UK Home Office delay in reuniting 11-year-old Syrian with mother is ‘putting her life at risk’

UK Home Office delay in reuniting 11-year-old Syrian with mother is ‘putting her life at risk’
Pro-immigration protestors argue with an anti-immigration protestor, during a calling a migrant processing centre to be closed in Manston, UK. (File/Reuters)
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Updated 16 February 2023

UK Home Office delay in reuniting 11-year-old Syrian with mother is ‘putting her life at risk’

UK Home Office delay in reuniting 11-year-old Syrian with mother is ‘putting her life at risk’
  • Experts that the girl is suicidal and feels ‘hopeless about ever being reunited with her mother’
  • Officials failed to rule on the mother’s visa application within three month threshold, requesting more evidence on the girl cannot return to her country

LONDON: Delays by the UK’s Home Office that are keeping an 11-year-old Syrian girl with severe mental health issues apart from her mother are “putting her life at risk,” according to experts providing support and working to reunite the family.

The girl, from Al-Harah in southern Syria, arrived in the UK in 2021 to join her 28-year-old brother. Her mother was imprisoned in September 2020 by Syrian authorities after army officers accused her of unauthorized filming with a phone, the family told the Independent newspaper.

Relatives were subsequently told the women had been killed in a prison bombing. It later emerged that she was alive but by that time the girl had traveled to the UK. The mother was released from prison in February 2022 and in September the family applied for a family reunion visa that would allow her to join her children in the UK.

The Home Office is supposed to make a decision about such applications within three months. However, the family has been waiting for more than four and a half months and authorities have requested further evidence to explain why the girl cannot return to the war-torn country and be reunited with her mother there.

Mental health professionals who have been caring for the girl have submitted medical evidence to the Home Office stating that she feels “hopeless about ever being reunited with her mother and/or feeling ‘better’, and she is also reporting that she wants to die.”

They continued: “She presents as broadly mute, tearful, tense … she usually sits with her fists covering her mouth, often picking at the skin on her hands until she bleeds. She has expressed that her only desire is to be reunited with her mother, that she feels emotionally and physically exhausted, she has thoughts to hurt herself which she has acted upon.”

A family therapist said that on the advice of mental health professionals, the girl’s brother quit his job so that he could supervise his sister and prevent her from harming herself. They highlighted the significant effect this has had on his family life as he has several special-needs children to care for.

The therapist gave the professional opinion that the brother would struggle to provide his sister with the long-term care she requires.

Nick O’Loughnan, a solicitor acting on the girl’s behalf, told the Independent: “I am deeply concerned that the Home Office is questioning why this extremely vulnerable and traumatized young girl cannot return to a war zone.

“The secretary of state has a statutory duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in the UK. I think that it is obvious that this is a complete dereliction of duty.

“The delay in the outcome is affecting our client’s mental health so severely that it is placing her life at risk. Every day that passes without a positive decision furthers our client’s trauma and places great strain on the lives of her caregivers in the UK.”

UK government rules allow a parent to apply for a family reunion visa so that a spouse or children under the age of 18 can join them, but children cannot apply for a visa for a parent using the same process.

Instead, they must submit a “leave outside the rules” application asking the Home Office to grant permission for a migrant to enter the country because there are exceptional circumstances.

The rights of the family are enshrined under international human rights law, and the UN’s Refugee Agency has emphasized the importance of reuniting families in efforts to care for child refugees.

A Home Office spokesperson told the Independent the mother’s visa application was under active consideration, “with the well-being of those involved central to the thinking of decision-makers.”

