Syrian migrants stripped, forced back from Serbian border in new footage

Construction workers work on a fence on the Serbian side at the border with North Macedonia near the northern village of Tabanovce on Aug. 22, 2020. (AFP)
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Updated 22 February 2024
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Syrian migrants stripped, forced back from Serbian border in new footage

  • NGO condemns ‘abusive and degrading’ treatment of 50 migrants
  • Evidence of problem across continent, says Council of Europe official

LONDON: Footage of Syrian migrants in Serbia being stripped and forced back into North Macedonia has emerged, in what human rights groups warn is evidence of growing violence targeting migrants on the edges of Europe.

Legis, an NGO in North Macedonia, sent two video clips to The Guardian newspaper showing a line of semi-naked men on a road near Lojane, close to the border with Serbia.

The videos are dated Feb. 10 and show the second instance of “abusive and degrading” migrant pushbacks that day, Legis said.

In total, more than 50 migrants who crossed the border were stripped and pushed back by Serbian authorities, the NGO added.

Legis President Jasmin Redjepi said the pushback followed an EU-Serbian cooperation summit that aimed to bolster the Serbian border against people-smuggling operations.

 

 

He added: “These incidents occur when the EU prepares restrictions for migrants on the route, and in this case just days after an EU-Serbia border cooperation summit. We then see the direct impact and consequences.”

Though the stripping of migrants has taken place across Europe, the Legis footage is the first instance of the practice taking place on the Serbia-North Macedonia border.

A report by a Belgian NGO estimated that in 2023, almost 350,000 forced pushbacks took place on Europe’s external borders.

Dunja Mijatovic, commissioner for human rights at the Council of Europe, said: “Recent reports of alleged pushbacks by Serbian police officers at the border with North Macedonia, characterized by ill- and degrading treatment and robbery of migrants, possibly including those attempting to seek asylum, require prompt and effective investigation by state authorities.”

She added that the pushbacks on the North Macedonia border are indicative of an “urgent pan-European problem,” with the practice becoming a widespread phenomenon across the continent.

“These incidents are not only disturbing, but also indicative of a wider, worrying trend among Council of Europe member states.

“These actions appear to violate the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits refoulement and collective expulsions, as well as other international standards which require ensuring genuine and effective access to asylum for those who seek it,” Mijatovic said.

“What I have observed and warned about is that migrants have been subjected to treatment that might constitute degrading treatment or torture in several European countries for years, in clear violation of states’ human rights obligations.”


Trump says ordering ‘100 percent tariff’ on all movies produced abroad

Updated 6 sec ago
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Trump says ordering ‘100 percent tariff’ on all movies produced abroad

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said Sunday he was ordering new tariffs on all films made outside the United States, claiming Hollywood was being “devastated” by a trend of US filmmakers and studios working abroad.
“I am authorizing the Department of Commerce, and the United States Trade Representative, to immediately begin the process of instituting a 100 percent Tariff on any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform.

 


Far right tops Romania’s presidential rerun, to face pro-EU candidate in run-off

Updated 11 min 22 sec ago
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Far right tops Romania’s presidential rerun, to face pro-EU candidate in run-off

  • Nationalist AUR party leader Simion — a fan of US President Donald Trump — was leading with 40.5 percent of the vote
  • He will face off against pro-EU Bucharest mayor Nicusor Dan in the May 18 run-off, who surged to second place at 20.9 percent

BUCHAREST: Romania’s far-right candidate George Simion took a comfortable lead in Sunday’s first round of presidential elections, near-final results for the rerun of last year’s annulled ballot showed.
The closely watched rerun could potentially herald a foreign policy shift in the EU country of 19 million, which has become a key pillar of NATO since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
With 99 percent of ballots counted, nationalist AUR party leader Simion — a fan of US President Donald Trump — was leading with 40.5 percent of the vote.
He will face off against pro-EU Bucharest mayor Nicusor Dan in the May 18 run-off, who surged to second place at 20.9 percent, narrowly booting out governing coalition candidate Crin Antonescu at 20.3.
“Together we made history today,” said Simion in a video message broadcast at his party’s headquarters as euphoric supporters chanted “Out with the thieves, let patriots come.”
Political science professor Sergiu Miscoiu told AFP that Simion now faced the uphill task of converting his lead into a win in the run-off, predicting that it would be a close race.
Other experts however have pointed to divisions within the pro-EU camp after a campaign marked by virulent accusations and dirty tricks.

