Far-right Turkish party raising funds to buy bus tickets to send Syrian refugees home

Far-right Turkish party raising funds to buy bus tickets to send Syrian refugees home
A Syrian refugee mother puts her baby in a stroller, Nizip refugee camp, Gaziantep province, Turkiye, Nov. 30, 2016. (Reuters/File)
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Updated 18 January 2023

Far-right Turkish party raising funds to buy bus tickets to send Syrian refugees home

Far-right Turkish party raising funds to buy bus tickets to send Syrian refugees home
  • The Victory Party called for donations and said the money will pay for tickets to Syria not only for refugees but also those who support refugee rights
  • Human rights experts said the party’s campaign is ‘against international law and it also aims to target individuals and normalize any violent act against them’

ANKARA: Turkiye’s far-right, anti-refugee Victory (Zafer) Party has launched a fundraising campaign with the pledge that the money raised will be used to pay for one-way bus tickets to send all Syrian refugees home.
In a campaign video, the party asked supporters for the names of people they want to be sent back to Syria. It said it will buy tickets not only for the refugees but for those who support refugee rights in Turkiye.
“Ticket sales for Zafer Tourism’s one-way trips to Damascus have just begun,” the party’s founder, Umit Ozdag, said in a message posted on Twitter as he asked supporters to respond with the names of Syrians they wanted to make “early reservations” for.
The Victory Party has previously pledged to deport all Syrian refugees within a year if it gains power. But with its latest campaign, Ozdag is also targeting Turkish citizens who have adopted a pro-refugee stance, including journalist Nagehan Alci, by adding their names to a “persona non grata” list.
Syrian-Turkish journalist Ahmet Hamo was also targeted by the campaign, which featured a bus ticket with his name on it. Ozdag previously vowed to strip Hamo of his citizenship if Zafer takes power.
According to the UN, Turkiye hosts about 3.6 million Syrians displaced by the long-running civil war in their home country. The Victory Party was founded primarily on an anti-refugee platform and Ozdag often visits Syrian-run businesses telling them to leave the country as soon as possible. It recently published a video on YouTube, called Silent Invasion, to warn people about a supposed dystopian future for Turkiye in which Arabs outnumber Turks.
Ruhat Sena Aksener, the acting director of Amnesty International Turkiye, said many of the refugees and asylum seekers in Turkish camps live in constant fear of being sent back to the war-torn country they fled.
“Such discriminatory statements raised in public add to the fear of them being sent back, being discriminated against, and being exposed to racist threats and acts,” she told Arab News.
“The increase in physical attacks against refugees and immigrants with the rise of anti-refugee rhetoric is the clearest indicator of this.”
With presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for May in Turkiye, all political parties are taking positions on the refugee issue. According to the latest Turkiye Trends 2022 survey, conducted by Global Akademi, it is the third most important issue among Turkish citizens, behind the economy and terrorism.
Turkiye’s main opposition Republican People’s Party, also known as the CHP, has also committed to sending refugees back to Syria if it assumes power. CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu said this would be done in a voluntary and dignified way, as required by the principles of international law, and that security guarantees about the safety of returnees be sought from the Syrian regime.
The ruling Justice and Development Party also supports the return of Syrian refugees to Turkish-controlled areas in northern Syria, as part of a process of political normalization with the regime of President Bashar Assad, and Turkish authorities have already deported thousands. The Defense Ministry recently said the return of refugees will be in accordance with UN principles of safe repatriation.
According to Begum Basdas, a human rights and migration researcher at the Center for Fundamental Rights at Hertie School in Berlin, the forcible return of refugees to Syria violates the non-refoulement principle of international law codified in the 1951 Refugee Convention, which means Turkiye cannot send anyone to a place they might face violations of their human rights.
“Furthermore, the Turkish legal framework on temporary protection of Syrians also includes articles that prohibit refoulement,” she told Arab News.
“That said, in recent years most political leaders have chosen to ignore the rule of law to get the upper hand in upcoming elections.”
Aksener agrees with this assessment and said: “According to international law, under the non-refoulement principle, it is forbidden for asylum seekers to be sent to countries where they face the possible danger of persecution based on race, religion, nationality, belonging to a particular social group or political opinion.”
Therefore any political campaign that promises or promotes such a plan breaches international law, she added.
“Such actions should be perceived as attempts to discriminate against refugees by increasing racism and xenophobia, and are considered acts against human rights. That’s unacceptable,” Aksener said.
Victory Party founder Ozdag recently said there are 13 million refugees in Türkiye without providing any data or proof to support of his claim, compared with the UN figure of about 3.6 million. Basdas said Ozdag’s figure is deliberately unrealistic, designed only to fuel xenophobia and fear among the Turkish public.
“This latest campaign of the Victory Party is against international law, and it also aims to target individuals and normalize any violent act against them,” she said.
“Racism and discrimination perpetrated by the Victory Party, branded as ‘love of the country,’ is actually a recipe for a future shaped by hatred, distrust and violence, not only toward migrants but to all citizens that stand by human rights and the rule of law in a country that has been in a steady democratic decay.”
In recent years, Basdas said, putting people’s lives at risk has become a political tool used to win elections by distracting voters from the real problems that lie elsewhere. The few people who take a stand against such tactics are targeted in an attempt to silence them. She also criticized European nations for failing to meet their obligations on the issue.
“Europe fails to address the lack of effective access to asylum, violations of the principle of non-refoulement, and the discriminatory attacks against refugees, as well as the pushbacks at the borders by designating Turkiye as a safe third country. This must change now,” she said.
Western countries have often praised Turkiye’s remarkable efforts in hosting Syrian refugees. However, experts have said that the West should assume more responsibility relating to this issue.
“States must fulfill their obligations to protect people in need of international protection, to respect their human rights, and to ensure that they remain in their territory in favorable conditions until a permanent solution is found. Policies should advocate ending (border) pushbacks,” Aksener said.
Basdas agrees and said: “The international community should increase resettlement commitments for Syrians from Turkiye and offer sustainable solutions to provide assistance to host this large population in safety.”
About 223,881 Syrians have Turkish citizenship and 126,786 of them are eligible to vote in the upcoming elections.


