Tighter asylum deportation rules take effect in Japan/node/2527356/world
Tighter asylum deportation rules take effect in Japan
Critics have raised concerns over the transparency of Japan’s screening process, warning that the new rules could heighten the risk of applicants facing persecution after repatriation. (AP)
Tighter asylum deportation rules take effect in Japan
World’s fourth largest economy has long been criticized for the low number of asylum applications it accepts
Revised law ‘meant to swiftly deport those without permission to stay, and help reduce long-term detentions’
Updated 10 June 2024
AFP
TOKYO: Japanese laws making it easier for the country to deport failed asylum seekers took effect Monday, with campaigners warning that the new system will put lives at risk.
The world’s fourth largest economy has long been criticized for the low number of asylum applications it accepts. Last year refugee status was granted to a record 303 people, mostly from Afghanistan.
Now the government can deport asylum seekers rejected three times, under immigration law changes enacted last year.
Previously, those seeking refugee status had been able to stay in the country while they appealed decisions, regardless of the number of attempts made.
The revised law is “meant to swiftly deport those without permission to stay, and help reduce long-term detentions,” justice minister Ryuji Koizumi said in May.
“Those who need protection will be protected, while those who violate the rules will be dealt with sternly,” he added.
Critics have raised concerns over the transparency of Japan’s screening process, warning that the new rules could heighten the risk of applicants facing persecution after repatriation.
“We’re strongly concerned that the enforcement of this law will allow refugees who have fled to Japan to be deported, and endanger their lives and safety,” the Japan Association for Refugees said on social media platform X.
The group called for a “fair” system to be established instead that “protects asylum seekers in Japan according to the international standards.”
As of May, more than 2,000 Ukrainians were living in Japan under a special framework that recognizes them as “evacuees.”
Muslim women break taboos navigating east London’s waterways
The initiative has grown in the last two years from a pilot project with 18 women to a group of around 70
Updated 1 min 3 sec ago
AFP
London: Paddle dipped gently below mossy water, Dilruba Begum guided the kayak and a trainee sat in front of her down a canal in east London. “Out here, you can be anyone,” she whispered as she lifted the paddle up to allow the kayak to drift with the current. Two years ago, when Dilruba, 43, was swamped with mothering duties, a friend told her about a free, women-only program to learn paddle sports near her home. Now she is a qualified paddle sport instructor, after taking part in the program run by local housing and community regeneration body Poplar HARCA. Dilruba and her fellow paddlers are breaking new ground, encouraging women from London’s less advantaged eastern neighborhoods to embrace water sports that many felt were inaccessible to ethnic minorities like them with stretched resources and limited leisure time. The initiative has grown in the last two years from a pilot project with 18 women to a group of around 70. Among them are women who are “working, some are full-time mums, some haven’t been out of the house in years,” Dilruba told AFP. Nine of them, including Dilruba and Atiyya Zaman, 38, have qualified as instructors and started London’s first boat club with an all-female, Muslim committee. On a rain-soaked September afternoon, the pair led their first session, teaching a small group of women how to use kayaks and inflatable paddle boards. Life vests secured, they demonstrated different maneuvers to participants on a small pontoon before lowering themselves into kayaks to begin the session on Limehouse Cut. The canal runs through Poplar and Bow in Tower Hamlets, one of the city’s most deprived and densely populated boroughs. One aim of the initiative is to improve local people’s access to “blue spaces” in Poplar, which lies at the heart of 6.5 kilometers (3.7 miles) of uninterrupted waterways. “I live next to the canal, and I used to see people going (on it) all the time. I did always wonder how it would feel if I could do that?” said Atiyya, bobbing up and down on an orange kayak. Jenefa Hamid, from Poplar HARCA, said many people from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds that make up most of the local community “thought water sport was not something that’s typically for them.” This could be due to a fear of drowning, as well as cultural and religious reasons. “I think it is just feeling socially excluded,” she added. According to Sport England data from 2017 to 2019, less than one percent of Asian (excluding Chinese) adults participated in water sports, and all BAME communities were under-represented in swimming activities. Some of the women in the group “haven’t even been in the water before,” said Atiyya. “When I started, especially women within this community, we would never do this sort of thing.” Making the program women-only and allowing different attire made it welcoming to local Muslim women. Naseema Begum, 47, who was part of the initial cohort and is now an instructor, said there was a “taboo” preventing Asian women and those wearing headscarves from taking part in water sports. Wearing a niqab, Naseema wanted to show that “you can wear anything and go in the water. As long as you’ve got the right equipment... anyone can take part.” Women were also attracted by the affordability. Private boating clubs are “quite unaffordable if you’ve got a family to maintain,” said Naseema, adding that she could not justify spending the amount on her own “leisure.” Naseema now chairs the “Oar and Explore” boat club. With Atiyya and Dilruba, they hope to raise enough funds to acquire their own boats and a storage space by a new pontoon planned for the area. “The way I felt, the enjoyment and the confidence that I’ve built from this, I want to pass it on to others and tell them there’s more to life,” said Dilruba. Part of the enjoyment for her was a rare chance to “just sit down with your thoughts, not think about anything else.” Atiyya agreed. “During Covid, it was quite hard with three young children at home, and then with work, it was very stressful. This was a way to escape,” she said. Dilruba credits the instructors for helping her become one herself — and opening up a new world. “They have lifted us up and made us into some new people, with new experiences... new skills we never thought we would have,” she said.
