CATANIA, Sicily: The captain of a charity-operated migrant rescue ship refused Italian orders to leave a Sicilian port Sunday after authorities conducted a medical selection of the passengers and did not allow 35 to get off, acting under directives from Italy’s far-right-led government.
The Humanity 1 was ordered to vacate the port of Catania after disembarking 144 rescued migrants. They included women with children, more than 100 unaccompanied minors and people with medical emergencies.
The captain refused to comply “until all survivors rescued from distress at sea have been disembarked,” said SOS Humanity, the German charity that operates the ship. The vessel remained moored at the port as of mid-afternoon.
Humanitarian groups and two Italian lawmakers who traveled to Sicily protested the selection process as both illegal and inhumane. The procedure was part of directives ushered in by new Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi as Italy again targets non-governmental organizations it has long accused of encouraging people trafficking in the central Mediterranean Sea.
“Free all the people, free them,” Italian lawmaker Aboubakar Soumahoro said in an emotional appeal directed at Premier Giorgia Meloni from the Humanity 1 rescue ship, calling her government’s new policy “inhuman.”
The passengers have faced ”trauma, they have faced everything that we can define as prolonged suffering, a hell,” Soumahoro said.
Italian authorities completed the process of identifying vulnerable migrants on the Humanity 1 overnight and asked the Geo Barents charity ship, which entered Italian waters with 572 rescued migrants, to proceed Sunday to Catania for the same vetting.
Two other boats run by non-governmental organizations remained at sea with no immediate change in status.
The charity ships have reported rescue people sleeping on floors and decks, the spread of fever-inducing infections and scabies, and food and medical supplies nearing depletion. Some migrants have been on the ships for more than two weeks.
The Humanity 1, carrying 179 rescued passengers, entered the Sicilian port at midnight Saturday. Two Italian doctors began identifying people needing urgent medical care after the ship’s doctor refused, said SOS Humanity spokesman Wasil Schauseil.
SOS Humanity considers all of the passengers vulnerable by definition after being rescued at sea, and deserving of a safe port under international law.
“Just like the already disembarked people, the survivors remaining on board the Humanity 1 are in an emergency condition,” the charity said. “They fled inhumane conditions from Libya and have since had to endure over two weeks at sea.”
Authorities allowed three women and a baby off the ship first, then one family followed by unaccompanied minors, who numbered over 100, Schauseil said.
“As we feared, not everyone was allowed to disembark,’’ Schauseil said.
“The doctors declared 36 people not in an emergency. After receiving the news, one person collapsed and lost consciousness and had to be taken by an ambulance,” Schauseil said.
“You can imagine the condition of the people. It is very devastating,” he said.
The Norway-flagged Geo Barents, carrying 572 migrants, arrived in Catania on Sunday afternoon. It entered Italian waters east of Sicily over the weekend to seek protection from storm-swollen seas.
“Once we get there, we will see what they mean by vulnerable people and if the other people can get off or not. Because if it is not like this, it would be an illegal action,’’ Riccardo Gatti, the search and rescue team leader on the Geo Barents, said.
Two other ships carrying rescued migrants remained at sea.
The German-run Rise Above, carrying 93, sought a more protected position east of Sicily due to the weather, but spokeswoman Hermine Poschmann said Sunday that the crew had not received any communication from Italian authorities.
Poschmann described cramped conditions on the relatively small 25-meter ship.
The Ocean Viking, operated by the European charity SOS Mediteranee, with 234 migrants on board, remained in international waters, south of the Strait of Messina, and did not receive instructions to proceed to a port, a spokesman said Sunday. Its first rescue was 16 days ago.
The confrontational stance taken by Meloni’s government is reminiscent of the standoffs orchestrated by Matteo Salvini, now Meloni’s infrastructure minister in charge of ports, during his brief 2018-2019 stint as interior minister.
Italy’s new government is insisting the countries whose flags the charity-run ships fly must take in the migrants.
In a Facebook video, Salvini repeated his allegations that the presence of the humanitarian boats encourages smugglers.