Labor chiefs probe exploitation of Palestinian workers in Israel

Labor chiefs probe exploitation of Palestinian workers in Israel
Updated 37 min 6 sec ago

Labor chiefs probe exploitation of Palestinian workers in Israel

Labor chiefs probe exploitation of Palestinian workers in Israel
  • More than 120 killed in past 15 months

RAMALLAH: The powerful International Labor Organization is investigating allegations of ill-treatment and exploitation of Palestinian workers in Israel.

Palestinian leaders have handed a dossier to a fact-finding committee from the organization showing that the Israeli army killed 93 Palestinian workers in Israel in 2022, and a further 31 so far this year.

The report also detailed abuse of Palestinian workers at military checkpoints and barriers, the absence of occupational health and safety standards, and illegal working hours.

The dossier was handed over by Shaher Saad, secretary-general of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions.  Saad also told investigators that brokers and illegal middlemen were deducting about $34 million a month in fees taken from workers’ salaries, which prevented the implementation of a working social security system in Palestine.

About 170,000 Palestinians from the West Bank work in Israel or in illegal Israeli settlements, and 17,000 from the Gaza Strip. Each month they are required to pay about 2,500 shekels ($780) in fees for a work permit, in a system that is riddled with corruption.

A report in 2021 by the Institute for National Security Studies suggests that people illegally selling work permits had annual revenue of 1 billion shekels from about 40,000 Palestinian workers.

Meanwhile Israeli armed forces’ assaults against Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem have continued with increasing frequency during Ramadan, Palestinian sources told to Arab News.

On Tuesday, the Israeli army arrested 13 citizens from different parts of the West Bank. At the same time, and for the fourth consecutive day, it continued to tighten its grip on the town of Huwara, south of Nablus.

Kamal Odeh, Fatah secretary in Huwara, said that the Israeli army had deployed intensively on the main street, setting up several barriers and trying to divert citizens’ routes through secondary streets inside the town.Soldiers turned several houses along the main street in the center of Huwara into military barracks.

