LONDON: A Syrian asylum-seeker facing deportation from London to Rwanda has described his detention at Gatwick detention center as a struggle with “constant nightmares and insomnia,” the Independent reported on Friday.
After arriving in the UK from his war-torn country in 2022, 25-year-old Mohammed Al-Kharewsh, who was recently released on bail from the immigration removal center near Crawley, said: “The environment was overwhelming, and I struggled with constant nightmares and insomnia.
“After surviving a challenging journey, the reality of my situation was hard to grasp. I kept questioning why I was being detained for deportation.”
Describing the 25 days of his detention at the center, Al-Kharewsh, who is reportedly scheduled to be deported on one of the first flights to Rwanda, said that he became depressed and experienced “anxiety and despair” as he repeatedly questioned why he was among the first chosen for deportation.
The 25-year-old claims that the idea of being separated again from his brother, who was granted asylum in the UK as a minor, is “extremely intimidating.” They were separated the first time by the war in Syria.
On May 1, Al-Kharewsh was apprehended during a routine reporting visit to immigration, taken to Gatwick and put in a room with a fellow Syrian refugee with mental health problems. He had been living in Acton with his brother, who rents a flat and works in construction.
The Independent’s report added that many asylum-seekers had been released on bail after Rishi Sunak said that flights would only go ahead if he won the July 4 election. Labour have pledged to scrap the £290 million scheme if they win power.
The 25-year-old said that he was forced to leave Syria two years ago after being pressured to either join the Syrian army or resistance fighters.
Anyone who came to the UK irregularly after Jan. 1, 2022, such as Al-Kharewsh who arrived via small boat, is in line for removal to Rwanda under Sunak’s scheme.
Speaking about his detention, Al-Kharewsh said: “In the rooms, I was housed with another inmate in a shared room. Beds were provided, but the environment itself was far from comfortable. There was a shopping area and a gym available for us, but I was too preoccupied with the constant thought of deportation and my low mood to make use of these facilities.
“We were provided with food, but I only ate enough to survive. My mind was preoccupied with the hopes of a better future. And that hope seemed to slip further away each day. The looming threat of deportation hung over me, adding to my stress and anxiety, and the detention center was incredibly difficult.”
Al-Kharewsh said that he left Syria for the “safety of myself and my family.” He said that his child and wife remained in Syria and are now safer since he left without being forced to pick a side in the armed conflict. He hopes that they could join him one day in the UK.
His younger brother supports him, and a second brother who arrived in the UK earlier this year. Al-Kharewsh only found out that his brother was living in the UK once he arrived, and he is anxious that they are not separated again.
“In the UK I managed to reunite with my siblings for the first time. So going through the trauma of displacement again is extremely intimidating. Also relocating to a country like Rwanda — given their history of conflict and violence and having no support network there — would make me more vulnerable,” he said.
Al-Kharewsh has been told his asylum claim is inadmissible and that the Home Office intends to deport him to Rwanda, but his second brother has yet to hear anything about his asylum claim.
Asylum-seekers are told that Rwanda is known as “the land of a thousand hills,” and that Rwandans are friendly to visitors.
One page of a leaflet that is given to asylum-seekers in detention, titled “Is Rwanda safe?” says that the country is a “generally safe and secure country with a track record of supporting asylum-seekers.”
In November, the UK Supreme Court ruled that UNHCR should be trusted in their assessment that Rwanda is not a safe country for asylum-seekers.
The UNHCR warned High Court judges only this week that it may have new evidence from 2024 that Rwanda has endangered asylum-seekers. The UK parliament passed a law declaring Rwanda to be a safe country this year despite the Supreme Court’s decision.
The Home Office did not comment.
Syrian asylum-seeker describes detention as struggle with ‘constant nightmare and insomnia’
https://arab.news/ygn3y
Syrian asylum-seeker describes detention as struggle with ‘constant nightmare and insomnia’
- “After surviving a challenging journey, the reality of my situation was hard to grasp. I kept questioning why I was being detained for deportation,” said Mohammed Al-Kharewsh
- He is reportedly scheduled to be deported on one of the first flights from the UK to Rwanda
Volcano erupts after quake in Russia’s far east
- Eruptions of the Klyuchevskoy volcano — the highest active in Europe and Asia — are quite common
- “The Klyuchevskoy is erupting right now,” Russia’s Geophysical Survey said
MOSCOW: A volcano in Russia’s far east erupted on Wednesday, Russian scientists said, hours after a major quake prompted evacuations and tsunami alerts across parts of the Pacific coast.