Nongovernmental organizations reject the government’s interpretation, saying they are obligated by the law of the sea to rescue people in distress and that coastal nations are obligated to provide a safe port as soon as feasible.
While the humanitarian-run boats are being denied a safe port, thousands of other migrants reached Italian shores over the last week, either on their own or after being rescued at sea by Italian authorities. They account for 85 percent of all arrivals, according to Italy.
Charity ship with 35 migrants refuses to leave Italian port
https://arab.news/w9m5z
Charity ship with 35 migrants refuses to leave Italian port
- Italian authorities conducted a medical selection of the passengers and did not allow 35 to get off
- The Humanity 1 was ordered to vacate the port of Catania after disembarking 144 migrants
EU agrees on a new migration pact, as mainstream parties hope it will deprive the far right of votes
EU agrees on a new migration pact, as mainstream parties hope it will deprive the far right of votes
Mainstream political parties believe the pact resolves the issues that have divided member nations since migrants swept into Europe in 2015, most fleeing war in Syria and Iraq
BRUSSELS: European Union nations endorsed sweeping reforms to the bloc’s failed asylum system on Tuesday as campaigning for Europe-wide elections next month gathers pace, with migration expected to be an important issue.
EU government ministers approved 10 legislative parts of The New Pact on Migration and Asylum. It lays out rules for the 27 member countries to handle people trying to enter without authorization, from how to screen them to establish whether they qualify for protection to deporting them if they’re not allowed to stay.
Hungary and Poland, which have long opposed any obligation for countries to host migrants or pay for their upkeep, voted against the package but were unable to block it.
Mainstream political parties believe the pact resolves the issues that have divided member nations since well over 1 million migrants swept into Europe in 2015, most fleeing war in Syria and Iraq. They hope the system will starve the far right of vote-winning oxygen in the June 6-9 elections.
However, the vast reform package will only enter force in 2026, bringing no immediate fix to an issue that has fueled one of the EU’s biggest political crises, dividing nations over who should take responsibility for migrants when they arrive and whether other countries should be obligated to help.
Critics say the pact will let nations detain migrants at borders and fingerprint children. They say it’s aimed at keeping people out and infringes on their right to claim asylum. Many fear it will result in more unscrupulous deals with poorer countries that people leave or cross to get to Europe.
WHY ARE THE NEW RULES NEEDED?
Europe’s asylum laws have not been updated for about two decades. The system frayed and then fell apart in 2015. It was based on the premise that migrants should be processed, given asylum or deported in the country they first enter. Greece, Italy and Malta were left to shoulder most of the financial burden and deal with public discontent. Since then, the ID-check-free zone known as the Schengen Area has expanded to 27 countries, 23 of them EU members. It means that more than 400 million Europeans and visitors, including refugees, are able to move without showing travel documents.
WHO DO THE RULES APPLY TO?
Some 3.5 million migrants arrived legally in Europe in 2023. Around 1 million others were on EU territory without permission. Of the latter, most were people who entered normally via airports and ports with visas but didn’t go home when they expired. The pact applies to the remaining minority, estimated at around 300,000 migrants last year. They are people caught crossing an external EU border without permission, such as those reaching the shores of Greece, Italy or Spain via the Mediterranean Sea or Atlantic Ocean on boats provided by smugglers.
HOW DOES THE SYSTEM WORK?
The country on whose territory people land will screen them at or near the border. This involves identity and other checks -– including on children as young as 6. The information will be stored on a massive new database, Eurodac. This screening should determine whether a person might pose a health or security risk and their chances of being permitted to stay. Generally, people fleeing conflict, persecution or violence qualify for asylum. Those looking for jobs are likely to be refused entry. Screening is mandatory and should take no longer than seven days. It should lead to one of two things: an application for international protection, like asylum, or deportation to their home country.
WHAT DOES THE ASYLUM PROCEDURE INVOLVE?