“The security situation around Nablus is frightening,” Amer Hamdan, a rights activist from Nablus, told Arab News.

Israeli bulldozers also demolished three agricultural facilities in the Al-Sawahra wilderness, east of Jerusalem, and a commercial facility in Deir Ballut, west of Salfit.

Maj. Gen. Abdullah Kamil, the governor of Salfit, said demolitions by Israeli authorities in Salfit served the occupation’s plans to uproot Palestinian citizens from their lands in order to build more Israeli settlements.
 


Biden urges Netanyahu abandon judicial overhaul that sparked protests

Biden urges Netanyahu abandon judicial overhaul that sparked protests
Updated 29 March 2023

Biden urges Netanyahu abandon judicial overhaul that sparked protests

Biden urges Netanyahu abandon judicial overhaul that sparked protests
  • “Israel is a sovereign country which makes its decisions by the will of its people and not based on pressures from abroad, including from the best of friends,” he said

WASHINGTON, JERUSALEM: US President Joe Biden on Tuesday urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to abandon a judicial overhaul proposal that led to massive protests in Israel, prompting the Israeli leader to say he does not make decisions based on pressure from abroad.
Netanyahu on Monday delayed the overhaul proposal after large numbers of people spilled into the streets. The White House initially said in response that Netanyahu should seek a compromise on the issue.
But Biden went further in taking questions from reporters on Tuesday. “I hope he walks away from it,” Biden said, referring to the judicial proposal that would give the Israeli government greater control over appointments to the country’s Supreme Court.
Netanyahu quickly issued a statement in response.
“Israel is a sovereign country which makes its decisions by the will of its people and not based on pressures from abroad, including from the best of friends,” he said.
Netanyahu said his administration was striving to make reforms “via broad consensus.”
“I have known President Biden for over 40 years, and I appreciate his longstanding commitment to Israel,” Netanyahu said.
He said the Israel-US alliance is unbreakable “and always overcomes the occasional disagreements between us.
“My administration is committed to strengthening democracy by restoring the proper balance between the three branches of government, which we are striving to achieve via a broad consensus,” Netanyahu said.

 


Israeli forces tighten security measures against Palestinians

Israeli security forces patrol in the West Bank town of Huwara, on March 26, 2023. (AFP)
Israeli security forces patrol in the West Bank town of Huwara, on March 26, 2023. (AFP)
Updated 29 March 2023

Israeli forces tighten security measures against Palestinians

Israeli security forces patrol in the West Bank town of Huwara, on March 26, 2023. (AFP)
  • Sources said that the settlers attacked houses and burned vehicles under the protection of Israeli army forces, who assaulted citizens

RAMALLAH: Israeli armed forces’ assaults against Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem have continued with increasing frequency during Ramadan, Palestinian sources confirmed to Arab News.

On Tuesday, the Israeli army arrested 13 citizens from different parts of the West Bank. At the same time, and for the fourth consecutive day, it continued to tighten its grip on the town of Huwara, south of Nablus.

Kamal Odeh, Fatah secretary in Huwara, said that the Israeli army has deployed intensively on the main street, setting up several barriers and trying to divert citizens’ routes through secondary streets inside the town.

According to eyewitnesses, the Israeli army turned several houses along the main street in the center of Huwara into military barracks.

Amer Hamdan, a human rights activist from Nablus, told Arab News that it usually takes him one hour to drive from Nablus to Ramallah. Today, however, the trip took him two and a half hours due to Israeli military checkpoints in Huwara.

“The security situation around Nablus is ad frightening,” Hamdan told Arab News.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Israeli bulldozers demolished three agricultural facilities in the Al-Sawahra wilderness, east of Jerusalem, and a commercial facility in Deir Ballut, west of Salfit.

Maj. Gen. Abdullah Kamil, the governor of Salfit, said that the policy of demolishing homes and facilities by the Israeli authorities in Salfit is one of the most egregious and inhumane practices and that it serves the occupation’s plans to uproot Palestinian citizens from their lands in order to build more Israeli settlements.

During the past hours, settler militias have launched a large-scale attack on Huwara, south of Nablus.

Sources said that the settlers attacked houses and burned vehicles under the protection of Israeli army forces, who assaulted citizens.