Eruptions of the Klyuchevskoy volcano — the highest active in Europe and Asia — are quite common, with at least 18 of them happening since 2000 according to the Smithsonian Institution’s Global Volcanism Program.
“The Klyuchevskoy is erupting right now,” Russia’s Geophysical Survey said on Telegram, posting photos of an orange blaze on top of the 4,700 meter (15,000 feet) volcano.
“Red-hot lava is observed flowing down the western slope. There is a powerful glow above the volcano and explosions,” it added.
Earlier on Wednesday, an 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Russia’s far eastern Kamchatka region.
The tsunami warning in Kamchatka was lifted 11 hours later as the quake causing massive waves have spared the sparsely populated area close to Japan.
No major damage or casualties from its eruptions were ever recorded, with the closest big city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsk located hundreds of kilometers away.
Palestine Action wins bid to challenge UK ban under anti-terrorism laws
- Co-founder Huda Ammori asked London’s High Court to give the go-ahead for a full challenge to the group's proscription
LONDON: The co-founder of a pro-Palestinian campaign group on Wednesday won her bid to bring a legal challenge against the British government’s decision to ban the group under anti-terrorism laws.
Huda Ammori, who helped found Palestine Action in 2020, asked London’s High Court to give the go-ahead for a full challenge to the group’s proscription, which was made on the grounds it committed or participated in acts of terrorism.
Palestine Action has increasingly targeted Israel-linked companies in Britain, often spraying red paint, blocking entrances or damaging equipment. It accuses Britain’s government of complicity in what it says are Israeli war crimes in
Gaza.
Earlier this month, the High Court refused Ammori’s application to pause the ban and, following an unsuccessful last-ditch appeal, Palestine Action’s proscription came into effect just after midnight on July 5.
Proscription makes it a crime to be a member of the group, carrying a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.
Judge Martin Chamberlain granted permission for Ammori to bring a judicial review, saying her case that proscription amounted to a disproportionate interference with her and others’ right to freedom of expression was “reasonably arguable.”
Dozens of people
have been arrested
for holding placards purportedly supporting the group since the ban, and Ammori’s lawyers say people expressing support for the Palestinian cause have also been subject to increased scrutiny from police.
However, Britain’s interior minister Yvette Cooper has said violence and criminal damage have no place in legitimate protest and that Palestine Action’s activities – including breaking into a military base and
damaging two planes – justify proscription.
Israel has repeatedly denied committing abuses in its war in Gaza, which began after Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel from Gaza on October 7, 2023.
22 killed in Angola fuel hike unrest since Monday
- Sporadic gunfire was heard across Luanda and several other cities on Monday and Tuesday as people looted shops and clashed with police when violence erupted during a taxi strike
LUANDA: Unrest in Angola following protests against a fuel price hike has killed 22 people since Monday, the interior minister said, as calm returned to the capital.
Sporadic gunfire was heard across Luanda and several other cities on Monday and Tuesday as people looted shops and clashed with police when violence erupted during a taxi strike.
The strike was the latest in a series of protests after the price of fuel was hiked from 300 to 400 kwanzas ($0.33 to $0.43) a liter on July 1, squeezing living costs for the millions of poor in one of Africa’s top oil producers.
“We regret 22 deaths, including one police officer,” Interior Minister Manuel Homem told reporters in a press conference on Wednesday.
Nearly 200 people were injured in the violence, he said, and more than 1,200 people had been arrested.
Shops and businesses remained closed in Luanda on Wednesday as security forces patrolled the city.
The streets were largely empty as people stayed home, although there were some queues outside petrol stations and shops, AFP reporters said.
Police in the southern city of Lubango confirmed separately that a police officer had shot and killed a 16-year-old on Tuesday.
The teenager was part of a group attempting to invade the headquarters of the ruling MPLA party, a statement said.
Anger against the price hike was also the focus of a demonstration of around 2,000 people in Luanda on Saturday, with protesters also alleging government corruption.
There had been similar protests the two previous weekends.
Four people were killed on the first day of the unrest on Monday, according to police.