People seeking asylum must apply in the EU nation they first enter and stay until the authorities there work out what country should handle their application. It could be that they have family, cultural or other links somewhere else, making it more logical for them to be moved. The border procedure should be done in 12 weeks, including time for one legal appeal if their application is rejected. It could be extended by eight weeks in times of mass movements of people. Procedures could be faster for applicants from countries whose citizens are not often granted asylum. Critics say this undermines asylum law because applicants should be assessed individually, not based on nationality. People would stay in “reception centers” while it happens, with access to health care and education. Those rejected would receive a deportation order.
WHAT DOES DEPORTATION INVOLVE?
To speed things up, a deportation order is supposed to be issued automatically when an asylum request is refused. A new 12-week period is foreseen to complete this process. The authorities may detain people throughout. The EU’s border and coast guard agency would help organize joint deportation flights. Currently, less than one in three people issued with an order to leave are deported. This is often due to a lack of cooperation from the countries these people come from.
HOW HAS THE ISSUE OF RESPONSIBILITIES VS OBLIGATIONS BEEN RESOLVED?
The new rules oblige countries to help an EU partner under migratory pressure. Support is mandatory, but flexible. Nations can relocate asylum applicants to their territory or choose some other form of assistance. This could be financial -– a relocation is evaluated at 20,000 euros ($21,462) per person -– technical or logistical. Members can also assume responsibility for deporting people from the partner country in trouble.
WHAT CHALLENGES LIE AHEAD?
Two issues stand out: Will member countries ever fully enact the plan, and will the EU’s executive branch, the European Commission, enforce the new rules when it has chosen not to apply the ones already in place? The commission is due to present a Common Implementation Plan by June. It charts a path and timeline to get the pact working over the next two years, with targets that the EU and member countries should reach. Things could get off to a rocky start. Hungary, which has vehemently opposed the reforms, takes over the EU’s agenda-setting presidency for six months on July 1.
Calls mount on Polish government to expel Israeli envoy
- Israel dismissed calls for accountability after killing Polish aid worker in Gaza
- Ambassador compares peaceful protests in Poland to Nazi rallies
WARSAW: Polish activists on Wednesday submitted a nationwide petition for the government to immediately expel the Israeli ambassador over war crimes in Gaza.
Protests against Israel’s bombardment of the Palestinian enclave have been a regular occurrence in Poland since the beginning of the onslaught in October.
One of the main groups organizing the rallies and meetings to extend political pressure, and bring Poles closer to Palestinian history and culture, is the initiative Wschod — a movement of young activists dedicated to social justice.
Wschod’s petition to expel the Israeli envoy, Yacov Livne, from Poland, was signed by 7,931 people as of Wednesday.
“I believe that the petition is an important signal to the Polish government from the Polish people,” Zofia Hecht, a member of Wschod, told Arab News as the activists submitted the petition to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Warsaw.
“There is a large group of people who really do not agree with what Israel is doing to Palestinians, and that we do not agree to normalize relations with such a terrorist entity that is Israel.”
Poland recognizes Palestinian statehood and has voted in favor of the UN’s recent resolutions to demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and to recognize backing Palestine’s bid for permanent membership status.
A close ally of the US, the Polish government has avoided vocal criticism of Tel Aviv and its war on Gaza, where Israeli forces have over the past seven months killed at least 35,000 people — a large majority women and children — and injured 80,000 more.
UN agencies and experts have repeatedly accused Israel of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. The International Court of Justice in January also found it plausible that Tel Aviv’s actions in the enclave could amount to genocide.
“We think that the previous actions taken by the Polish government to prevent the Israeli genocide in Gaza were not sufficient,” said Emil Al-Khawaldeh, Wschod’s Palestine campaign coordinator.
“We expect the Polish government to at least respond to our petition signed by almost 8,000 people, and to meet our demands to expel the Israeli ambassador.”
The petition was created when Poles began to pay more attention to Gaza after the killing of a Polish national, Daniel Sobol, who was one of the seven World Central Kitchen aid workers targeted and killed by Israeli troops in early April.
