Feed aggregator

Renewable energy could power an economic recovery from COVID-19 by spurring global GDP gains of almost $100tn (€92tn) between now and 2050, according to a report. EURACTIV's media partner, The Guardian, reports.

Miközben világszerte megközelítette a 2,5 milliót az új koronavírusos fertőzöttek száma, a haláleseteké meghaladta a 167 ezret, a gyógyultaké pedig a 639 ezret, Európa több országában lassul a járvány.

Bulgaria has the lowest standards of press freedom in Europe and is ranked 111th globally in terms of press freedom for a third consecutive year in the Reporters Without Borders annual edition of the World Press Freedom index, which called the country "the black sheep of the EU".

Coronavirus en Grèce : deux camps de réfugiés en quarantaine
Grèce : l'enfer du camp de Moria face à la menace du coronavirus
Le coronavirus, double peine pour les réfugiés dans les Balkans
Les dernières infos • Réfugiés Balkans : Bosnie-Herzégovine, un nouveau camp d'urgence près de la frontière croate

/ Courrier des Balkans, Migrants Balkans, Grèce, Populations, minorités et migrations

Kosovo : Albin Kurti renversé, mais pas vaincu
Kosovo : cet inexcusable mépris de la classe politique
Censure du gouvernement Kurti, le Kosovo plonge dans la crise
Kosovo : la taxe de la discorde met le gouvernement en péril
Kosovo-Serbie : ping-pong diplomatique entre Bruxelles et Washington
Albin Kurti : pour un dialogue « d'égal à égal » entre le Kosovo et la Serbie
Kosovo : missions impossibles pour le nouveau gouvernement Kurti ?

/ Trump Balkans, dialogue Kosovo Serbie, Kosovo, Courrier des Balkans, Relations régionales, Politique intérieure, Kosovo crise politique

Kosovo : Albin Kurti renversé, mais pas vaincu
Kosovo : cet inexcusable mépris de la classe politique
Censure du gouvernement Kurti, le Kosovo plonge dans la crise
Kosovo : la taxe de la discorde met le gouvernement en péril
Kosovo-Serbie : ping-pong diplomatique entre Bruxelles et Washington
Albin Kurti : pour un dialogue « d'égal à égal » entre le Kosovo et la Serbie
Kosovo : missions impossibles pour le nouveau gouvernement Kurti ?

/ Trump Balkans, dialogue Kosovo Serbie, Kosovo, Courrier des Balkans, Relations régionales, Politique intérieure, Kosovo crise politique

In today's edition of the Capitals, find out more about German Chancellor Angela Merkel now supporting solidarity measures beyond the ESM, residents of Bulgaria's capital, Sofia, breaching the Easter lockdown, and so much more.

The European Union's chief Brexit negotiator said after the first day of renewed talks with Britain that the bloc is aiming for "tangible progress" by June on the shape of a new relationship before London severs its ties with the bloc at the end of the year.

Drei Tage vor dem EU-Gipfel zeichnet sich ein Kompromiss ab, wie von der Corona-Krise besonders stark betroffene EU-Staaten stärker unterstützt werden könnten.

While pro-Russian separatists in occupied Georgian territory are taking advantage of the COVID-19 outbreak to press on with illegal borderisation, the population of these areas puts hopes in the success of Tbilisi in fighting the pandemic.

Vlagyimir Putyin elrendelte a náci Németország felett aratott győzelem 75. évfordulóján megtartani tervezett május 9-i katonai díszszemle későbbre halasztását.

A koronavírus-járvány miatt hozott döntésében Putyin úgy rendelkezett, hogy a Vörös téri díszszemlével együtt az évfordulóval kapcsolatos minden más eseményt is el kell halasztani, köztük a háború részvevőiről való megemlékezést, az úgynevezett Halhatatlan Ezred vonulását, amely Moszkvában rendszerint több százezres, országosan és nemzetközi szinten pedig milliós tömegeket szokott megmozgatni. Az ünnepségek megtartásának új dátumát nem közölte.

“Az ünnepig, a Győzelem napjáig már kevesebb mint egy hónap van hátra, és most egy nem könnyű, mondjuk ki egyenesen, nehéz választás előtt állunk: a május 9-i dátum is szent számunkra és megfizethetetlen minden ember élete is” – mondta Putyin a kormány vezetőivel tartott online-tanácskozáson.