On Tuesday, settlers cut down 14 olive trees in the lands of Husan village, west of Bethlehem, after they had also cut down 50 olive trees in that area about 10 days ago.

Separately, Secretary-General of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions Shaher Saad handed over to the Fact-Finding Committee of the International Labor Organization an annual report on violations against Palestinian workers inside Israel.

The paper included the number of Palestinian workers killed by the Israeli army — 93 in the year 2022, and 31 in the first two and a half months of 2023 — and the risks that workers are exposed to while passing through barriers and openings, in addition to violations related to brokers who deduct approximately $34 million from workers’ salaries per month.

Saad explained to the committee that the Israeli government’s procedures for handing over workers’ money to the Israeli Otaim company threaten their rights and prevent the implementation of social security in Palestine.

The report also included the daily violations that workers face, especially in the absence of occupational health and safety standards, including working hours that extend beyond those legally established.

Some 140,000 Palestinians from the West Bank are working in Israel, 30,000 in Israeli settlements, and 17,000 from the Gaza Strip.

Qadura Faris, the head of the Palestinian Prisoners Club, told Arab News that since 2021, cases of cancer among Palestinian security prisoners have been increasing, with 24 prisoners currently suffering from the disease.

He confirmed that the prison administration has deliberately pursued a policy of medical negligence toward prisoners, which has led to the death of 75 prisoners out of the 236 who have died in prisons since 1967.

“The policy of medical negligence is the most dangerous policy pursued by the Israeli prison administration,” Faris told Arab News, adding that about 700 sick prisoners diagnosed in Israeli prisons have faced difficult health conditions over the past years, including about 200 who suffer from chronic diseases.

Israel has 4,780 Palestinian security prisoners in its jails.

 


Lebanese politicians hurl insults at each other as tensions boil over in parliament

Lebanese politicians hurl insults at each other as tensions boil over in parliament
Updated 29 March 2023

Lebanese politicians hurl insults at each other as tensions boil over in parliament

Lebanese politicians hurl insults at each other as tensions boil over in parliament
  • Meanwhile, the US Treasury has imposed sanctions on two Lebanese citizens accused of being drug kingpins

BEIRUT: Politicians in Lebanon shouted and hurled insults at each other during a meeting of a joint parliamentary committee on Tuesday. It came as tensions continued to rise amid the ongoing failure to choose a new president and growing concerns that it will be impossible to hold municipal elections scheduled for May.

Amal Movement MP Ghazi Zeaiter, who has been accused of involvement in the events leading up to the massive explosion at Beirut’s port in August 2020, clashed with independent MP Melhem Khalaf, who has been staging a sit-in at the parliament for more than two months over the failure of MPs to elect a new president. As tensions rose, Zeaiter was accused of publicly insulting Khalaf.

Another dispute, over the municipal elections, broke out between Sami Gemayel, head of the Kataeb Party, and the Amal Movement’s Ali Hassan Khalil, who is also accused of involvement in the port explosion. The former accused the latter of using “immoral” insults.

As the rows continued, the meeting was ended. It took place a day after caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati reversed his unpopular decision, announced last week, to delay the start of daylight saving time for a month “to allow those fasting during Ramadan to rest for an hour.”

“What happened during the session was shocking,” said MP Hadi Abu Al-Hassan, a member of the Democratic Gathering bloc. “The country’s situation will become too dangerous if we continue this way.”

Politicians need to heed the voice of reason and consider carefully the best interests of the country and its people, he added.

“We need to elect a president, form a government and start implementing reforms instead of carrying on with this tense drama.”

The presidency has been vacant since Michel Aoun’s term concluded at the end of October last year. Politicians have been unable to reach agreement on a successor.

Abu Al-Hassan said that Walid Jumblatt, the head of the Progressive Socialist Party, has been talking with members of a number of parties in an attempt to ensure the volatile political situation remains under control but underlying tensions remain high.

After the ill-tempered parliamentary meeting, Gemayel refused to go into the details of the dispute but said that he considers what happened to be “a dangerous offense against sanctities and we cannot accept this.”

