Syrian asylum-seeker plans suicide if sent to Rwanda

The man, identified as Khaled, is being held at Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centre with a number of other people due to be sent to Rwanda. (Reuters/File Photo)
The man, identified as Khaled, is being held at Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centre with a number of other people due to be sent to Rwanda. (Reuters/File Photo)
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Updated 05 May 2024
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Syrian asylum-seeker plans suicide if sent to Rwanda

Syrian asylum-seeker plans suicide if sent to Rwanda
  • Man identified as Khaled among more than 100 people set to be sent to East African country
  • ‘I will not be safe in Rwanda. If they manage to send me there, I will kill myself on arrival’

LONDON: A Syrian asylum-seeker in the UK set to be deported to Rwanda has said he will kill himself if sent to the East African country.

The man, identified as Khaled, is being held at Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centre with a number of other people due to be sent to Rwanda.

He told The Guardian: “Everyone is so stressed in here because of Rwanda. We can’t eat and we can’t sleep. I was displaced in Syria for nine years and was imprisoned there and I was also detained and tortured in Libya.

“Being in detention is very triggering for me. What matters to asylum-seekers is to be safe. I will not be safe in Rwanda. If they manage to send me there, I will kill myself on arrival in that country.”

Khaled has been in the UK since 2022, and discovered he could be sent to Kigali for the first time in February 2023. He was detained with a view to removal last week.

“They arrested me and put me in handcuffs in a police cell. The same thing happened to two other people who were reporting — Iraqi Kurds. After we were taken out of the cell we were handcuffed again and taken in a van to the detention centre,” he said. 

“I have been trying to see a doctor in the detention centre because of an infection in my leg I need antibiotics for but so far I haven’t managed to get an appointment.”

Another asylum-seeker who did not give his name, and who arrived in the UK from Sudan in 2022, told The Guardian that he had traveled via the Mediterranean and the boat he had been on almost sank.

“I would have been happy to claim asylum in Italy but Italian officials did not fingerprint me and told me to move on to France. There I was told it would be four years before they could consider my asylum claim so I waited in the jungle in Calais to cross to the UK. Crossing the Channel in an overcrowded boat was even more terrifying than crossing the Mediterranean,” he said.

“When I heard about the government’s plans to send asylum-seekers to Rwanda at the beginning of 2023 I was very frightened.

“I escaped from an African country because it was not safe and I am very scared to be deported to another African country because I know it will not be safe for me.

“I was arrested last week when I went to report in Newcastle. They didn’t mention Rwanda until I reached the detention centre and at first just said ‘We are deporting you to a safe third country.’”

The two men told The Guardian that they were struggling to contact legal representatives while in detention, with a seven-day deadline imposed by the Home Office for those wishing to appeal the decision to send them to Rwanda.

The charity Care4Calais has published data suggesting that of the more than 100 people detained to be sent to Rwanda, most come from war zones.

The charity’s head of legal access, Hannah Harwood, said: “The people detained have not had their asylum claims processed, and it’s clear from the first cohort we are in contact with that if their claims were processed they would probably be granted refugee status in the UK. It reaffirms how shameful the Rwanda plan is and why it must be stopped.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “We take the welfare of people in our care extremely seriously. There are robust safeguarding measures in place to ensure everyone is treated with dignity and has the support they need.

“All detained individuals have access to a mobile phone, internet and landline telephones so they can keep in contact with friends, family and other support.”


Israeli military to remain in Gaza for years, minister says

Israeli military to remain in Gaza for years, minister says
Updated 29 November 2024
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Israeli military to remain in Gaza for years, minister says

Israeli military to remain in Gaza for years, minister says

LONDON: Israel’s food minister, Avi Dichter, said that the Israeli military would remain in Gaza for many years to fight against Hamas recruits, the British national daily The Guardian reported on Friday.

“I think that we are going to stay in Gaza for a long time. I think most people understand that (Israel) will be years in some kind of West Bank situation where you go in and out and maybe you remain along Netzarim (corridor),” Dichter said.

Israeli reservists who recently served in Gaza described to The Guardian the scale of the new military infrastructure built in the territory by Israel. This includes extensive new camps and roads across a swath of northern and central Gaza.

A demobilized officer said that he had spent days demolishing houses in Gaza to clear more ground for military bases in Gaza’s Netzarim corridor.

“That was the only mission. There was not a single construction left that was taller than my waist anywhere (in the corridor), except our bases and observation towers,” he said.

Israeli military strikes killed at least 21 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, medics said, as tanks pushed deeper into the north and south of the territory.

The escalation came a day after Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah began a ceasefire in Lebanon, halting more than a year of hostilities and raising hopes among many Palestinians in Gaza for a similar deal with Hamas, which ruled the territory from 2007 until the current conflict.