In all, 11 presidential hopefuls were vying for the post which, while largely ceremonial carries some influence in foreign policy.
The rerun follows the cancelation of last year’s vote won by NATO critic Calin Georgescu.
He was barred from the rerun vote after authorities noted a massive TikTok campaign and issued claims of Russian interference, sparking sometimes violent protests.
Georgescu was replaced by 38-year-old Simion, who often dons a cap with the US president’s slogan “Make America Great Again.” He said he hoped to become Romania’s “MAGA president.”
“It’s time to take our country back,” said the barred Georgescu after casting his ballot alongside Simion in Mogosoaia, on the outskirts of Bucharest.
“We are here with a single mission: to return to democracy — and bring justice to Romania,” said Simion, who campaigned on a promise to put Romania first.
Many voters clearly wanted change on Sunday. Robert Teodoroiu told AFP he hoped that this time his ballot would count after last year’s vote was annulled.
“I’m trying my luck again,” said the 37-year-old driver in Bucharest.
Voter turnout stood at about 53 percent when polls closed.
Simion has largely campaigned online, partly in a bid to woo Romania’s influential overseas voters. While describing himself as “more moderate” than Georgescu, he shares his aversion to what he calls “Brussels’ unelected bureaucrats.”
Simion accuses EU officials of having meddled in Romania’s elections and has vowed to restore his country’s “dignity” within the bloc.
While frequently denouncing Russia, he opposes sending military aid to Ukraine and wants Romania to reduce support for Ukrainian refugees.
His campaign found favor with 67-year-old Stela Ivan, who hopes a far-right president would bring “change” to Romania after decades dominated by the same political parties since the end of Communism.
Another voter, 52-year-old nurse Silvia Tomescu, said she hoped for a “better life, higher wages and a president” who “will not side with Russia.”

Pro-European coalition candidate Crin Antonescu campaigned on a promise to offer stability, while Bucharest mayor Nicusor Dan vowed to fight the “corrupt” and “arrogant” political elite.
Simion promised on Sunday that if he became president, he would get Georgescu into power, citing three ways he might achieve that: “a referendum, early elections or forming a coalition in parliament that would appoint him Prime Minister.”
Following the ballot’s shock annulment — a rare move in the EU — the rerun was held under close scrutiny.
Thousands in Romania have protested in recent months against the annulled vote, denouncing it as a “coup.” US Vice President JD Vance also condemned the decision.
Authorities have stepped up preventive measures as well as cooperation with TikTok, saying they are committed to “fair and transparent” elections.
While the far right alleged “multiple signs of fraud,” the government pointed to various disinformation campaigns it said were “new attempts at manipulation and interference by state actors.”
 


Trump says he will reopen Alcatraz prison

Updated 23 min 24 sec ago
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Trump says he will reopen Alcatraz prison

  • Still in the 29 years it was open, 36 men attempted 14 separate escapes, according to the FBI

NEW YORK: President Donald Trump says he is directing his government to reopen and expand Alcatraz, the notorious former prison on a hard-to-reach California island that has been closed for more than 60 years.
In a post on his Truth Social site Sunday evening, Trump wrote that, “For too long, America has been plagued by vicious, violent, and repeat Criminal Offenders, the dregs of society, who will never contribute anything other than Misery and Suffering. When we were a more serious Nation, in times past, we did not hesitate to lock up the most dangerous criminals, and keep them far away from anyone they could harm. That’s the way it’s supposed to be.”
“That is why, today, I am directing the Bureau of Prisons, together with the Department of Justice, FBI, and Homeland Security, to reopen a substantially enlarged and rebuilt ALCATRAZ, to house America’s most ruthless and violent Offenders,” he wrote, adding: “The reopening of ALCATRAZ will serve as a symbol of Law, Order, and JUSTICE.”
The prison — infamously inescapable due to the strong ocean currents and cold Pacific waters that surround it — was known as the “The Rock” and housed some of the nation’s most notorious criminals, including gangster Al Capone and George “Machine Gun” Kelly.
It has long been part of the cultural imagination and has been the subject of numerous movies, including “The Rock” starring Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage.
Still in the 29 years it was open, 36 men attempted 14 separate escapes, according to the FBI. Nearly all were caught or didn’t survive the attempt.
The fate of three particular inmates — John Anglin, his brother Clarence and Frank Morris — is of some debate and was dramatized in the 1979 film “Escape from Alcatraz” starring Clinton Eastwood.
Alcatraz Island is now a major tourist site that is operate by the National Parks Service and is a designated National Historic Landmark.
The closure of the federal prison in 1963 was attributed to crumbling infrastructure and the high costs of repairing and supplying the island facility, because everything from fuel to food had to be brought by boat.
A spokesperson for the Bureau of Prisons said in a statement that the agency “will comply with all Presidential Orders.” The spokesperson did not immediately answer questions from The Associated Press regarding the practicality and feasibility of reopening Alcatraz or the agency’s role in the future of the former prison given the National Park Service’s control of the island.
The island serves as a veritable time machine to a bygone era of corrections. The Bureau of Prisons currently has 16 penitentiaries performing the same high-security functions as Alcatraz, including its maximum security facility in Florence, Colorado, and the US penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, which is home to the federal death chamber.
The order comes as Trump has been clashing with the courts as he tries to send accused gang members to a notorious prison in El Salvador, without due process. Trump has also directed the opening of a detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,to hold up to 30,000 of what he has labeled the “worst criminal aliens.”
The Bureau of Prisons has faced myriad crises in recent years and has been subjected to increased scrutiny after Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide at a federal jail in New York City in 2019. An AP investigation uncovered deep, previously unreported flaws within the Bureau of Prisons. AP reporting has disclosed widespread criminal activity by employees, dozens of escapes, chronic violence, deaths and severe staffing shortages that have hampered responses to emergencies, including assaults and suicides.
The AP’s investigation also exposed rampant sexual abuse at a federal women’s prison in Dublin, California. Last year, President Joe Biden signed a law strengthening oversight of the agency after AP reporting spotlighted its many flaws.