He warned that if some officials persist with their current approach to managing the country’s affairs, even bigger problems lie in store.

“If I disclosed what happened, I would be contributing to creating the strife that some want to drag the country into, and we do not want that,” Gemayel added.

He called on Speaker of the Parliament Nabih Berri to “address what happened” and added “if he does not want to deal with it, then he can consider the message received and we will discuss with our allies how we will take things from here.”

Warning of the potential dangers of failure to hold the municipal elections, Gemayel stressed “the need for the state to cover the cost” of the polls “as the required amount is $8 million.”

The Lebanese government has said it is unable to cover the cost of the elections, according to a source in the Ministry of Interior, as “there is no money or staff to hold them.”

The ministry has set the cost of the elections at $12 million. International donors, including the EU, the US Agency for International Development, and the UN Development Program, have pledged $3 million, which would cover the cost of necessities such as printing, stationery and logistics. The Lebanese state would need to provide the remaining money for election workers, judges, security, the transportation of ballot boxes, and electrical power, among other things.

Any decision to postpone the elections would require the calling of a legislative session. Christian parliamentary blocs refuse to agree to such sessions on the grounds that “Parliament is currently an electorate body whose sole purpose is to elect a president.” Meanwhile, other political forces do not want to be the ones responsible for passing a law that extends the terms of the current municipal councils.

In other news, the US Treasury imposed sanctions on Lebanese citizens Hassan Daqqou and Nouh Zeaiter, who are accused of being drug lords.

Daqqou is a Lebanese-Syrian dual national from Tufail, a town the straddles the border with Syria. He was arrested in Lebanon in 2021 and remains in detention. The Criminal Court in Beirut last year sentenced him to seven years of hard labor for manufacturing Captagon and trafficking it to other countries. The US Treasury accuses him and his drug-trafficking operations of having direct links to Hezbollah.

Zeaiter is wanted by the Lebanese state on charges of drug trafficking. He is said to surround himself with no fewer than 14 armed guards and travels in four-wheel-drive vehicles with darkened windows. The US Treasury also links him with Hezbollah.

A few days ago, an army force ambushed a convoy on the outskirts of the town of Harbta in which wanted members of the Zeaiter family were traveling. During the armed battle that ensued, Zeaiter’s son, Mahdi, was injured and arrested.


Egypt to allow Iranians visas on arrival in Sinai as regional tensions ease

Egypt to allow Iranians visas on arrival in Sinai as regional tensions ease
Updated 29 March 2023

Egypt to allow Iranians visas on arrival in Sinai as regional tensions ease

Egypt to allow Iranians visas on arrival in Sinai as regional tensions ease

CAIRO: Egypt will soon allow Iranians traveling with tour groups to obtain visas on arrival in the south of its Sinai peninsula with a view to extending access to other parts of the country, Egyptian Tourism Ministry officials said.

The decision is part of a series of measures announced on Monday aimed at improving access to visas to boost tourism revenues at a time when Egypt has been struggling economically with an acute foreign currency shortage.

It also comes as some Middle Eastern countries including Egypt are taking steps to ease regional tensions. Egypt’s Sunni Muslim Arab ally Saudi Arabia and Shiite Muslim Iran announced this month that they would restore diplomatic relations.

Cairo has mended a rift with Qatar and is re-establishing ties with Turkiye, another country to benefit from new visa rules with Turkish nationals given expanded access to visas on arrival, according to a Egyptian Tourism Ministry statement.

Among the other new visa rules announced were a $700, five-year multiple-entry visa, which Tourism Minister Ahmed Issa said was aimed at investors and property owners who are based outside Egypt.

On visas for Iranians arriving in South Sinai, home to the highly secured resort of Sharm El-Sheikh, Issa said: “We will evaluate the experience of their arrival in South Sinai as a first step, and building on that, we’ll determine if they will be admitted in other places.”

Relations between Egypt and Iran have generally been fraught in recent decades although the two countries have maintained diplomatic contacts.

Tourists from China, which Egypt regards as a market with big potential, and Indians residing in Gulf countries will also be granted visas on arrival.

All new visa rules have been approved in principle and will be put into effect soon, a Tourism Ministry official said.