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, has repeatedly said that Hamas must be completely destroyed and Israel must retain lasting control over parts of Gaza.

Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed nearly 44,200 people and displaced nearly all the territory’s population at least once, Gaza officials say. Most victims are civilians.


France arrests 26 as South Asian migrant trafficking ring smashed

France arrests 26 as South Asian migrant trafficking ring smashed
Updated 29 November 2024
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France arrests 26 as South Asian migrant trafficking ring smashed

France arrests 26 as South Asian migrant trafficking ring smashed
  • The traffickers are suspected of having smuggled several thousand people from India, Sri Lanka and Nepal into France since September 2021
  • The network generated millions of euros in illegal profits, which were laundered through construction firms, gold trafficking and informal transfers

PARIS: French authorities arrested 26 people and seized 11 million euros ($12 million) as they smashed a migrant trafficking ring suspected of bringing several thousand people from South Asia into France, border police told AFP on Thursday.
Charging between 15,000 and 26,000 euros per person, the traffickers are suspected of having smuggled several thousand people from India, Sri Lanka and Nepal into France since September 2021, the force said.
Authorities estimate the network generated several million euros in illegal profits, which were laundered through construction companies, gold trafficking and informal transfers of money back to South Asia.
The arrests took place between March and November 2024, said Julien Gentile, director of the French border force at Paris Charles De Gaulle airport.
“The smugglers facilitated migrants’ travel to the European Union via Dubai or African states, while providing them with illegally obtained tourist, work or medical visas,” said Gentile.
The head of the network is still at large, with France’s request for his extradition from Dubai yet to be agreed, according to the border force.
Of the 26 men arrested, 15 were placed in pre-trial detention with seven under judicial supervision.
The remaining four, who were recently arrested, were to be presented on Thursday to the investigating judge.
The 11 million euros’ worth of assets included properties, luxury cars, jewelry and gold.
Those arrested are accused of belonging to different levels of the gang, ranging from smugglers to money launderers and shady finance brokers.
“This is the exceptional nature of the case,” Gentile added.
Details of the investigation by France’s Office for the Fight against the Illicit Traffic of Migrants, were released with migration becoming a key issue for French political parties.
The conservative government that took office in September has said it will clampdown, while France has also faced pressure over undocumented migrants crossing the Channel to Britain from its northern coast.
Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau was to visit the Calais region on Friday for talks with local mayors on the migrant crisis. At least 72 undocumented migrants have died this year trying to cross the Channel.
The mayors have asked for more police and a tougher clampdown on the smuggling gangs.
Retailleau is also to go to London on December 8-9 for talks on the migrants.
Human trafficking carries a potential sentence of up to 20 years in France.
In December 2023, a plane carrying hundreds of Indian passengers was grounded for days at Vatry airport east of Paris over concerns it was part of a human trafficking scheme.
The plane had taken off from the United Arab Emirates and was detained after an anonymous tipoff.


Bangladeshi politicians urge calm after sectarian clash

Bangladeshi politicians urge calm after sectarian clash
Updated 29 November 2024
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Bangladeshi politicians urge calm after sectarian clash

Bangladeshi politicians urge calm after sectarian clash
  • Religious relations have been turbulent in the Muslim-majority nation of 170 million people

DHAKA: Bangladesh’s leading political parties have called for calm following widespread unrest in the country triggered by the killing of a lawyer during clashes between Hindu protesters and security forces.
Public prosecutor Saiful Islam Alif died Tuesday as angry supporters of outspoken Hindu monk Chinmoy Krishna Das Brahmachari — arrested for allegedly disrespecting the Bangladeshi flag during a rally — battled with police when he was denied bail.
Religious relations have been turbulent in the Muslim-majority nation of 170 million people since a student-led revolution in August toppled autocratic ex-premier minister Sheikh Hasina, who then fled to neighboring India.
The Bangladeshi National Party (BNP) and Jamaat-e-Islami — Hasina’s two main opponents during her 15-year tenure — have urged restraint.
BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir was quoted Friday by the daily Prathom Alo as having said that a “defeated fascist group” was behind the latest flare-up, a reference to Hasina’s Awami League.
“This incident is completely unwarranted,” he told the newspaper.
“We strongly condemn it and urge everyone to approach the situation calmly.”
Shafiqur Rahman of Jemaat blamed the ongoing unrest on a “vested group plotting to destabilize the country.”
Street protests have nonetheless been called to demand a ban on the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), a transnational Hindu religious group also known as the Hare Krishna movement that Das reportedly belonged to.
Hefazat-e-Islam, a collective of Islamic seminaries, held a rally Friday to demand the group’s prohibition, alleging it was a front to return Hasina to power on behalf of India, her ousted government’s biggest benefactor.
“There is a meticulously designed plan to instigate communal riots in Bangladesh and ISKCON is here to implement it on behalf of India and Sheikh Hasina,” Mamunul Haque of Hefazat-e-Islam told supporters during the rally.
Hasina demanded Das’s “immediate release” from custody earlier this week and called his arrest “illegal,” BBC reported.
The ex-premier also condemned the killing of the lawyer, calling it a “blatant violation of human rights.”
India has described Das’s arrest and denial of bail as “unfortunate.”
But ISKCON denies any connections to Das.
“We expelled Chinmoy long before the case was filed against him for breaching ISKCON’s discipline,” the group’s Bangladesh president Satya Ranjan Barai said on Friday.
“He was relieved of his duties, but he defied the order and continued his activities.”
Bangladesh’s top court on Thursday dismissed a petition calling for a ban on ISKCON.
“Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Christians... believe in coexistence, and this harmony will not be broken,” the court ruled.