Rámutatott, hogy a díszszemle és a kapcsolódó tömegrendezvények előkészületeit már most meg kellene kezdeni, de nem rendeli el ezeket, mert a járvány május 9-re még nem éri el a tetőpontját, a vele kapcsolatos kockázatok rendkívül magasak. Leszögezte, hogy a katonai díszszemlét a Vörös téren és a Halhatatlan Ezred vonulását idén a járványveszély levonulása után fogják megtartani.

“Visszavonulásra kényszerítjük a fenyegetést, amelybe ma beleütközünk, és akkor feltétlenül meg fogjuk tartani a május 9-re tervezett rendezvényeket, ezt szeretettel és ünnepélyesen fogjuk megtenni, az idei, 2020-as évben, annál is inkább mert az ideit az emlékezet és a dicsőség évévé nyilvánítottuk” – hangoztatta az orosz vezető.

Orosz veteránszövetségek kérték arra az elnököt, hogy a világháborús jubileumi megemlékezéseket később tartsák meg. A moszkvai díszszemlére az orosz vezetés már számos külföldi vezetőt invitált. Dmitrij Peszkov, a Kreml szóvivője múlt csütörtökön újságíróknak azt mondta, hogy a meghívásokat nem mondták le. Orosz sajtóértesülések szerint a katonai díszszemlét június 24-re, az 1945-ben a Vörös téren Georgij Zsukov marsall által levezényelt győzelmi parádé jubileumára, vagy szeptember 3-ra tehetik át, amely dátumot Oroszország a második világháború befejezésének tekinti.

Oroszországban a csütörtökön közzétett hivatalos adatok szerint egy nap alatt 3448-cal, 27 938-ra nőtt az ismert koronavírus-fertőzöttek száma, ami 14,1 százalékos napi növekményt jelent, és esti jelentések szerint a Covid-19-járvány immár mind a 85 orosz régióra kiterjedt.

Nyikolaj Malisev vezető orosz infektológus csütörtöki moszkvai sajtóértekezletén úgy vélekedett, hogy a járvány június-júliusban tetőzik majd Oroszországban.

Franciaországban az elmúlt 24 órában 547-tel 20 265-re emelkedett a koronavírus-járvány kórházakból, idősotthonokból és más szociális intézményekből jelentett halálos áldozatainak a száma az előző napi 395 után, de folytatódott a kórházban ápoltak számának csökkenése - közölte hétfő este a francia egészségügyi tárca járványügyi felelőse.

Beta News Agency stated that it had not been sending any questions for the Crisis Headquarters’ regular press conferences for several days now. “We will continue with this practice as long as the conditions under which the conferences are organised...

EU Special Representative for the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue Miroslav Lajcak said on Monday (20 April) that the EU-mediated dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia provides both countries with an opportunity to tackle and overcome their past problems and turn toward a better...

Written by Costica Dumbrava,

© petovarga / Adobe Stock

Governments around the world have turned to digital technologies to tackle the coronavirus crisis. One of the key measures has been to use mobile devices to monitor populations and track individuals who are infected or at risk.

About half of the EU’s Member States have taken location-tracking measures in response to the spread of the coronavirus disease, mainly by working with telecommunications companies to map population movements using anonymised and aggregate location data and by developing applications (apps) for tracking people who are at risk. The European Commission has called for a common EU approach to the use of mobile apps and mobile data to assess social distancing measures, support contact-tracing efforts, and contribute to limiting the spread of the virus.

While governments may be justified in limiting certain fundamental rights and freedoms in order to take effective steps to fight the epidemic, such exceptional and temporary measures need to comply with applicable fundamental rights standards and EU rules on data protection and privacy.

This briefing discusses location-tracking measures using mobile devices in the context of the Covid‑19 crisis. It describes initiatives in EU Member States and provides a brief analysis of fundamental rights standards and the EU policy framework, including applicable EU rules on data protection and privacy.

Read the complete briefing on ‘Tracking mobile devices to fight coronavirus‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.

Using mobile phones to track location and trace contacts in order to fight Covid 19

LCI - La France a passé ce lundi la barre des 20.000 personnes tuées par le Covid-19. Une pandémie "meurtrière", qui a tué "de...

While it is yet to be approved by Slovakia’s National Council, the new government of Igor Matovič (OĽaNO) has adopted its programme statement, which foresees strong pro-EU and transatlantic orientation. The COVID-19 related developments will be testing the EU, the...