 


Sixty Afghan girls hospitalized after school poisoning

Sixty Afghan girls hospitalized after school poisoning
Updated 19 sec ago

Sixty Afghan girls hospitalized after school poisoning

Sixty Afghan girls hospitalized after school poisoning
KABUL: Around 60 Afghan girls were hospitalized after being poisoned at their school in northern Afghanistan, police said on Monday.
The poisoning, which targeted a girls’ school in the Afghan province of Sar-e Pol, comes after intense scrutiny of girls’ education in the war-torn nation since the Taliban took over and barred most teenage female students and after a wave of poison attacks on girls’ schools in neighboring Iran.
“Some unknown people entered a girls’ ... school in Sancharak District .. and poisoned the classes, when the girls come to classes they got poisoned,” said Den Mohammad Nazari, Sar-e-Pol’s police spokesperson, without elaborating on which substance was used or who was thought to be behind the incident.
Nazari said the girls had been taken to ho.spital but were in “good condition.” No one had been arrested.
In neighboring Iran, poisoning incidents at girls’ schools sickened an estimated 13,000 mostly female students since November.
During Afghanistan’s previous foreign-backed government, several poisoning attacks, including suspected gas attacks, on girls’ schools had taken place.
The Taliban administration has prevented most female students from attending highschool and university since taking over in 2021, sparking condemnation from international governments and many Afghans. Taliban authorities have kept primary schools open for girls, up until the age of around 12 and say they are in favor of female education under certain conditions.

Fighter jets chase small plane in Washington area before it crashes in Virginia

Fighter jets chase small plane in Washington area before it crashes in Virginia
After several hours first responders found no one alive the Virginia State Police said in a statement. (AFP)
Updated 05 June 2023

Fighter jets chase small plane in Washington area before it crashes in Virginia

Fighter jets chase small plane in Washington area before it crashes in Virginia
  • The jet fighters created a sonic boom over the US capital as they pursued the errant Cessna Citation

WASHINGTON: The United States scrambled F-16 fighter jets in a supersonic chase of a light aircraft with an unresponsive pilot that violated airspace around Washington DC and later crashed into the mountains of Virginia, officials said.

No survivors were found at the crash site, Virginia state police said.

The jet fighters created a sonic boom over the US capital as they pursued the errant Cessna Citation, officials said, causing consternation among people in the Washington area.

Four people were onboard the Cessna, a source familiar with the matter said. A Cessna Citation can carry seven to 12 passengers.

After several hours first responders reached the crash site but found no one alive, the Virginia State Police said in a statement.

The Cessna was registered to Encore Motors of Melbourne, Florida, according to the flight-tracking website Flight Aware.

Encore owner John Rumpel told the Washington Post his daughter, a grandchild and her nanny were on board.

“We know nothing about the crash,” the Post quoted Rumpel as saying. “We are talking to the FAA now,” he added before ending the call.

The US military attempted to contact the pilot, who was unresponsive, until the Cessna crashed near the George Washington National Forest in Virginia, North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) said in a statement.

The Cessna appeared to be flying on autopilot, another source familiar the matter said.

“The NORAD aircraft were authorized to travel at supersonic speeds and a sonic boom may have been heard by residents of the region,” the statement said, adding that NORAD aircraft also used flares to the pilot’s attention.

A US official said the fighters did not cause the crash.

The Cessna took off from Elizabethton Municipal Airport in Elizabethton, Tennessee, and was bound for Long Island MacArthur Airport in New York, about 80 km east of Manhattan, the FAA said in a statement, adding that it and the National Transportation Safety Board would investigate.

According to Flight Aware, the plane appeared to reach the New York area, then made nearly a 180-degree turn.

Incidents involving unresponsive pilots are not unprecedented. Golfer Payne Stewart died in 1999 along with four others after the aircraft he was in flew thousands of miles with the pilot and passengers unresponsive. The plane eventually crashed in South Dakota with no survivors.

In the case of Stewart’s flight, the plane lost cabin pressure, causing the occupants to lose consciousness because of oxygen deprivation.

Similarly, a small US private plane with an unresponsive pilot crashed off the east coast of Jamaica in 2014 after veering far off course and triggering a US security alert including a fighter jet escort.

On Sunday, the sonic boom rattled many people in the Washington area who took to Twitter to report hearing a loud noise that shook the ground and walls. Several residents said they heard the noise as far away as northern Virginia and Maryland.


