were entered into by India, such as with Bangladesh on the Chakma agreement,  there has been only ad-hoc and temporary standards for refugee protection, thus jeopardizing the human rights of refugees.

    Further, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has only one office in the entire country, in New Delhi, to determine the status of asylum seekers. Thus causing the agency to completely fall short of providing legal assistance to refugees in other parts of the country.  Though the Supreme Court has recognized the rights of asylum seekers to non-refoulment, the effect of this on environmental refugees remains unclarified and it is left to be determined by the UNHCR on a case-to-case basis.

    Climate change-induced displacements have caused grave violations of human rights all over the world. The missing refugee label has been apparent over the years following the Refugee Status Determination (RSD) system in India. Even worse, despite environmental refugees being recognized by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), this recognition is not granted in India, causing them to be deprived of the benefits they ought to receive with the refugee label. This in effect forces people to reside in the country as illegal immigrants, denying them of their very basic rights.

    One of the prominent rights guaranteed to environmental refugees is the right to non-refoulment which provides that no-one should be returned to a country where they would face torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and other irreparable harm. Non-refoulment with regards to climate change was considered by the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) in the landmark case of Ioane Teitiota v. New Zealand. The court held that the forcible return of a person to a place where there is threat to life due to climate change amounts to a violation of their human rights. Further, the UNHRC has stated that environmental degradation can be brought within the scope of the violation of the right to life under Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Further, the UNHCR also held that environmental contamination with proven long-term health effects may be a sufficient threat, provided there is sufficient evidence showing that the harmful quantities of contaminants have reached, or will reach, the human environment to be a criterion for Article 6 cases, thus, identifying the aspects of right to a healthy environment.

    India has ratified the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR), the ICCPR and other international treaties which obligate it to protect the human rights of environmental refugees. This not only includes addressing their needs and assisting them before and during the asylum-seeking process, and after being granted refugee status, but also includes: initiating action to mitigate climate change to prevent its negative impacts on human rights; ensuring all persons have the capacity and means to adapt; and ensuring accountability and effective remedies for harms caused by climate change.

    Basic needs include access to basic services and assistance in health, nutrition, food, shelter, energy, education, as well as domestic items and specialized services for people with specific needs. The UNHCR defines the basic needs approach as a ‘way to enable refugees to meet their basic needs and achieve longer-term wellbeing through means to survive and services based on their socio-economic vulnerabilities and capabilities’ (UNHCR). In addition, a ‘poverty lens’ should be taken, alongside the prioritization of refugees who are economically and socially disadvantaged.

    Refugees have a right to choose a country of residence, this in turn is linked to the states’ responsibility to receive them. This is considered as a form of partial compensation for injustice and trauma and loss and damage. Certain states have shown a positive response to this principle by incorporating legislation protecting environmental refugees. Bolivia has referenced climate change-induced asylum seeking and protection of rights of such refugees. Similarly, Kenya in its National Climate Action Plan has addressed seeking refuge to be a potential coping mechanism for climate change. Though India has a plethora of environmental laws, none of them have been aimed at dealing with the important aspects of climate change adaptation. Further India doesn’t have a national adaptation plan thereby leading adaptation programs to be fragmented, sector specific and small- scale. Thus, India’s action on climate mitigation still remains opaque.

    Issues regarding environmental refugees were raised in early 2022 when the Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Bhupender Yadav claimed in a Parliamentary session that India was prepared to deal with environmental refugees. But no plan was presented to substantiate this. Further, India has no officially reported data related to environmental refugees or internal displacements related to climate change. If not recognized and accounted for, such displacements can have a negative impact on India’s already climate-vulnerable communities.

    The policy lacuna in recognizing refugees in India has already caused a situation of crisis in the country. Thus, as a first step, the Parliament of India must enact stringent climate adaptation legislation. Secondly, the Parliament has to form an inclusive policy or provide a domestic law for refugees providing them a legal pathway to enter the nation and enjoy the rights guaranteed to them under international law. This would also require the setting up of a decentralized system where the determination of refugee status is more systematic, transparent and accessible. The resettlement and adaptation plan must also include the implementation of a  basic standard of living and protection of fundamental rights. Thirdly, the state should enter into bilateral agreements with climate vulnerable countries to facilitate the safe movement of people. If the following continues to be unaddressed, the fundamental rights of the refugees are left in jeopardy.

    This post was originally published on LSE Human Rights.

  • NZ election 2023: ‘People power’ alliance wins pledge of 1000 new state houses a year

    Asia Pacific Report

    Opposition National Party deputy leader Nicola Willis was among three political leaders who made a surprising commitment at a debate last night to build 1000 state houses in Auckland each year.

    Labour Party leader and caretaker prime minister Chris Hipkins and Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson also agreed to do so, with resounding “yes” responses to the direct question from co-convenors Sister Margaret Martin of the Sisters of Mercy Wiri and Nik Naidu of the Whānau Community Centre and Hub.

    All three political leaders also pledged to have quarterly consultations with a new community alliance formed to address Auckland’s housing and homeless crisis and other social issues.

    The “non-political partisan” public rally at the Lesieli Tonga Auditorium in Favona — which included more than 500 attendees representing 45 community and social issues groups — was hosted by the new alliance Te Ohu Whakawhanaunga.

    Filipina lawyer and co-chair of the meeting Nina Santos, of the YWCA, declared: “If we don’t have a seat at the table, it’s because we’re on the menu.”

    Later, in an interview with RNZ Morning Report today, Santos said: “It was so great to see [the launch of Te Ohu] after four years in the making”.

    ‘People power’
    “It was so good to see our allies, our villages and our communities — our 45 organisations — show up last night to demonstrate people power

    “Te Ohu Whakawhanaunga is a broad-based alliance, the first of its kind in Tāmaki Makauarau. The members include Māori groups, women’s groups, unions and faith-based organisations.

    “They have all came together to address issues that the city is facing — housing is a basic human right.”

    She chaired the evening with Father Henry Rogo from Fiji, of the Diocese of Polynesia in NZ.

    Political leaders put on the spot over housing at Te Ohu
    Political leaders put on the spot over housing at Te Ohu . . . Prime Minister Chris Hipkins (Labour, from left), Marama Davidson (Green co-leader) and Nicola Willis (National deputy leader). Image: David Robie/APR

    Speakers telling heart-rending stories included Dinah Timu, of E Tū union, about “decent work”, and Tayyaba Khan, Darwit Arshak and Eugene Velasco, who relating their experiences as migrants, former refugees and asylum seekers.

    The crowd was also treated to performances by Burundian drummers, Colombian dancers and Te Whānau O Pātiki Kapahaka at Te Kura O Pātiki Rosebank School, all members of the new Te Ohu collective.

    Writing in The New Zealand Herald today, journalist Simon Wilson reported:

    “Hipkins told the crowd of about 500 . . . that he grew up in a state house built by the Labour government in the 1950s. ‘And I’m very proud that we are building more state houses today than at any time since the 1950s,’ he said.