More than 60 dead from storm Helene as rescue, cleanup efforts grow
Updated 21 min 3 sec ago
Cedar Key: Rescuers struggled on Saturday with washed-out bridges and debris-strewn roads in the search for survivors of devastating Storm Helene, which killed at least 63 people across five states and caused massive power outages. Helene slammed into Florida Thursday as a Category 4 hurricane and surged north, gradually weakening but leaving in its wake toppled trees, downed power lines and mudslide-wrecked homes. Federal emergencies were declared in six states — Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee — with more than 800 personnel from the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) deployed. Now classified as a “post-tropical cyclone,” the remnants of the storm are expected to continue inundating the Ohio Valley and central Appalachians through Sunday, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC). In affected communities across the eastern coast and midwest, storm victims and volunteers toting trash bags, mops and hammers tried to repair what they could and clean up the rest. “There’s only a couple businesses open. They have limited supply. So I’m just worried about families that have kids and stuff like that, getting somewhere to stay and have something to eat,” said Steven Mauro, a resident of Valdosta, Georgia. At least 24 people died in South Carolina, 17 in Georgia, 11 in Florida, 10 in North Carolina and one in Virginia, according to local authorities and media tallied by AFP. The National Weather Service said conditions would “continue to improve today following the catastrophic flooding over the past two days.” But it warned of possible “long-duration power outages.” “Main issue is the electrical power,” said another man from Valdosta who declined to give his name. “With the whole town down, the traffic lights are out. So driving around... people should just stay home.” More than 2.6 million customers were still without electricity across 10 states from Florida in the southeast to Indiana in the midwest as of early Sunday morning, according to tracker poweroutage.us. Helene blew into Florida’s northern Gulf shore with powerful winds of 140 miles (225 kilometers) per hour. Even as it weakened into a post-tropical cyclone, it has wreaked havoc. Record levels of flooding threatened to break several dams, but Tennessee emergency officials said Saturday that the Nolichucky Dam — which had been close to breaching — was no longer in danger of giving way and people downriver could return home. Massive flooding was reported in Asheville, in western North Carolina. Governor Ray Cooper called it “one of the worst storms in modern history” to hit his state. There were reports of remote towns in the Carolina mountains without power or cell service, their roads washed away or buried by mudslides. In Cedar Key, an island city of 700 people off Florida’s Gulf Coast, several pastel-colored wooden homes were destroyed by record storm surges and ferocious winds. “I’ve lived here my whole life, and it breaks my heart to see it. We’ve not really been able to catch a break,” said Gabe Doty, a Cedar Key official, referring to two other hurricanes in the past year. In South Carolina, the dead included two firefighters, officials said. Georgia’s 17 deaths included an emergency responder, according to state officials. In the Tennessee town of Erwin, more than 50 patients and staff trapped on a hospital roof by surging floodwaters had to be rescued by helicopters. In a statement Saturday, President Joe Biden called Helene’s devastation “overwhelming.” Biden was briefed by FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell and Homeland Security Adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall on “the tragic loss of life across the region,” the White House said. Criswell, who went to Florida on Saturday to survey damage, will visit Georgia on Sunday and North Carolina on Monday. September has been an unusually wet month around the world, with scientists linking some extreme weather events to human-caused global warming. The North Atlantic hurricane season runs from the beginning of June to the end of November, with most of the severe storms historically forming around the end of August or beginning of September. Forecasters are carefully watching two more named storm systems expected next week: Joyce and Hurricane Isaac. Isaac is expected to weaken into a powerful post-tropical cyclone by Sunday night or early Monday, while Joyce is expected to be a tropical storm for a couple more days, according to the NHC.
Moscow: Russia downed 125 Ukrainian drones over its territory overnight, the defense ministry said Sunday, with regional governors reporting some damage but no casualties from the attack.
“125 Ukrainian fixed-wing UAVs were destroyed and intercepted by air defense systems on duty,” the ministry said on Telegram.
Sixty-seven were destroyed over Volgograd region in southern Russia, where governor Andrey Bocharov said falling debris from the drones sparked grass fires but no casualties or damage.
Another 17 were downed over Belgorod region and 17 over Voronezh region, where governor Aleksandr Gusev said several fell on Voronezh city and its suburbs causing fires in two residential buildings but no casualties.
Another 18 drones were destroyed over Rostov region where governor Vasily Golubev said on Telegram: “According to operational information, there are no casualties or damage on the ground.”