Local media reported other victims on Tuesday.
TV Nzinga showed women weeping over a body in a street in Luanda’s central Cazenga area as people ran out of a supermarket carrying food and goods. The report did not say how the person was killed.
In the same area, a young man was killed near a supermarket, apparently by a stray bullet, an AFP reporter said.
Protests and unrest were also reported outside the capital, including in the city of Huambo, around 600 kilometers (370 miles) north of Luanda, police said.
Images on social media also showed protests in the coastal city of Benguela, south of the capital.
The Portuguese-speaking country of more than 36 million has a high inflation rate that neared 20 percent in June, while the unemployment rate hit almost 30 percent, according to the national statistics authority.
IndiGo’s revenue slows as India-Pakistan tensions, Air India crash weigh
- India’s largest carrier by market share reports 4.7% rise in revenue to $2.34 billion in April-June quarter
- CEO says April attack in Indian-administered Kashmir, border clashes caused ” hundreds of cancelations”
NEW DELHI: Budget airline IndiGo posted slower first-quarter revenue growth on Wednesday, weighed down by subdued demand following border tensions between India and Pakistan and a fatal Air India crash during the quarter.
India’s largest carrier by market share reported a 4.7% rise in revenue to 204.96 billion rupees ($2.34 billion) in the April-June quarter, a sharp slowdown from the 17.3% growth logged a year ago.
“The June quarter was shaped by significant external challenges that created headwinds for the entire aviation sector,” Chief Executive Pieter Elbers said in a statement.
An April attack on civilians in Indian Kashmir, followed by border clashes between India and Pakistan led to “hundreds and hundreds of cancelations,” Elbers said in a post-earnings media call.
India has blamed Islamabad for the attack, which the latter has denied.
Shortly after, an Air India plane crashed in Ahmedabad and killed 260 people in June, spurring flying anxiety among many travelers.
“All in all, that has led ... to (have) some impact on the market,” Elbers said, but added that so far, the second quarter appears to be stabilizing.
Despite the recent slowdown, IndiGo has benefited from rising incomes, sustained post-pandemic domestic travel demand, along with continued fleet and network expansion.
Still, the company posted a lower quarterly profit, bogged down by ballooning foreign exchange losses.
Its yield — the average money earned from a passenger for every kilometer traveled — fell 5%.
The airline’s first-quarter capacity — measured in available seat kilometers — grew 16.4% on-year.
The firm had projected a “mid-teens percentage range” growth in May.
Australia’s first Muslim MP calls for country to recognize Palestine
- Ed Husic: Govt should follow in UK’s footsteps as part of tide of ‘moral momentum’
- ‘Hamas is built largely on grievance. That grievance gets removed with the establishment of a state of Palestine’
LONDON: Australia’s first Muslim MP and government minister has said his country should recognize a Palestinian state, following in the footsteps of the UK as part of a tide of “moral momentum.”
The appeal by Labor’s Ed Husic, who was elected in 2010, came as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is to hold further talks with his British counterpart Keir Starmer in the coming days.
Starmer pledged this week to recognize a Palestinian state in September if Israel fails to reach a ceasefire with Hamas, among other conditions.
If Australia does the same, it would deprive Hamas of its power in Gaza and expedite the peace process, Husic said.
“Hamas is built largely on grievance. That grievance gets removed with the establishment of a state of Palestine, nurtured with the cooperation and support of the international community, progressed through the development of democratic institutions,” he added.
The former minister said his Labor colleagues feel increasingly aggrieved over the situation in Gaza, calling on them to urge Australian recognition of a Palestinian state.
“There is a deep feeling within the caucus, about how right it is to recognize Palestine, and I would much rather that colleagues speak for themselves,” he added.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong signed an international statement calling for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
Albanese, however, declined to immediately follow Starmer’s decision despite Australia’s government previously signaling that it would move in unison with international partners on measures to address the crisis in Gaza.
“What I’ve said is that it’s not the timeline, that’s not what we’re looking at. What we’re looking at is the circumstances where recognition will advance the objective of the creation of two states,” Albanese said at Parliament House after speaking with Starmer this week.
“I’ve said for a long time, my entire political life, I’ve said I support two states … That’s my objective — not making a statement, not giving a political point, but achieving peace.”