    “’Labour has exceeded the 1000 commitment. We’ve built 12,000 social house units since 2017, and 7000 of them have been in Tāmaki Makaurau. But there is more work to be done.’

    “He reminded the audience that the last National government had sold state houses, not built them.

    “Davidson said that housing was ‘a human right and a core public good’. The Greens’ commitment was greater than that of the other parties: it wanted to build 35,000 more public houses in the next five years, and resource the construction sector and the government’s state housing provider Kāinga Ora to get it done.

    “’We will also put a cap on rent increases and introduce a minimum income guarantee, to lift people out of poverty.’

    “Willis told the audience there were 2468 people on the state house waiting list in Auckland when Labour took office in 2017, and now there are 8175.

    “’Here’s the thing. If you don’t like the result you’re getting, you don’t keep doing the same thing. We don’t think social housing should just be provided by Kāinga Ora. We want the Salvation Army, and Habitat for Humanity and other community housing providers to be much more involved.’

    “Members of that sector were at the meeting and one confirmed the community housing sector is already building a substantial proportion of new social housing.”

  • Germany says it ended training of Saudi border forces after abuses reported

    Statement comes amid concern about allegations Saudi forces have killed hundreds of migrants

    Germany ended a training programme for Saudi border forces, who have been implicated in the mass killing of migrants at the country’s border with Yemen, after it was alerted to reports of “possible massive human rights violations”, the German interior ministry has said.

    In a statement to the Guardian, the ministry said training undertaken by the federal police service for the Saudi border force had been “discontinued after reports of possible massive human rights violations became known and, as a precaution, are no longer included in the current training programme [for Saudi security forces]”.

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Video shows woman lying dead on floor of migration detention centre in Libya

    Footage provides latest shocking glimpse of conditions endured by refugees in north African country

    Footage has emerged showing a woman lying dead on the floor of a migration detention centre in Libya in the latest shocking glimpse of the conditions endured by refugees in the north African country.

    The clip, believed to have been filmed two weeks ago and shared with the Guardian by a group who arrived in Tunisia from Libya, shows a room inside the Abu Salim detention centre in Tripoli.

    Continue reading…

  • Suella Braverman says ‘we will do whatever it takes’ if Strasbourg thwarts Rwanda plan

    Home secretary confirms government considering fitting some migrants with electronic tags

    Suella Braverman has said the government will “do whatever it takes” if its plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda is “thwarted in Strasbourg”, and confirmed the government is considering fitting some migrants with electronic tags.

    In an interview with the BBC, the home secretary stepped up her attack on the European court of human rights (ECHR), calling it politicised and interventionist.

    Continue reading…

  • Italy detains three boats – for the crime of saving hundreds of refugees’ lives

    In the space of 48 hours, Italy’s authorities detained three refugee rescue vessels which had just saved hundreds of lives. The news comes as Italy’s far-right government has been cracking down on both refugees and those protecting them – amid over 2,000 people dying in the crossing.

    Italy: detaining refugee rescue vessels

    The Spanish Open Arms charity said Italian authorities fined it €10,000 and seized its eponymous ship on Tuesday 22 August. This was after it ignored border authorities instructions not to carry out two rescues to save 170 people stranded in the Mediterranean.

    Then, charity German Sea-Eye said authorities fined it around €3,000 and detained its SEA-EYE 4 ship after it performed three consecutive rescue operations which it said saved 114 lives. Plus, on Monday 21 August Germany’s Sea-Watch charity saw its ship the Aurora detained for disembarking refugees it had saved in a non-designated port.

    Italian authorities are able to do this because of a law Italy’s far-right prime minister Giorgia Meloni brought in.

    Far-right lawmakers punishing refugees and charities

    As Al Jazeera reported:

    The law passed in Italy on February 24 prevents rescue ships from carrying out several consecutive rescues. Under a decree named after the interior minister, Matteo Piantedosi, rescue vessels are required to request the assignment of a port and sail to it immediately after each rescue.

    NGOs say the measure aims to curb arrivals, as they are forbidden from conducting multiple missions and are often required to travel to faraway ports, which increases operational costs and reduces the time for rescues.

    They also maintain that the law contravenes international law, under which it is a duty to rescue persons in distress at sea.

    This is not the first time Italian authorities have used the law. As the Canary previously reported, in July authorities detained aid group SOS Mediterranee’s vessel:

    After disembarking 57 people rescued off the Libyan coast on 7 July, Ocean Viking was subject to a seven-hour inspection by port authorities on 11 July.

    At the time, authorities then held the group’s vessel “for an indefinite period” in port. Then, as the Canary also reported, just after the new law passed authorities detained a Doctors Without Borders (MSF) vessel.

    All of this is symptomatic of the wider treatment of refugees across the EU.

    Europe’s racist hostile environment

    The Italian government says that more than 105,000 refugees have landed in Italy so far this year. This is more than double the number in the same period last year. Across Europe, the UN says that more than 2,000 people have also died attempting the central Mediterranean crossing since the start of the year.

    As the Canary‘s Eliza Egret previously wrote:

    rather than rescuing people escaping from Libya, European countries dehumanise them. They do all they can to prevent civil society organisations such as Sea-Watch from rescuing them. The EU would rather see people drown than allow people to reach Italy. Deadly pushbacks are used where authorities force refugees back into non-European waters, rather than rescue them. These are far too common, even though they’re illegal under international law. Groups like Channel Rescue say that EU pushback policies have caused thousands of deaths.

    Italy’s latest legal crackdown against refugees and the people supporting them is another step in Europe’s systematically hostile and racist attitude toward Black and Brown people fleeing from war, poverty, and hunger.

    Additional reporting via Agence France-Presse

    Feature image via NBC News – YouTube

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • There’s no-one Keir Starmer’s Labour won’t throw under the bus – as it’s now going to screw workers, too

    Keir Starmer’s Labour Party has reportedly now watered down its pledges around workers’ rights, in a move that’s angered many. This latest news begs the question: just who does Labour represent now? The answer is clear. Starmer’s party represents the rich and powerful.

    Starmer’s Labour: the party of workers, apparently

    The Financial Times (FT) reported on Labour’s pledges around workers rights. It noted that it had seen “text” relating to a meeting on the issue of the party’s “national policy forum in Nottingham last month”. The FT noted that:

    Labour has diluted its 2021 pledge to create a single status of “worker” for all but the genuinely self-employed, regardless of sector, wage or contract type. The policy was aimed at guaranteeing “basic rights and protections” for all workers, including those in the gig economy.

    Instead of introducing the policy immediately, Labour has agreed it would consult on the proposal in government, considering how “a simpler framework” that differentiates between workers and the genuinely self-employed “could properly capture the breadth of employment relationships in the UK” and ensure workers can still “benefit from flexible working where they choose to do so”.

    Then, the FT said that:

    Labour also clarified that its previously announced plans to introduce “basic individual rights from day one for all workers”, including sick pay, parental leave and protection against unfair dismissal, will “not prevent . . . probationary periods with fair and transparent rules and processes.”