“In April, when Israel killed a Polish citizen, the Israeli ambassador took to Twitter to publish accusations of antisemitism,” Al-Khawaldeh said, citing Livne’s posts, which included labeling a Polish parliament deputy speaker as an “antisemite” for publicly charging Israel with war crimes.
“Until now, the Israeli ambassador has neither apologized for his own words nor, on behalf of the state of Israel, for murdering a Polish citizen,” he added.
Wschod’s petition to the government says that “there is no place” in Poland for an ambassador of a “state committing genocide” and demands that he be “immediately” expelled.
“It is absurd that in a country historically affected by genocide, hatred and hostility, we allow the holding of office by a person who represents the government of a country committing war crimes against innocent Palestinian civilians,” it reads.
About 6 million Polish citizens, including 3 million Polish Jews, were killed by German forces during the invasion and occupation of Poland in the Second World War. The occupation policies have been recognized in Europe as a genocide.
Eight decades later, as Poles unite and take to the streets to prevent a genocide of another people, Al-Khawaldeh, who is Polish Palestinian, and Hecht, who is Jewish, said that they have faced accusations of antisemitism.
The accusations regularly come from the Israeli ambassador, who, in a radio interview in November, went as far as to compare the Polish peace activists to Nazis.
“We’ve been holding peaceful marches in Warsaw and there’s been no single security incident. But in November, the Israeli ambassador compared the marches to Nazi rallies ... he compared us with the Nazi Germany of the 1930s,” Al-Khawaldeh said.
“Polish Jews are also protesting with us. They are organizing protests in Poland, peaceful protests, they are also having wonderful speeches against Israeli war crimes, against Israeli genocide in Gaza. This accusation is absurd.”
UK announces $175 million humanitarian aid boost for Yemen
- Nearly 200 aid groups called for more humanitarian aid this month to bridge a $2.3-billion shortfall in funds for Yemen
LONDON: The UK will significantly increase aid funding to Yemen aiming to feed more than 850,000 people in the war-torn country, Foreign Secretary David Cameron said on Wednesday.
New aid worth £139 million (around $175 million) to help alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Yemen was announced in a meeting between Cameron and Yemeni Prime Minister Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak in London.
The aid will be delivered through partners such as the World Food Programme and Unicef, a statement read, and hopes to treat 700,000 severely malnourished children.
The move comes a week after the EU announced $125 million for NGOs and UN agencies working in Yemen, where more than half the 34 million population needs aid after nine years of war.
Nearly 200 aid groups called for more humanitarian aid this month to bridge a $2.3-billion shortfall in funds for Yemen.
Houthi rebel attacks on international shipping are also on the agenda in Cameron’s meeting with Bin Mubarak, who is Yemen’s former ambassador to the United States.
Cameron blamed the attacks on Red Sea shipping for aggravating the humanitarian crisis “through blocking aid from reaching those who need it in northern Yemen.”
British and US forces have been carrying out joint strikes since January aimed at curbing the raids.
The attacks, which began in November, were found to affect more than half of British exporters in a British Chambers of Commerce report from February.
Yemen has been gripped by conflict following a 2014 coup by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, which triggered a Saudi-led military intervention in support of the government the following year.
Hundreds of thousands have died from fighting and other indirect causes such as the lack of food, according to the UN.
While hostilities have remained at a low level since a six-month UN-brokered ceasefire came into force in 2022, threats including food insecurity and cholera remain rampant.
Ex-Pakistan PM Imran Khan gets bail but can’t leave jail
- Khan, who denies wrongdoing, had filed a bail application before Islamabad High Court
- Khan, 71, has been in jail since August last year
ISLAMABAD: Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan was granted bail in Islamabad on Wednesday on land corruption charges but will have to stay in jail to serve time in two other cases, his lawyer said.
The former cricket superstar was indicted last week on charges that he and his wife were gifted land by a real estate developer when Khan was prime minister from 2018-22 in exchange for illegal favors.
Khan, who denies wrongdoing, had filed a bail application before Islamabad High Court.