Amazon workers in India join Black Friday strike action for better wages and working conditions

Amazon workers in India join Black Friday strike action for better wages and working conditions
Updated 29 November 2024
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Amazon workers in India join Black Friday strike action for better wages and working conditions

Amazon workers in India join Black Friday strike action for better wages and working conditions
  • Walkout on Black Friday was repeated at Amazon warehouses in other countries as workers call for higher wages, better working conditions and union rights
  • Nitesh Das, a union leader, said the workers took to the streets because they want the government to take up their cause

NEW DELHI: Amazon staff in India have joined strike action calling for better wages and working conditions as the company prepares for one of the busiest shopping periods of the year .
About 200 warehouse workers and delivery drivers rallied in the capital, New Delhi, under a “Make Amazon Pay” banner. Some donned masks of Amazon chief Jeff Bezos and joined hands against the Seattle-based company’s practices.
The walkout on Black Friday, which starts one of the biggest shopping weekends of the year, was repeated at Amazon warehouses in other countries as workers called for higher wages, better working conditions, and union rights.
There was no immediate statement by Amazon India.
“Our basic salary is 10,000 rupees ($120), which should be at least 25,000 rupees ($295),” said Manish Kumar, 25, a warehouse worker who joined the New Delhi protest. “And the environment there is to work under pressure,” he added.
Nitesh Das, a union leader, said the workers took to the streets because they want the government to take up their cause.
A statement from the Amazon India Workers Union said similar protests are planned in other parts of India as well as in other countries, including the United States, Germany, Japan, and Brazil. The demonstrations will call on Amazon to pay its workers fairly, respect their right to join unions, and commit to environmental sustainability, it said.
The union said it would submit a memorandum highlighting its demands to India’s Labor Minister Mansukh Mandaviya.
The gig economy has become huge in India due to its fast economic growth, but workers face low wages and difficult working conditions.
India’s National Human Rights Commission sent a notice to Amazon in June 2023 after local media reports that workers were being made to work without breaks during the peak hot summer season. Amazon India denied the charge.


Six children among 12 killed in Sri Lanka, storm heads to India

Six children among 12 killed in Sri Lanka, storm heads to India
Updated 29 November 2024
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Six children among 12 killed in Sri Lanka, storm heads to India

Six children among 12 killed in Sri Lanka, storm heads to India
  • More than 335,000 people in Sri Lanka have been forced to flee after their homes were flooded
  • The government said it deployed over 2,700 military personnel to help in relief operations

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan rescuers on Thursday recovered the drowned corpses of six children, taking the number killed in torrential rains to 12, as a powerful but slow-moving storm headed toward India.
More than 335,000 people in Sri Lanka have been forced to flee after their homes were flooded, Colombo’s Disaster Management Center (DMC) said.
It said two men driving a tractor and trailer which had been transporting the six children in the eastern Amara district when it was swept away in floods, were still missing. Searches continue for them.
Indian weather officials said there was a “possibility” that the deep depression over the southwest Bay of Bengal could develop into a cyclonic storm.
Cyclones — the equivalent of hurricanes in the North Atlantic or typhoons in the northwestern Pacific — are a regular and deadly menace in the region.
Having skirted the coast of Sri Lanka, it was now moving north toward India’s southern Tamil Nadu state.
The India Meteorological Department said it was expected to hit Tamil Nadu and Puducherry city’s coastline on Saturday morning as a “deep depression” with winds “gusting up to 70 kph (43 mph).”
Sri Lanka’s DMC said some 335,155 people were seeking temporary shelter in public buildings after their homes were swamped.
Nearly 100 homes had been completely destroyed while another 1,700 had been badly damaged due to rains as well as mudslides.
The government said it deployed over 2,700 military personnel to help in relief operations.
Deadly rain-related floods and landslides are common across South Asia, but experts say climate change is increasing their frequency and severity.