Four women and a young child were detained at Ukiya Police Station in Cox's Bazar after police rescued them from being trafficking to Malaysia. Credit: Rafiqul Islam/IPS

By Rafiqul Islam
COX'S BAZAR , Apr 21 2020 (IPS)

Last week more than 396 starving Rohingyas were rescued off the coast of Bangladesh after being at sea for two months. At least 32 had died on the boat after it failed to reached Malaysia. While it was unclear at the time of the breaking news whether the refugees were from Myanmar, where they are originally from, or Bangladesh — where more than a million Rohingya Muslims live as refugees after fleeing violence in Myanmar in 2017 — the attempt to reach Malaysia is not a new one.

For years, Rohingya refugees have boarded boats, organised by traffickers, in the hope of finding refuge in Southeast Asia. Usually they make the 2,500 km sea voyage during the dry season from November to March while the waters are calm.

While there are no official figures from local police about the number of trafficking victims, a local crime reporter who asked not to be named told IPS that the numbers rank in the thousands.

“Around 350 people are trafficked from Cox’s Bazar in every trip. And there are six to seven such trips per month. About 1,500 to 2,000 people, on average, are being trafficked to Malaysia every month,” he told IPS.

• On Feb. 11, 15 Rohingyas, 11 women and four children, died as an overcrowded mechanised fishing boat illegally carrying 138 Rohingyas to Malaysia sunk in the Bay of Bengal, about 10 kilometres away from Saint Martin’s Island in Cox’s Bazar. 72 Rohingyas and three suspected traffickers were rescued alive.
• On the evening of Mar. 10, police rescued 15 Malaysia-bound Rohingyas, including six women and a child, from traffickers in Ukhiya, Cox’s Bazar.

The Rohingya are one of the most persecuted minorities in the world, they are denied citizenship in Myanmar and also restricted from freedom of movement, state education and civil service jobs.

• In 2017 more than 750,000 fled to neighbouring Bangladesh during what the United Nations later called genocide-like attacks by the Myanmar military. There had already been some hundreds of thousands Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh who had fled to the country prior this mass exodus. 

Some of those living in the Cox Bazar camps have attempted the irregular migration journey to Malaysia in the hope of earning an income and having a better life. But many of the so-called “work opportunities” they have been offered have proven to be trafficking scams.

A gang of human traffickers based in Malaysia have reportedly been luring Rohingya youth and young girls to the South Asian nation, working with local traffickers who visit Rohingya camps and identify possible targets.

“There is a section of people in Rohingya camps and they find the Rohingya girls, who look pretty, and those who could be trafficked,” Nurul Islam Majumder, a police inspector at Ukhiya Police Station in Cox’s Bazar, told IPS.

The Malaysian-based traffickers then call their targets and lure them into making the crossing to Malaysia by promising jobs or marriage. 

“And then they bring the victims to seashore though a specific route and they are trafficked to Malaysia by boats,” Majumder said.

Mukarrama was taken to Ukiya Police Station in Cox’s Bazar after police saved her with others who were attempting to travel irregularly to Malaysia. What they didn’t know was that they had been potentially caught in a human trafficking syndicate. Credit: Rafiqul Islam/IPS

16-year-old Mukarrama, how lived with her family in Bangladesh in the Kutopalong camp in Cox’s Bazar, was one of the young women who had been lured to Malaysia by the promise of marriage. But before she could leave the shores of Bangladesh she, and others with her, were discovered by authorities and returned to the camp. 

Her journey first started in 2019, when a man called her mobile and introduced himself as a Rohingya named Jubair. He was living in Malaysia, he told the young girl, and wanted to marry her.

What Mukarrama and her family did not know then was that he was part of a human trafficking syndicate. Jubair may not have been his real name.

Since her family’s escape from Myanmar, the family of five had been living in a single-roomed makeshift house without basic amenities. Built on a hill slope, the home is in a precarious position and vulnerable to destruction during the landslides that inevitably occur during the monsoons here.

Mukarrama and her family wanted a better life. So when Mukarrama told her parents about the call with Jubair, they agreed to the “proposal”. 

“With permission of my family, I got married with my husband over the phone one year ago,” Mukarrama told IPS while she was at a one-stop policing centre in Cox’s Bazar. She needed the legal services of the centre to re-enter the camp.

Since her “marriage”, Mukarrama was desperate to go Malaysia to join her husband. On Mar. 9, Jubair phoned her and said a local man would call her over the phone and ask her to follow him as he would help her travel to Malaysia.