His party lawyer, Naeem Haider Panjutha, confirmed the granting of bail on social media platform X but said Khan remained in custody after two convictions — one involving the leaking of state secrets and the other his marriage violating Islamic law.
Khan, 71, has been in jail since August last year. In total, he has been convicted in four cases, but sentences in two cases have been suspended.
Khan is named in dozens of cases, including charges of inciting violence against the state in the aftermath of his removal from office in 2022 in a parliamentary vote of no-confidence.
His wife, Bushra Bibi, is also in jail serving time in a case related to unlawfully marrying Khan in 2018.
The case in which Khan was granted bail on Wednesday involves the Al-Qadir Trust, a non-governmental welfare organization set up by Khan and wife when he was still in office.
Prosecutors say the trust was a front for the former premier to receive land as a bribe from a real estate developer. The land includes 60 acres (24 hectares) near Islamabad and another large plot close to Khan’s hilltop mansion in the capital.
In a statement following the bail, Khan’s media team said the land was not for personal gain and Khan had set up a “religious and scientific” educational institution.
It added that the cases were filed to keep Khan in prison and prevent him from participating the Feb. 8 national elections.
Khan faced a string of convictions in the lead-up to the elections but his party-backed candidates still won the most seats. They did not have the numbers to form a government, which was led by an alliance of his rivals led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Singapore marks end of era as PM Lee steps down after 20 years
- PM Lee Hsien Loong will hand over reins to his deputy Lawrence Wong
- Outgoing premier will remain as senior minister in the new cabinet
SINGAPORE: Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong stepped down on Wednesday, marking the end of an era after nearly two decades in office.
Lee is the son of Lee Kuan Yew, the founder of modern Singapore who stayed in politics until his death in 2015.
His resignation ended a family dynasty, as he formally handed over the reins to his deputy, Lawrence Wong.
As Singapore’s third premier, Lee oversaw his country’s economic growth into an international financial hub and top tourist destination. The island’s gross domestic product per capita more than doubled during his tenure, with the government also credited for competently steering the country through several recessions and successfully fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lee’s succession has been planned for years, but the transition was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 72-year-old will remain in Wong’s cabinet as senior minister, as former Singapore premiers have done.
In his final major speech on May 1, Lee urged Singaporeans to rally behind Wong and said that the country’s stable politics had made long-term planning possible.
“As I prepare to hand over Singapore in good order to my successor, I feel a sense of satisfaction and completeness. I have done my duty, and I am very happy I chose this path of public service all those many years ago,” he said.
“But leading a country is never a one-man job. It is always the effort of a national team. Your unwavering support enabled us to get here, with the country in good shape and heading in the right direction.”
Anand Gopalan, who runs a financial and strategy advisory firm, said Singapore managed to keep up with the times under Lee’s leadership.
“With Lee Hsien Loong, … there’s a lot more focus on technology and innovation,” he said.
Singapore also saw growth in entrepreneurship and start-ups, as well as financial technology and artificial intelligence-focused platforms, giving citizens a vast range of career options, he added.
Though the city-state flourished into one of the world’s wealthiest nations, it also became one of the most expensive cities to live in.
“The big problems now are the diminishing jobs, both middle-class and working-class jobs, increased taxes and cost of living,” Gopalan said.
For 63-year-old Alice Rani, Singapore’s transformation throughout the years was commendable.
“I was born in 1961. There have been a lot of changes that sometimes I would say to myself: ‘Wow, it’s amazing what the government did for Singapore’,” Rani told Arab News.
“I like the way our government works, and everything is going (well). There is a lot of improvement, but it is a bit expensive to live here. We can still manage, and the government has been providing a lot of (subsidies and assistance).”
Singaporeans have enjoyed good infrastructure over the years, especially its transportation and pedestrian-friendly streets that are some of the best in Southeast Asia.
“I think for Singaporeans, they benefited a lot. Roads are better, flats are better, and the hawker centers are very convenient for people,” artist Margaret Pereira said.
“With the local infrastructure, there are more trains and train lines being built … There are a lot of differences in the past 20 years.”