China says warship crossing in front of US destroyer was ‘safe’

China says warship crossing in front of US destroyer was ‘safe’
Updated 05 June 2023

China says warship crossing in front of US destroyer was ‘safe’

China says warship crossing in front of US destroyer was ‘safe’

BEIJING: The maneuver of a Chinese warship in the Taiwan Strait during an encounter with a US destroyer was completely reasonable, legal, professional and “safe,” a spokesperson at China’s foreign ministry said at a press conference on Monday.
The US Navy on Sunday released a video of what it called an “unsafe interaction” in the Taiwan Strait, in which a Chinese warship crossed in front of a US destroyer in the Taiwan Strait on Saturday.


Shootout between Pakistani troops and insurgents in border region kills 2 soldiers, 2 militants

Shootout between Pakistani troops and insurgents in border region kills 2 soldiers, 2 militants
Updated 05 June 2023

Shootout between Pakistani troops and insurgents in border region kills 2 soldiers, 2 militants

Shootout between Pakistani troops and insurgents in border region kills 2 soldiers, 2 militants
  • The shootout took place late Sunday in North Waziristan, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province

PESHAWAR: Pakistani troops and militants exchanged fire in a northwestern region along the border with Afghanistan in a shootout that killed two soldiers and two militants, the army said Monday.
The shootout took place late Sunday in North Waziristan, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that is a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban, a militant group also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP.
According to an army statement, two militants were also wounded and troops seized a cache of weapons at the site. A search operation was underway in the area, it said.
Although the Pakistani military claims it has cleared North Waziristan of militants, occasional attacks and shootouts continue, raising concerns that the Pakistani Taliban are regrouping in the area.
Though a separate group, the TTP remains a close ally of the Afghan Taliban, who seizing power in Afghanistan in mid-August 2021, during the last weeks of the withdrawal of US and NATO forces from the country after two decades of war.
The takeover emboldened the TTP. They unilaterally ended a cease-fire agreement with the Pakistani government last November and have since stepped up their attacks in the country.

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Bangladesh power cuts may last two more weeks on fuel shortages

Bangladesh power cuts may last two more weeks on fuel shortages
Updated 05 June 2023

Bangladesh power cuts may last two more weeks on fuel shortages

Bangladesh power cuts may last two more weeks on fuel shortages
  • Bangladesh has suffered under severe power shortages since April as a searing heatwave spiked demand for electricity
  • The power losses threaten Bangladesh’s crucial apparel sector that accounts for more than 80 percent of its exports and supplies retailers

DHAKA: Bangladesh could face power cuts for two more weeks, its power minister said late on Sunday, as higher electricity consumption because of rising temperatures has caused a fuel shortfall for generation plants.
Bangladesh has suffered under severe power shortages since April as a searing heatwave spiked demand for electricity and then a deadly cyclone cut off supplies of natural gas to fuel plants. The country has also curtailed imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG), its main power generation fuel, after record high prices in the second half of 2022 made the fuel too expensive.
“This condition may remain for another two weeks,” Nasrul Hamid, minister of state for power, energy and mineral resources told reporters.
“This problem is happening because we are not able to ensure an adequate supply of coal and gas,” Hamid said.
The power losses threaten Bangladesh’s crucial apparel sector that accounts for more than 80 percent of its exports and supplies retailers such as Walmart, Gap Inc, H&M , VF Corp, Zara and American Eagle Outfitters .
The loss of those exports will exacerbate issues around its dollar reserves, which have plunged by nearly a third in the 12 months to end of April to a seven-year low, and limited its ability to pay for fuel imports.
Hamid said the country’s power sector officials had been working to avert fuel shortfalls over the last two months, but higher consumption was making the task harder.
An impending shutdown of a key coal-fired power unit from Tuesday because of a fuel shortage over the next few days could further worsen the situation, a senior official from the power ministry said.
“Only rain can give us some relief as power demand decreases when it rains,” said the official, who declined to be identified as he is not authorized to speak to the media.
The frequent power cuts have also drawn criticism from opposition parties.”“The entire country is almost without electricity. People are getting sick in extreme heat,” said Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, a senior leader of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party