    People on Twitter were unimpressed:

    Meanwhile, deputy leader Angela Rayner got “on the front foot” by sharing Labour’s green paper on workers’ rights:

    However, the document doesn’t refute the FT‘s claims. For example, the green paper still includes the single status of worker pledge – but this doesn’t mean Labour won’t consult on it first, as the FT claims.

    It’s a similar story with employers giving workers rights like sick pay from day one. The FT claims that Labour will put this in place, but still allow bosses to put workers on trial periods where they can be sacked. The document doesn’t refute this, either – it just doesn’t mention it.

    So, just who is left for Labour to represent?

    Labour: pro-business and pro-rich people, anti-everyone else

    Previously, the party announced that if it was in government:

    So, that’s everyone who needs the NHS, benefit claimants, refugees, and the planet all thrown under the bus.

    You’d be forgiven for asking ‘What’s the point in Labour?’. Former Green Party leader Natalie Bennett did:

    Well, as the Canary previously wrote:

    Starmer wants us to know that come the next election, we won’t find anything in his manifesto that a Tory would object to. In other words, it will be a Tory Manifesto in everything but name. That is unless Starmer does the one thing Tony Blair never had the balls to do and rebrands Labour the ‘New Conservative Party’

    The Tories’ cataclysmic failure proves Labour needs to be more like the Tories

    So, all that’s left of Labour is a pro-business, pro-rich people husk of a party. From workers, to non-working people, via the NHS, climate, and planet – Labour’s shift to the centre right has thrown them all under the bus. We don’t know about you, but many of us won’t be holding our nose and voting for Starmer’s party at the next election. We’ll either be spoiling our ballots, or voting Green.

    Featured image via Sky News – YouTube

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Anger over failure of sirens to go off as wildfire swept through Lāhainā

    By Finau Fonua, RNZ Pacific journalist

    As recovery and humanitarian efforts ramp up in Hawai’i’s Maui to help evacuees from the town of Lāhainā, there is frustration among many about the response and the failure of emergency sirens to sound off during the disaster.

    The most recent update for Hawai’i’s Governor’s Office has the death toll at 110.

    “The sirens never went off which is why a lot of people died because if people had heard the sirens, they would of course have run,” said Allin Dudoit, an assistant for the New Life Church in Kahului, which has been assisting survivors with basic supplies, accommodation and counselling.

    “When they saw the smoke outside, they didn’t think they were in danger because they didn’t hear the sirens,” he added.

    “I had a nephew who made it out alive with his sisters, they got burnt a little but they made it out.”

    Dudoit told RNZ Pacific that many survivors were still in their homes when the fires struck and that fallen telephone poles prevented cars from getting out.

    Maui New Life Church receives donations for Lahaina evacuees
    Maui New Life Church receives donations for Lāhainā evacuees. Image: New Life Maui Pentecostal Church/RNZ Pacific

    “People have been telling me they only had seconds to get away, that they didn’t even have time to run down the hallway to grab a family member — that’s how bad it was.

    Telephone pole gridlock
    “So many telephone posts were down that it caused a gridlock . . . they thought they were getting away, but the fires just came in and swept through the traffic.

    “My wife’s uncle didn’t make it, he was in a truck.”

    Lahaina Evacuees attended to by Red Cross Volunteers
    Lāhainā evacuees attended to by Red Cross volunteers. Image: Scott Dalton/American Red Cross/RNZ Pacific

    More than 1000 responders — mostly from the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) — are in Maui assisting survivors and recovering bodies from Lāhainā.

    In the wake of the disaster, Hawai’i’s Governor Josh Green had announced aid, including employment insurance, financial support and housing.

    “We have over 500 hotel rooms already up and going,” said Green.

    “If you’re displaced from your job, you need to talk to the Department of Labour . . . please do that so you can get benefits and resources right away.

    “We have an AirB&B programme that will have a thousand available rooms for people to go to.

    Stable housing
    “We want everyone to be able to leave the shelters and go into stable housing which is going to take a long time.”

    Hawaii Governor Josh Green
    Hawai’i Governor Josh Green addresses Hawai’i National Guard. Image: Office of Hawaii Governor Josh Green/RNZ Pacific

    A housing crisis already exists in Hawai’i. Just last month, Green issued an emergency proclamation to expedite the construction of 50,000 new housing units by 2025.

    Lāhainā evacuee and single mother Kanani Higbee — now unemployed and homeless as a result of the disaster — told RNZ Pacific she is already considering leaving the state.

    “It’s looking like this Native Hawai’ian and her kids will have to move to another state that has jobs and affordable housing because there isn’t enough help on Maui for us,” she said.

    “Tourists are going to want to come back to visit and vacation condominiums will not want to house locals (evacuees) anymore, because the owners have high mortgages to pay,” she said.

    Lahaina Evacuee Kanani Higbee and her family.
    Kanani Higbee and her family . . . “Tourists are going to want to come back to visit and vacation condominiums will not want to house locals (evacuees) anymore.” Image: Kanani Higbee/RNZ Pacific

    “My work at the grocery store said they may place me to work somewhere else, but haven’t yet. I also work at Lāhaināluna High School . . . the principal told us that they aren’t sure when it will reopen.

    “My sister-in-law works at a hotel near the fires and they are taking good care of her — they gave her a longer amount of disaster relief pay.

    Some helped, others move
    “Some people are getting lots of help while others are going to have to move away from Maui from lack of help.” 

    Among the most active groups helping Lāhainā evacuees have been Maui’s many churches whose congregations have been raising donations and taking in evacuees.

    Baptist Church Pastor Matt Brunt said many people were still reported missing and there was a sense of despair among those who had not heard from missing relatives.

    “They’re pretty certain that people they haven’t been able to find yet are most likely going to be a part of the count of people who have died,” said Brunt.

    “It seems like people have the immediate supplies they need, but housing is definitely is the biggest need now — to get people out of these shelters and find them a place to live.

    “There’s a mixed response of how people feel about the response time of the government, but we also see just how many individuals are stepping out and meeting the needs of these people.”

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

  • ‘Spot the difference’ as Labour, the Mail, and GB News all shame themselves over refugee Channel deaths

    Six refugees from Afghanistan died in the Channel when the boat they were travelling to the UK on capsized. Predictably, the Mail on Sunday ran a suitably horrid front page, while GB News screamed about ‘taxpayer cash’ – and less predictably (but becoming more the norm), the Labour Party under Keir Starmer gave both of them a run for their money.

    Six refugees dead, yet who’s to blame?

    As Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported, on Saturday 12 August, six people died and 61 others were rescued including children. They were mostly from Afghanistan, with some coming from war-torn Sudan.

    A spokesperson for the Utopia56 humanitarian group blamed border “repression” for the tragedy. They told AFP that the difficulty of securing legal passage only:

    increases the dangerousness of crossings and pushes people to take more and more risks to reach England.

    Previously, five people died at sea and four went missing while trying to cross to Britain from France last year. In November 2021, 27 people also died when a boat capsized in the Channel.