Single drones were intercepted over the Bryansk and Kursk regions and Krasnodar, which neighbors Crimea, and three over the waters of the Sea of Azov, the defense ministry said.
Russia has recently announced shooting down Ukrainian drones almost daily in response to what Kyiv says are retaliatory strikes for Russian attacks during its offensive launched in February 2022.
Death toll in Nepal flooding and landslides reaches at least 100, with dozens still missing
The weather in Nepal was improved on Sunday and rescue, recovery and clean-up efforts were underway
Updated 50 min 36 sec ago
AP
Katmandu: The death toll from flooding and landslides in Nepal has reached at least 100, with dozens of people still missing.
Police on Sunday morning warned the death toll was expected to rise further as reports come in from villages across the mountainous country.
The weather in Nepal was improved on Sunday and rescue, recovery and clean-up efforts were underway.
Rescuer workers recovered 14 bodies overnight from two buses headed to Katmandu that were buried in a landslide on a highway near the capital city.
At least one other bus and other vehicles were still buried at the same spot, and rescuer workers were digging through rocks and mud trying to find people.
Katmandu remained cut off Sunday as the main highways out of the city were blocked by landslides. Three highways, including the key Prithvi highway that connects Katmandu to the rest of the country, have been blocked by landslides.
Residents in the southern part of Katmandu, which was inundated by water, were cleaning up their houses as water levels began to recede.
At least 34 people were killed in Katmandu, which was the hardest hit by Saturday’s flooding.
Police officers and soldiers were assisting with rescue efforts, while heavy equipment was used to clear the landslides from the roads.
The government announced it was closing schools and colleges across Nepal for the next three days.
The heavy rains, which started on Friday, slowed on Saturday night, but were expected to continue through the weekend.
Last week, the government issued flood warnings across the Himalayan nation warning of massive rainfall. Buses were banned from traveling at night on highways and people were discouraged from driving cars.
The monsoon season began in June and usually ends by mid-September.
UK lawmaker quits Labour Party over PM’s ‘hypocrisy’
The row over the free gifts from rich donors had already cast a shadow over the party’s first conference since they returned to government
Updated 29 September 2024
AFP
LONDON: The new government of UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer reeled from its first resignation Saturday, as lawmaker Rosie Duffield quit the Labour Party, accusing him of “hypocrisy” over his acceptance of free gifts.
In a blistering resignation letter, Duffield denounced Starmer for pursuing “cruel and unnecessary” policies.
“The sleaze, nepotism and apparent avarice are off the scale,” she wrote, after it emerged earlier this month that Starmer had accepted more than £100,000 in gifts and hospitality while cutting an annual £300 winter heating payment to some 10 million pensioners.
“I am so ashamed of what you and your inner circle have done to tarnish and humiliate our once proud party.”
Duffield said the “hypocrisy” of a leader enjoying expensive free clothing and outings while asking others to tighten their belts was “staggering.”
She also attacked the prime minister’s decision to maintain a cap on a benefit aimed at supporting families with children.
“Someone with far-above-average wealth choosing to keep the Conservatives’ two-child limit to benefit payments which entrenches children in poverty, while inexplicably accepting expensive personal gifts of designer suits and glasses costing more than most of those people can grasp — this is entirely undeserving of holding the title of Labour Prime Minister,” she wrote.
Duffield said that she would in the future sit as an independent MP “guided by my core Labour values.”
The row over the free gifts from rich donors had already cast a shadow over the party’s first conference since they returned to government.
Labour ousted the Conservatives in a landslide election win in July after 14 years in opposition.
But instead of toasting their victory at the conference earlier this week, ministers found themselves on the backfoot and facing anger from the normally supportive unions.
All of the gifts accepted by Starmer had been declared and none fall foul of parliamentary rules.
But records show that Starmer accepted more than £100,000 ($132,000) in gifts and hospitality since December 2019, more than any other lawmaker.
It also emerged that Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner accepted the loan of a New York apartment for a holiday and that Chancellor Rachel Reeves accepted around £7,500 worth of clothing.
Reeves and the Labour party have defended the abolition of the £300 payment to many pensioners to help them heat their homes, citing a need to fill a “£22 billion black hole” they say was left by the Conservatives.
Attacking Starmer’s “managerial and technocratic approach” in her letter, first reported in The Sunday Times, Duffield also reproached Starmer for poor politics.
His “lack of basic... political instincts” had “come crashing down on us as a party after we worked so hard, promised so much, and waited a long 14 years to be mandated by the British public.”
Starmer lost a symbolic vote at the conference demanding that he reverse the contentious policy.
The vote was non-binding but its outcome was nonetheless embarrassing for the premier.
It highlighted the strength of feeling among activists and union backers.
Delegates narrowly backed a union motion calling for the cut to be reversed.
“I do not understand how our new Labour Government can cut the winter fuel allowance for pensioners and leave the super rich untouched,” said the Unite union general secretary Sharon Graham.