 


Russia offers to help resolve India-Pakistan differences over Kashmir

Updated 05 May 2025
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Russia offers to help resolve India-Pakistan differences over Kashmir

  • Risie in tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbors escalated after a deadly terror attack on a mountain tourist destination in the Pahalgam area of Kashmir valley on April 22

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke to his Pakistani counterpart on Sunday and offered Russia’s help in resolving tensions between Pakistan and India over Kashmir, the Foreign Ministry said.
“Particular attention was paid to the significant rise in tension between New Delhi and Islamabad,” the ministry said in a statement, referring to Lavrov’s conversation with Ishaq Dar, who is also Pakistan’s deputy prime minister.
“It was stressed that Russia is ready to act for a political settlement of the situation resulting from the act of terrorism of April 22 in the Pahalgam area of the Kashmir valley, in the event of a mutual desire on the part of Islamabad and New Delhi,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement posted on Telegram.

Lavrov’s conversation with Dar took place two days after he spoke with Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and also called for a settlement of differences between the two neighboring countries.
Suspected militants killed at least 26 people in last week’s attack on a mountain tourist destination in the Pahalgam area of the Kashmir valley.
Muslim-majority Kashmir is claimed by both countries and has been the focus of several wars, an insurgency and diplomatic standoffs.
Russia has been India’s largest weapons provider for decades and New Delhi and Moscow have had close ties since Soviet times.


Incoming German interior minister skeptical about ban on far-right AfD

Updated 04 May 2025
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Incoming German interior minister skeptical about ban on far-right AfD

  • German lawmakers have been discussing measures to dismiss civil servants who are members of the AfD and limit or halt public funding

BERLIN: Incoming German interior minister Alexander Dobrindt suggested on Sunday it was unlikely the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party would be banned after the spy agency classified it as “extremist” last week.
German lawmakers have been discussing outlawing the party and taking other measures including dismissing civil servants who are members of the AfD and limiting or halting public funding.
But Dobrindt told broadcaster ARD he was doubtful whether the AfD activities identified in the spy agency’s report met the requirements set out for an outright ban.
Guidelines set by the constitutional court say a party must be shown to be working “combatively and aggressively” to implement its goals to be banned.
“I’m skeptical, because the aggressive, combative nature of the party against our democracy must be a defining characteristic. The Constitutional Court was right to set high hurdles for banning a party,” Dobrindt said.
He added that he was “convinced that the AfD does not need to be banned, it needs to be governed away, and we need to talk about the issues that have made the AfD so big.”
Dobrindt, a high-profile member of the CSU, the Bavarian sister party of incoming chancellor Friedrich Merz’s CDU, said his ministry would examine the designation in depth and he would discuss its findings with the spy agency’s top brass in person.
SPD leader Lars Klingbeil told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper that the future government would work to shrink the AfD.
“What I don’t believe is that a potential ban procedure, which could take years, is the sole instrument to bring the AfD down,” Klingbeil, Germany’s next vice chancellor, said.
AfD co-leader Alice Weidel accused outgoing Interior Minister Nancy Faeser of using the spy agency as a “secret justice system” to discriminate against the party.
“We are a future governing party; even the machinations of the secret justice system will not be able to prevent that in the long run,” Weidel told the Welt newspaper on Sunday.