    Of course, this is also a Europe-wide problem. As the Canary‘s Afroze Fatima Zaidi recently wrote:

    almost 2,400 refugees have died or gone missing so far in 2023 while trying to reach European shores via the Mediterranean Sea. Moreover, as the BBC reported:

    “The United Nations has registered more than 17,000 deaths and disappearances in the central Mediterranean since 2014, making it the most dangerous migrant crossing in the world”.

    The Tories (and their mates in the corporate media) in the UK are quick to blame anyone except themselves, of course. The Mail on Sunday‘s front page on 13 August was a case in point. It ran with the headline:

    Was French patrol boat to blame for migrant drownings?

    AFP reported that Dover MP Natalie Elphicke blustered that:

    These overcrowded and unseaworthy deathtraps should obviously be stopped by the French authorities from leaving the French coast in the first place.

    It shouldn’t need saying, but as a reminder, people are fleeing Afghanistan because of the mess the UK helped create:

    So, the Tories and the Mail on Sunday‘s responses were predictable. But what of the Labour Party?

    Labour: courting the right

    Sky News interviewed the shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson. Her response to the deaths of six people from Afghanistan? First, blame the Tories:

    And next, say Labour would do everything except open legal routes for refugees to get here by:

    Oh, and she dropped everyone’s favourite right-wing talking point on right-wing GB News – that the asylum system is costing the good-old British taxpayer a “fortune”:

    The same line former Brexit Party MEP Ben Habib used:

    The fact Labour are now sending front-bench members onto GB News says a lot about the kind of voter it wants to attract.

    Colonialist UK: where Ukrainians matter more than Afghans

    Back in the real world, the six people who drowned will likely have families mourning in Afghanistan. It didn’t have to be this way. The government has a resettlement scheme for Afghans in place – yet it has barely let anyone in:

    Compare the six people from Afghanistan the government has resettled with the 10,000 Ukrainians that we accepted a week in May 2022. As LBC host Sangita Myska summed up regarding the Tories detaining refugees on the Bibby Stockholm barge:

    if they were 39 white men from Ukraine walking up that gangplank into that barge, I’m telling you now there would be a hue and cry, the like of which you have never seen.

    As always, at the heart of this story is the underbelly of racism and colonialism that pervades UK society. As the Canary‘s Maryam Jameela previously wrote:

    It’s almost as though people in the UK don’t value and respect the lives of Black and brown people. They merely tolerate us. They don’t value us as human beings; they see us as cockroaches to keep out of the way. Ukrainian people are considered as a whole – their culture, their traditions, their communities. Black and brown people don’t get that luxury. This is because white people only consider fellow white people to have inalienable rights.

    You’d expect the Mail on Sunday and GB News to push these racist, colonialist mindsets. But Labour? Well, that’s where we’re at, now.

    Featured image via GB News – screengrab

    By Steve Topple

  • We risk being seen as the ‘nasty party’ again, warn senior Conservatives

    Moderate Tories fear the party’s attack on human rights will alienate many voters and damage the UK’s global standing

    The Conservatives risk being seen once again as the “nasty party” by trying to win votes with a divisive attack on human rights, senior party figures have warned.

    Rishi Sunak is under increasing pressure from his party this weekend over his pledge to stop the boats crossing the Channel. It follows another week that ended in Channel deaths after the capsizing of a boat, while the total number of people making the dangerous crossing since 2018 rose above the 100,000 mark.

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Diane Abbott offends the establishment again, this time by calling out a Tory MP’s racism

    MP Diane Abbott has once again come under fire in the mainstream media. Unsurprisingly, it has less to do with what she did than it does with the establishment media and politicians’ misogynoir, combined with their dislike for her politics.

    Nothing worse than criticising a Tory

    What’s worse than 41 people desperate for safe haven drowning in the sea before Western governments recognise the value of their lives? Criticising a Tory politician’s xenophobia, apparently. At least if the reactions of mainstream media, along with centrist and right-wing politicians, are anything to go by.

    On 9 August, in response to the news that 41 refugees had drowned in the Mediterranean en route to Italian shores, Abbott said in a now-deleted tweet:

    The migrants have indeed fucked off. To the bottom of the sea

    Abbott was referring to Conservative MP Lee Anderson’s comments, made earlier in the same week, that asylum seekers complaining about being housed on the Bibby Stockholm barge should “fuck off back to France”.

    But in a move that probably surprised no one who’s been paying attention, the establishment media jumped at the chance to depict Abbott in an unflattering light.

    Deliberately misplaced outrage

    Marcus Daniel, former editor-in-chief at Media Diversified, said:

    Many people saw right through the establishment narrative and highlighted the message behind Abbott’s tweet:

    And suggestions that Abbott shouldn’t have deleted the tweet received considerable support:

    Author Steve Howell noted:

    Diane Abbott and misogynoir

    Journalist Lorraine King called out the misogynoir – the combination of anti-Black racism and misogyny – faced by Black women in particular, which was evident throughout the entire debacle:

    Obviously, this isn’t the first time Abbott has faced public outrage that is entirely disproportionate to her actions:

    So recent events have been nothing if not predictable. It’s a crying shame that in a country where refugees are told to fuck off back to where they came from, Diane Abbott’s outrage is what made the headlines – and for all the wrong reasons.

    The Labour Party has already suspended Abbott over antisemitism, despite the party’s general and persistent tolerance for racism and misogynoir. What more do these people want? Just let a Black woman express her compassion and anger in peace, I beg you.

    Featured image via YouTube

    By Afroze Fatima Zaidi

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Lee Anderson’s ugly words shame Britain | Letters

    The Tory deputy chair used demeaning and disgusting language in his remarks about asylum seekers, says Alexandra Wright. Plus letters from Kevin Potter and Will King

    A week after the devastating fire that consumed Grenfell Tower in June 2017, I joined a march of silence from the library in Ladbroke Grove to Grenfell Tower.

    Nothing prepared me as I raised my eyes to look at the terrible and shocking black shell of the tower, as though transplanted from hell’s own landscape – an unsightly and menacing frame, a blind, burnt, blackened towering box, its empty glassless windows a shocking indictment of negligence and all that is morally ugly in our society.

    Continue reading…

  • A local mayor is taking the Tories to court over the Bibby Stockholm – in her capacity as a resident of Portland

    The Bibby Stockholm refugee detention barge continues to dominate the news. It has been subject to numerous protests over recent weeks. However, a local resident in Portland – where it is now docked – is taking the Tories to court over the situation. She also happens to be the local mayor.

    Bibby Stockholm: encapsulating Tory racism

    As the Canary has documented, the Bibby Stockholm has been at the eye of the storm over the Tory government’s immigration policies. We previously wrote that:

    the Home Office is planning to forcibly detain around 500 male refugees on the Bibby Stockholm. This is despite Dutch authorities’ alleged human rights abuses aboard the vessel when its government used it to detain refugees in the 2000s. The UK government’s plans have also prompted outrage from groups like Amnesty International.

    The barge was previously moored at Falmouth in Cornwall, for refurbishment. There, it and the companies operating on it saw multiple protests from local people and groups. On 18 July it reached its final destination at Portland Port in Dorset. There, the Bibby Stockholm also saw protest from people opposed to its presence – some right-wing, some not.