“A person phoned me the next day morning and asked me to come to the gate of the Rohingya camp immediately. And when I came to the camp’s gate, he took me inside an auto-rickshaw…there were also two Rohingya girls and two youths in the rickshaw.

“We were taken into a jungle along the coastline in Cox’s Bazar to send us to Malaysia by a wooden boat on the rough sea route,” Mukarrama remembered.

“A group of brokers gathered us in a jungle and just before [we boarded] a boat for sending us to Malaysia, we were rescued by police.”   

Local brokers often gather the persons to be trafficked, particularly adolescent girls and boys, at isolated places along shores.

Mukarrama had been fortunate. As there have been reports of extortion and physical assault of the victims before they board the boats. 

“Before putting us on a boat in a night, they (local brokers) had tried to rape us in an isolated place. And that’s why we started screaming. Hearing our crying, local people recovered us and handed over to police,” a trafficking survivor who did not wish to be named told IPS.

Local crime reporter Mahmudul Haque Babul told IPS that once in Malaysia the abuse continues: “Once Rohingyas reach Malaysia, traffickers demand a big amount of ransom from the family members of victims. If the families of women victims fail to give the ransom, the women are sold for prostitution abroad.”

According to the Global Sustainability Network (GSN), trafficking remains an issue globally as “there are many incentives for people to exploit others for financial gain and as a result many people profit. It’s therefore a thriving business with a strong hold in countless sectors and at multiple levels. It will be defended with vigour”.

Rasheda Begum (19), another trafficking survivor, told IPS that she had married fellow refugee Mohammd Ilias when she was only 15. He left for Malaysia shortly after via the irregular sea route.

“Since then, we have not united and that’s why I wanted to join my husband any way,” she said, revealing that her long-cherished wish was to join her husband in Malaysia.

Recalling the dark days when the Myanmar military burnt their houses and killed Rohingyas in Rakhine State, Begum said: “Nothing remains in my life. Brokers lured me to help go Malaysia and meet my husband.”           

But fortunately she and the others being trafficked with her were discovered by authorities and returned to Cox’s Bazar.

Citing official statistics, Majumder said that so far in 2020 five cases linked to human trafficking were recorded with the Ukhiya Police Station, adding that law enforcement agencies were doing their best to combat the crime.

“If the authorities concerned do not install strong boundary fences around the Rohingya refugee camps, it would be very hard for the law enforcing agencies to check human trafficking here. Deploying only 300 to 400 police personnel around the refugee camps, it would be quite impossible to bring forcibly displaced Rohingyas under surveillance,” he added.    

In a recent statement, the U.N. Refugee Agency said they, along with the Bangladesh government, had been working to raise awareness among the refugees and local people on the issues of trafficking and risks they face. The U.N. is also supporting the strengthening of law enforcement capacities to address smuggling and trafficking, while support is also available to trafficking survivors, the statement read.

This is part of a series of features from across the globe on human trafficking. IPS coverage is supported by the Airways Aviation Group.

The Global Sustainability Network ( GSN ) is pursuing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal number 8 with a special emphasis on Goal 8.7 which ‘takes immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms’.

The origins of the GSN come from the endeavours of the Joint Declaration of Religious Leaders signed on 2 December 2014. Religious leaders of various faiths, gathered to work together “to defend the dignity and freedom of the human being against the extreme forms of the globalisation of indifference, such us exploitation, forced labour, prostitution, human trafficking” and so forth.

 

Related Articles

• Concerns for the Nearly 400 Rohingya Refugees Rescued off the Coast of Bangladesh
• Little Hope of Justice for Rohingya, Two Years after Exodus

The post Dying for a Better Life – How Rohingya Refugees Risk their Lives to Cross into Malaysia appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Last week almost 400 Rohingyas were rescued off the coast of Bangladesh after being at sea for two months after their boat failed to reach Malaysia. But the case is not a new one as each month thousands board boats from refugee camps in Bangladesh in an attempt to irregularly migrate to Malaysia.

The post Dying for a Better Life – How Rohingya Refugees Risk their Lives to Cross into Malaysia appeared first on Inter Press Service.

While German Chancellor Angela Merkel has opposed the idea of 'coronabonds', German MEPs from her own political faction have spoken out in favour of 'recovery bonds', a position that could weigh heavily on the EU summit next Thursday. EURACTIV Germany reports.

Glyphosate, the world’s most widely used herbicide, turns out to be harmful to animals, according to a new study by the University of Turku. The new, year-long study, is the first of its kind to have tested the weedkiller on...