    On 7 August, as Sky News reported:

    The first 15 asylum seekers are now on board the controversial Bibby Stockholm barge, according to the Home Office – although the government was unable to put another 20 on the vessel.

    Support group Care4Calais had managed to help the 20 refugees resist the government forcing them onto the barge. According to Sky News, Care4Calais claimed that this number included:

    people who have disabilities, people who have had traumatic experiences crossing the sea and victims of torture and modern slavery.

    Protests have continued in Portland. However, so far the local authorities involved have failed to put up any resistance. So, Portland’s mayor has taken it upon herself (in a personal capacity) to take the government to court over the Bibby Stockholm.

    A legal challenge

    Carralyn Parkes is the mayor of Portland, a Labour councillor on Portland Town Council, and a local resident. She previously hit out at the Tories’ plans for the Bibby Stockholm. As the Guardian reported, Parkes said:

    I think it’s appalling that this government would consider putting some of the most vulnerable and traumatised people on a barge in Portland port… There isn’t the infrastructure to care for them. We don’t have a hospital. We have a GP that covers up to about 14,000 people. Portland is cut off with one road on and one road off.

    If they do house these people here, our council will treat them with love and respect, but it’s disgraceful that in the 21st century the government is thinking about housing asylum seekers on a barge.

    Now, after Dorset Council chose not to go ahead with a legal challenge, and with Portland Town Council having no statutory authority to do so, Parkes is doing it herself.

    Law firm Deighton Pierce Glynn is representing her. She will be applying for a judicial review of the Bibby Stockholm, in which the High Court will look at the evidence and decides if the government acted lawfully. Deighton Pierce Glynn said in a press release that Parkes’ legal challenge centres around the issue of planning permission. It noted that:

    Dorset Council have said publicly that they consider that planning permission is not necessary for the installation, operation and use of the barge in Dorset to accommodate asylum seekers, because the barge lies below the mean low water mark, and is therefore not within the local planning authority’s jurisdiction.

    Parkes disagrees. This is because the:

    1. Idea of a ‘low water mark’ as a boundary for planning permission should be “interpreted flexibly”. Parkes argues that in this instance, the Bibby Stockholm is in the local planning authority’s jurisdiction as it’s in the harbour.
    2. The Bibby Stockholm is attached to the land for electricity, sewage, and so on. Therefore, it is “effectively a permanent structure” like a pier, so does fall under planning rules.

    So, she is is seeking a judicial review on the grounds that planning permission was neither sought nor granted. Parkes has published a CrowdJustice page to raise the money she needs to do this. You can read and donate to that here.

    The Tories and the Bibby Stockholm: “inhuman”

    Overall, as Parkes noted:

    I think containing people on the barge is an inhumane way to treat those fleeing from war, conflict or persecution. The people who will be placed on the barge are NOT ILLEGAL because their asylum claims have already started to be processed by the Home Office. These people are asking for our protection, not our cruelty.

    It is as simple as that. Of course, it would be too much to ask the Tory-run Dorset Council to take the government to court. So, it is down to Parkes – and the public she needs support from.

    Featured image via Ashley Smith – Wikimedia, resized to 1910×1000 under licence CC BY-SA 4.0

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Legal reprieve for asylum seekers ordered to live on Dorset barge

    As first 15 people move on to Bibby Stockholm, lawyers say they are intervening to halt transfer of dozens more

    People seeking refuge who were ordered to live on a controversial giant barge have been reprieved after legal challenges claimed the vessel was unsafe and unsuitable for traumatised people.

    As the first tranche of 15 people were moved on to the Bibby Stockholm in Portland, Dorset, lawyers say they are intervening to halt the transfer of dozens more on to the 220-bedroom vessel.

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • ‘Should we cheer?’: support for asylum seekers arriving at Dorset port

    Local campaigners deliver welcome packs for people transferred to Bibby Stockholm barge in Portland

    After weeks of local strife and national buildup, the sparsely filled coaches entering the Dorset port where the Bibby Stockholm is moored were a boost to pro-refugee demonstrators.

    “Should we cheer just in case?” asked Heather, a local campaigner and member of Stand Up to Racism Dorset as a fifth, seemingly empty, coach drove into the port.

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • New documentary, human rights report allege Indonesian atrocities in West Papua

    The Paradise Bombed documentary about West Papua by Kristo Langker.

    Asia Pacific Report

    A new documentary and human rights report have documented savage attacks in 2021 by Indonesian security forces on a remote West Papuan village close to the Papua New Guinea border as part of an ongoing crackdown against growing calls for independence.

    The documentary, Paradise Bombed, and the research report made public yesterday allege that six Papuan villagers were killed in the initial attacks, a further seven were killed later when fleeing to safety, and 284 people were recorded by witnesses to have died from starvation in the months since then.

    The researchers also allege that the security forces used bombs and rockets fired by helicopters and drones in the Indonesian attacks.

    An estimated 2000 people were forced to flee into the forest and have remained in bush camps ever since, fearful of returning to their homes.

    “From 10 October 2021, there have been ongoing attacks on the Ngalum Kupel
    community by the Indonesian National Armed Forces,” said the researchers, documentary filmmaker Kristo Langker, and Matthew Jamieson of the PNG Trust.

    “The continued aggravated attacks by Indonesian military forces and apparent complicity of Indonesian authorities have profoundly impacted on the community [until] July 2023.

    “The Ngalum Kupel people have evidence that the Indonesian National Armed
    Forces are targeting the whole of the Ngalum Kupel community with modified Krusik
    mortars and Thales FZ 68 rockets.”

    Targeted villages
    The military aerial attacks were reported to have targeted a series of villages which
    are adjacent north and northwest of Kiwirok, the regional and administrative centre.
    This includes the Kiwi Mission station.

    Four community members of the Nek-speaking Ngalum Kupel ethnic tribe were eyewitnesses to the airborne rocket and bombing attacks on their villages around Kiwirok.

    “They described a drone dropping bombs together with four or five helicopters firing rockets at houses, food gardens, pigs and chickens,” the report said.

    The cover of the PNG Trust human rights report
    The cover of the PNG Trust human rights report. Image: Screenshot APR

    The witnesses named the dead victims and the displaced survivors.

    “The witnesses collected shrapnel and bombs from the initial series of attacks,
    bringing this evidence to Tumolbil in PNG,” the report said.

    “The shrapnel and bombs collected indicate that Thales FZ 68 rockets and modified Krusik mortars were used as the munitions in the military aerial attacks. The witness accounts detail the Indonesian military forces using a drone/UAV armed with modified Krusik mortars, Thales rocket FZ 68 weapon systems and military attack helicopters against an Indigenous community.”

    The report authors concluded that the Indonesia National Armed Forces — which were
    understood to be equipped with Airbus Fennec attack helicopters and Thales
    rockets systems — were “likely responsible for the helicopter components of the attacks.”

    Ngalum Kupel villagers who fled from the attacks show some of the bombs that we fired on them
    Ngalum Kupel villagers who fled from the attacks show some of the unexploded bombs that were fired on them. Image: PNG Trust report

    Wenda praises researchers
    United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) president Benny Wenda has praised the researcher and documentary maker in a statement yesterday:

    “These courageous filmmakers, Kristo Langker and friendlyjordies, have shown how bombs made in Serbia, France, and China were used to massacre my people. What happened in Kiwirok is happening across West Papua.

    “We are murdered, tortured, and raped, and then our land is stolen for resource extraction and corporate profit when we flee.

    “My heart was crying as I watched this documentary, as I was reminded of the Indonesian attack on my village in 1977. My early life was like the Kiwirok children shown in the film: my village was bombed, my family killed and brutalised, and we were forced to live in the bush for five years.

    A Ngalum Kupel village under aerial bombardment attacked by Indonesian forces on 12 October 2021
    A Ngalum Kupel village under aerial bombardment attacked by Indonesian forces on 12 October 2021. Image: PNG Trust report

    “The difference is that in 1977 no one was there with a camera to interview me — no one knows what happened to my mum, my aunt, my grandfather. But now we have video proof, and no one can deny the evidence of their own eyes.

    “Aside from the number of Kiwirok people killed by Indonesian troops — ranging between 21 and 72 — witnesses from the village say that hundreds have died of starvation while living in the bush, where they lack food, water, and adequate medical supplies.

    “Villagers attempting to return to Kiwirok have been attacked by Indonesian soldiers – shot at close range, with sniper rifles, and tortured. The names of Kiwirok residents are now added to the 60,000 — 100,000 who have been forcibly displaced by Indonesian militarisation since 2018.

    “The international community knows this is a grave humanitarian crisis, and yet still refuses to act. Why?

    “I want to alert all our diplomatic groups, the International Parliamentarians for West Papua (IPWP), the International Lawyers for West Papua (ILWP), and all West Papuan solidarity activists around the world. You must ask your governments to address this, to stop selling arms to Indonesia.

    “I also want to thank Kristo Langker and friendlyjordies for making this important documentary, and to Matthew Jamieson for producing the report on the attack. You have borne witness to the hidden genocide of my people.

    When we are finally independent, your names will be written in our history.”

    There has been no immediate response by Indonesian authorities.

    Australian academic Professor Clinton Fernandes of political studies at the University of New South Wales . . . providing context in an interview in Paradise Bombed
    Australian academic Professor Clinton Fernandes of political studies at the University of New South Wales . . . providing context in an interview in Paradise Bombed. Screenshot APR

  • RAF base-turned-refugee holding camp reports TB outbreak

    A former military base being used to hold asylum seekers and refugees has reported a tuberculosis outbreak. The controversial holding centre near Braintree, Essex, has been earmarked to hold 1700 asylum seekers, all of which will be men. The first 46 arrived in July.

    But a spokesperson refused to confirm the number of infected people and defended the controversial holding facility.

    We continue to work across government and with local authorities to look at a range of accommodation options.

    Contested refugee site

    In July, the High Court gave local councils permission to challenge the use of local former military bases like RAF Wethersfield to house asylum seekers. Home secretary Suella Braverman has said she wants asylum seekers housed in such bases to save the public purse. 

    And at the time of the High Court ruling, a Home Office spokesperson said:

    As this matter is subject to ongoing litigation it would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage.

    We remain committed to deliver accommodation on surplus military sites which are not only more affordable for taxpayers, helping to reduce the use the £6million daily cost of hotels but are also more manageable for local communities.

    But far from being about saving public cash, the policy of warehousing refugees in terrible accommodation is a function of the Tories‘ brutal anti-refugee ideology.

    Hostile environment

    In truth, the camps are one of a range of measures brought in to criminalise refugees and strip away their dignity. Are any meagre savings that might come from shoving human beings into warehouses that breed disease worth it? Another similar example is the Bibby Stockholm, a floating prison barge meant to house up to 500 asylum seekers.

    Underpinning it all, however, is the racist Tory anti-refugee bill. As the Canary has reported:

    Braverman’s bill, if enacted, would see huge changes in the way the UK handles refugees and asylum seekers. For example, anyone arriving in the UK via boat or on the back of a lorry will not be able to claim asylum. That stipulation applies even if they have come from a war-torn country, or faced repression.

    Of course, it is predictable that these plans would lead to more misery. And it’s entirely predictable that cramming people into old military bases would result in major health issues. Clearly, it’s past time that a humane and sensible approach to refugees and asylum seekers came into effect.

    Featured image via Wikimedia Commons/Glyn Baker, cropped to 1910 x 1000, licenced under CC BY 2.0

    By Joe Glenton

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Victims of Migrant Boat Tragedy Are Casualties of the US “War on Terror”

    Seeking news coverage about the Adriana, the boat crowded with some 700 people migrating to Europe to seek a better life that sank in mid-June off the coast of Greece, I googled “migrant ship” and got 483,000 search results in one second. Most of the people aboard the Adriana had drowned in the Mediterranean, among them about 100 children. I did a similar search for the Titan submersible which…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • The Bibby Stockholm may have left Cornwall, but people will continue to resist

    The now-notorious Bibby Stockholm – a barge intended to detain 500 refugees – is moored at its final destination in Dorset. There, it has seen protests from people opposed to its presence (for right-wing reasons), but also those opposed to the racism and persecution it represents. However, before it landed in Portland Port on Tuesday 18 July, it was in Cornwall – where protests were continuous. Now, the group behind many of the demos has reflected on the significance of its actions.

    Cornwall: resisting the Bibby Stockholm

    Cornwall Resists is a network of grassroots anti-fascist groups in the county. As the Canary has documented, it has been prominent in resisting both the far-right’s and the state’s racist abuse of refugees in Cornwall. More recently, it countered the far-right when racists targeted a hotel housing refugees in Newquay.

    But the group was also central to resisting the Bibby Stockholm, and the racist Tory policies it represents, while it was docked in Falmouth for a refit.

    As the Canary previously reported, the Home Office is planning to forcibly detain around 500 male refugees on the Bibby Stockholm. This is despite Dutch authorities’ alleged human rights abuses aboard the vessel when its government used it to detain refugees in the 2000s. The UK government’s plans have also prompted outrage from groups like Amnesty International.

    So, Cornwall Resists carried out numerous actions. These included:

    Overall, the multiple actions against the barge and the Tories’ policies involved around 20 groups. Actions included public meetings, mass leafleting all around Falmouth, and outreach exercises to get the wider public on board.

    Sadly, it wasn’t enough to delay, or prevent, the Bibby Stockholm’s departure on Monday 17 July.

    ‘This is not the end of our fight’

    Cornwall Resists said in a statement:

    We are are gutted the Bibby Stockholm left Falmouth without opposition. We are devastated that it is now in Portland where it’ll imprison over 500 asylum seekers in accommodation the size of parking spaces. Our hearts break for every single person who has made traumatic journeys to seek sanctuary on our shores only to be met with this government’s hostile environment policies.

    However, our hearts are full of rage at everyone who is complicit in racist border violence, from companies such as A&P who refitted the Bibby, to the arms companies that profit from weapons that devastate people’s homelands, causing so much death and destruction and forcing people to flee.

    The Bibby may be gone, but our rage will not subside.

    It may be gone, but this is not the end of our fight.

    The Bibby may be gone – but we will continue our resistance.

    Cornwall Resists also noted the Tories’ purchase of yet more barges to detain refugees on. It said:

    If this government thinks it can bring another prison ship to be refitted in Falmouth, we will make them regret that decision. We stand ready to support anti-fascists in Portland, taking a stand against the Bibby and against the far-right. There is no unity, as some groups suggest, with racists who oppose the barge.

    The Bibby is just one manifestation of the hostile environment. We stand against racists. We stand with refugees. And we stand with our anti-fascist comrades.

    Cornwall: vive la révolution!

    The group may not have stopped the Bibby Stockholm; however, as it noted:

    Cornwall Resists is about so much more than one prison ship. We will always do whatever it takes to oppose fascists and border violence, but we also want to work in and with our community to create change. We want to build an autonomous anti-capitalist Kernow; a Kernow that is run for us, the people who live here, not second home owners and rich tourists.

    We are sick of not being able to afford to live in our communities and we are sick of only being offered precarious seasonal work servicing the needs of those who treat Cornwall as a playground for the rich. And we are sick of wealthy developers profiting from our lands and devastating our beautiful landscape.

    What we’re seeing in Cornwall is a flourishing, anti-fascist and anti-capitalist movement – as well as one of growing self-determination. Cornwall Resists should be proud of its actions. It will be interesting, and encouraging, to see what the group does next.

    Featured image via Cornwall Resists

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • HMIP slams treatment of disabled and refugee children at young offenders institute

    The independent prisons’ inspector has slammed a young offenders institution for its treatment of children under its care – including disabled ones. The lengthy report on Cookham Wood has identified multiple failings, with the boss of the inspectorate telling the government it has to act. However, the situation poses bigger questions about the UK’s prison system – as this is hardly an isolated incident.

    Sky News reported that:

    Hundreds of homemade weapons were found at a young offender institution “rife” with violence, according to a damning report.

    Cookham Wood facility in Rochester, Kent, was put into emergency measures after prison inspectors uncovered “appalling” conditions during an April visit.

    BBC News, the Evening Standard, the Independent, and the Sun all ran with the violence angle. However, what all of them failed to mention was that over a third of the children were disabled or neurodiverse, nearly a fifth were refugees or asylum seekers, and nearly two-thirds had been through the care system.

    Cookham Wood: failing on all counts

    Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) said in a statement that [ED: press release]:

    Cookham Wood held only 77 boys at the time of inspection, whose care was being overseen by around 360 staff, including 24 senior leaders.

    That means there are over four staff members per child. Yet staggeringly, despite this HMIP found outcomes for children were:

    • poor for safety
    • not sufficiently good for care
    • poor for purposeful activity
    • not sufficiently good for resettlement.

    Despite the Youth Custody Service appointing a new governor in February, this is a stagnation, or on one measure a worsening, in conditions since HMIP last inspected Cookham Wood:

    Cookham Wood inspection outcomes

    The report described that:

    • Staff kept 90% of children apart from other ones.
    • Staff had found more than 200 weapons in the months leading up to the inspection.
    • Living units were dirty.
    • Equipment was broken.

    ‘Hardly any meaningful human interaction’

    HMIP said in a statement that:

    Rather than engaging in conflict resolution, leaders had introduced extensive instructions on which boys were known to be in conflict and needed to be kept apart from each other…This undermined the provision of any meaningful regime, with access to education and other activities determined by which children could safely mix, rather than their individual needs or abilities.

    Despite this, levels of violence remained high and some boys spent days on end languishing in their cells in response to incidents. During that time, most had hardly any meaningful human interaction. Other children were separated for their own protection, and inspectors met two boys who had been subjected to solitary confinement for more than 100 days because staff could not guarantee their safety.

    In the report, HMIP logged even more damning findings. For example, it found:

    • There had been 34 instances of self-harm in the previous six months – with two children each carrying out 10 of these incidents.
    • 64% of children had been verbally abused by others; 35% subject to physical abuse.
    • Children put in isolation had received, on average, less than three minutes of education per day.
    • “56% of children had been verbally abused by staff, 37% had been threatened or intimidated, and 29% said they had been physically assaulted”.
    • 41% of children were locked in their cells on school days, with only a 30 minute break to get food and go outside.
    • Staff had cancelled 24% of all family visits for the children in the 12 months before HMIP visited.

    But it’s the experience of marginalised children which is particularly damning.

    Marginalised kids: hit hardest at Cookham Wood

    Of Cookham Wood’s population, 21% were adults at the time of HMIP’s inspection. Moreover:

    • 58% of children were on remand – that is, they had not been convicted of a crime, and might never be.
    • 61% of children were from Black, Brown, or other minority ethnic backgrounds.
    • 37% of children were disabled, learning disabled, or neurodiverse.
    • 65% had been through the care system.
    • 10% were from the Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller (GRT) community.

    For the latter, their experience was much worse. The HMIP report said:

    Only 17% [of disabled children] compared with 55% of other children said it was normally quiet enough to relax or sleep at night and just 22% compared with 66% that they usually spent more than two hours out of their cells on weekdays. These children would have had a range of learning disabilities or neurodiverse conditions and their poorer perceptions needed to be understood and addressed.

    Then, Cookham Wood was also detaining what HMIP called 15 “foreign national children” – likely to be refugees or asylum seekers. The report said:

    Services for these children had deteriorated since the previous inspection. Home Office immigration enforcement staff no longer visited for immigration surgeries, though this was mitigated in part by quarterly visits from the immigration prison team… Children with no family in the UK could have a free five-minute phone call each month and one child was using this opportunity.

    However, the report failed to spell out the fact that 15 refugee or asylum-seeking children equated to just under 20% of the total number being detained.

    The report, though, identified the polar opposite of the state of Cookham Wood.

    Blame the bosses, not the kids

    The Cedar unit is a 17-bed resettlement block, which is separate from Cookham Wood’s main building. HMIP said in its report:

    The one area of strength at the establishment was Cedar unit (the resettlement/release on temporary licence unit). The unit had benefited from consistent leadership from a custodial manager with a clear vision who worked effectively with leaders in the resettlement team to implement an innovative approach to release on temporary licence for education, work and promoting family ties. Cedar unit was an oasis of calm and effective behaviour management in comparison to the rest of the establishment, and for the eight children living on the unit, it provided a potential opportunity to change their lives for the better.

    It beggars belief that one part of Cookham Wood can be so different from another. However, HMIP clearly identified what the problem was: the bosses:

    The newly appointed governor had been in post for about six weeks and he indicated to us that he was aware of the problems in the establishment. The leadership team, however, lacked cohesion and had failed to drive up standards. In this context we were also surprised to be told that since the governor had been appointed, no senior leader from the Youth Custody Service had visited to make their own assessment of the establishment’s evident failings.

    It noted:

    Many staff were open about how little confidence they had in leaders and managers. We were informed of some staffing shortfalls, but also that around 360 staff were currently employed at Cookham Wood. This included 24 senior leaders. In addition, there were several more working for partners in health care, education, and other areas.

    Abolition is the only answer

    HMIP concluded that:

    The fact that such rich a resource was delivering such an unacceptable service to just 77 children indicated that much of it was being wasted, underused or needed reorganising to improve outcomes at the site.

    The boss of HMIP Charlie Taylor said:

    These findings would be deeply troubling in any prison, but given that Cookham Wood holds children, they were completely unacceptable. As a result, I had no choice but to write to the secretary of state immediately after the inspection and invoke the urgent notification process.

    The other problem with Cookham Wood is that its appalling conditions and treatment of people are hardly isolated in the prison estate. As the Canary reported, HMIP recently described conditions at Eastwood Park women’s and young offenders’ prison in Bristol as “terrible” and “wholly unsuitable”. At least four people have died at the prison in the past year.

    As Tom Anderson wrote:

    it is not just one rotten prison, or a few violent officers… The problem is the whole carceral system, which is hardwired to dehumanise and brutalise the people it imprisons.

    Of course, the problem is bigger than that – it is our entire criminal justice system which is broken. When somewhere like Cookham Wood can detain children – many of them marginalised and vulnerable – in such appalling conditions, it’s a damning indictment of the prison system.

    But perhaps the bigger question is, how have we, as a society, reached a point where the state is so readily imprisoning children, anyway?

    Featured image via Channel 4 News – YouTube

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • UK illegal migration bill will have profound consequences, warns UN body

    Rishi Sunak’s legislation faces criticism as barge that will house asylum seekers arrives in Portland

    Rishi Sunak’s migration bill “will have profound consequences for people in need of international protection”, a UN body has warned, as protesters greeted the arrival of the first barge that will house asylum seekers under government plans.

    The criticism followed Monday night’s crushing of the final resistance in the House of Lords to the plans, as the Conservative frontbench saw off five further changes to the bill including modern slavery protections and child detention limits.

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • Guatemala’s War on Journalists

    Reveal revisits a story produced in collaboration with a Guatemalan journalist who is now in prison. José Rubén Zamora was jailed last summer after his newspaper, elPeriódico, published more than 100 stories about corruption within Guatemala’s government.

    Corruption is a longstanding problem in Guatemala, and it’s intertwined with U.S. policy in Central America. At times, the U.S. has had a corrupting influence on Guatemalan politics; at others, it has supported transparency. This week’s show looks at the root causes of corruption and impunity in Guatemala and how they have prompted generations of Guatemalans to flee their country and migrate north.

    Veteran radio journalist Maria Martin takes us to Huehuetenango, a province near Guatemala’s border with Mexico. For decades, residents have been migrating to the U.S. to help support families struggling with poverty. We then connect the migration outflow to U.S. policy during the Cold War and its support of brutal dictatorships in Guatemala that were plagued by corruption.

    Then Reveal’s Anayansi Diaz-Cortes introduces us to a crusading prosecutor named Iván Velásquez. In the early 2000s, Velásquez was tasked with running an international anti-corruption commission in Guatemala, known by its Spanish acronym, CICIG. Its mandate was to root out corruption and improve the lives of Guatemalans so they wouldn’t feel compelled to leave their homes. Velásquez had a reputation for jailing presidents and paramilitaries, but met his match when he went after Jimmy Morales, a television comedian who was elected president in 2015. Morales found an ally in then-U.S. President Donald Trump, whose administration helped Morales dismantle CICIG.

    With CICIG gone, journalists were left to expose government corruption – journalists like Zamora, who was arrested last summer on trumped-up charges. Diaz-Cortes speaks with Zamora’s son about his father’s arrest and the state of journalism in Guatemala.

    This is an update of an episode that originally aired in September 2020.

    This post was originally published on Reveal.

  • Aid group’s rescue ship held ‘indefinitely’ in Italy, leaving migrants with increasingly few options

    Aid group SOS Mediterranee has accused Italy of hampering its work. Italian authorities ordered SOS Mediterranee’s migrant rescue ship Ocean Viking to be held “for an indefinite period” in port.

    The aid group said that officials had cited:

    a very small number of technical and administrative shortcomings.

    The NGO’s co-founder and director Sophie Beau told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that having the ship blocked at port:

    prevents us from carrying out rescue operations.

    Beau explained that Italian authorities were creating a “very harmful” environment for civil society groups looking to aid migrants.

    Since last year, Italy’s government has been led by far-right prime minister Georgia Meloni. Her coalition includes Matteo Salvini of the anti-Migrant League party. They have continually cracked down on help for migrants.

    ‘Zealous, redundant and repetitive’

    After disembarking 57 people rescued off the Libyan coast on 7 July, Ocean Viking was subject to a seven-hour inspection by port authorities on 11 July.

    The Italian coastguard did not immediately respond to AFP‘s questions about the inspection. But Beau said that the problem was related to the Ocean Viking’s 14 life rafts. She said:

    The inspectors asked us whether there were 14 qualified people to deploy the rafts in case the ship had to be abandoned.

    We don’t understand why this point had never been raised at the inspections carried out until now.

    Indeed, Beau said that they had been subject to seven inspections over the past four years alone. She explained that these inspections are excessive:

    We have faced really extremely frequent inspections, extremely zealous, redundant and repetitive.

    While the Ocean Viking is stuck in port, “there is an enormous need for rescue provision, a shocking lack of ships in the zone” where migrants cross the central Mediterranean, Beau said.

    Ocean Viking points to rising numbers of deaths among migrants attempting the crossing to EU territory since the start of 2023.

    Number of aids organisations speak out

    On 13 July, five charities that assist migrants said they had complained to the European Commission about a new Italian law forcing rescue ships in the Mediterranean to dock in ports assigned to them. Often, they’re told to dock some distance away, which requires days of extra sailing.

    Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Oxfam Italia, SOS Humanity, Association for Juridical Studies on Immigration and EMERGENCY have all argued that the legislation breaks EU and international laws regarding sea rescues.

    Doctors Without Borders said:

    NGO vessels engaged in search and rescue activities have been subjected to repeated inspections by Port State Control officers and prolonged administrative detentions, even in the absence of clear and proven dangers to persons, property or the environment.

    Italy also passed a law in February limiting charity-run ships carrying out more than one sea rescue at a time and forcing them to dock at an assigned port.

    An SOS Humanity captain said:

    The 199 people we recently rescued, including pregnant women and babies, were forced to travel around 1,300 km to disembark in Italy, although other Italian ports were much closer.

    The International Organization for Migration (IOM) says more than 27,600 people have disappeared in the Mediterranean since 2014. A resolution from EU lawmakers said that:

    For 2023, the figure has already reached 1,875 people dead or missing.

    Featured image via YouTube screenshot/FRANCE 24 English

    Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse

    By Maryam Jameela

    This post was originally published on Canary.