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Filipinos unwilling to flee Gaza as Palestinian relatives not allowed to leave

Filipinos unwilling to flee Gaza as Palestinian relatives not allowed to leave
People in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip use donkey-drawn carts for transportation on Nov. 2, 2023, due fuel shortage amid Israel's siege and attacks on the Palestinian enclave. (AFP)
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Updated 04 November 2023
Ellie Aben
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Filipinos unwilling to flee Gaza as Palestinian relatives not allowed to leave

Filipinos unwilling to flee Gaza as Palestinian relatives not allowed to leave
  • Out of 134 Philippine nationals in Gaza, only 43 registered for evacuation
  • So far, two Filipino doctors from MSF have left the besieged enclave
Updated 04 November 2023
Ellie Aben
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MANILA: Many Filipinos living in Gaza are unwilling to leave because their Palestinian spouses would be unable to join them, the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs said on Saturday.

Of the 136 Filipinos trapped in Gaza since Israel began its daily bombardment of the densely populated enclave three weeks ago, only two have been evacuated — doctors Darwin Dela Cruz and Regidor Esguerra, from the international aid group Médecins Sans Frontières, who entered Egypt through the Rafah crossing on Wednesday.

The remaining 134 have all received clearance from Israeli authorities to leave, Foreign Affairs Department undersecretary Eduardo De Vega told reporters in Manila.

Evacuation has been complicated, as it requires clearance from Israel’s authorities and poses a risk, since Israeli planes are continuing their deadly strikes on Gaza, where they have already killed at least 9,200 people.

“The first batch of Filipinos will be leaving tomorrow,” De Vega said on Saturday. “There’ll be 20 of them and afterwards — it could be the next day or in the next two days — a batch of 23. We want it to be higher, hopefully.”

However, while 115 Filipinos were ready to return to their country a few days ago, many of them have now changed their minds, having learned that they would have to leave their Palestinian relatives behind, since Israel has not given them clearance to leave.

“So far, only 43 of the Filipinos have signified that they definitely want to leave Gaza,” De Vega said. “A lot of them do not want to leave their Palestinian spouses or parents.”

Most of the Filipinos in Gaza are permanent residents. Two-thirds of them are Palestinian Filipinos who were born or raised there.

There is also a Catholic nun from the Missionaries of Charity who, since the beginning of the attacks, has categorically refused to leave her church in Gaza City, where hundreds of people have taken refuge.

“She is 63. Very brave,” De Vega told Arab News. “She has specified that her name should not be divulged, (asking) only that we pray for her and their safety.”

Topics: War on Gaza Philippines

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Turkiye to join EU meeting in Brussels after five year absence

Turkiye to join EU meeting in Brussels after five year absence
Updated 23 sec ago
AFP
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Turkiye to join EU meeting in Brussels after five year absence

Turkiye to join EU meeting in Brussels after five year absence
  • Turkiye has been an EU candidate since 1999 and launched membership talks in 2005 – but the process has been frozen for years
  • Brussels is concerned by Turkiye’s human rights record, especially after a failed coup attempt that followed mass purges
Updated 23 sec ago
AFP
ISTANBUL: The Turkish foreign minister will on Thursday attend an informal meeting of the European Union in Brussels for the first time in five years, a Turkish diplomatic source said.
Turkiye has been an EU candidate since 1999 and launched membership talks in 2005 — but the process has been frozen for years on a number of fronts.
Ankara and Brussels have a sometimes fraught relation, with the EU relying on Turkiye to house migrants from Syria, but clashing with it on its approach to Greece and the divided island of Cyprus.
Brussels is also concerned by Turkiye’s human rights record, especially after a failed coup attempt that followed mass purges which also targeted opponents of the government.
“We consider the EU’s invitation (to attend the meeting) as a search for dialogue with regard to our calls to revive relations with Turkiye,” the Turkish diplomatic source said.
Ankara hopes Thursday’s meeting would help open dialogue channels.
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan is expected to meet with senior EU officials in Brussels including foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and enlargement commissioner Oliver Varhelyi.
“It will be in favor of both sides to improve relations in the face of regional and global challenges,” the diplomatic source said.
“Turkiye’s clear stance on the Cyprus issue will once again be explained to the EU side.”
On Cyprus, the EU has opposed calls from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for a two-state solution and wants to see Ankara allow new UN-mediated talks.
EU member Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when Turkish forces occupied its northern third in response to a military coup sponsored by the junta then in power in Greece.
The statehood of the republic Turkish Cypriot leaders proclaimed in 1983 is recognized only by Ankara.
Fidan’s talks with his European counterparts will also focus on a new customs union and an easing of visa rules for Turkish citizens.
The Turkish minister is also expected to meet with his Greek counterpart Giorgos Gerapetritis on the margins of the gathering.

Bangladesh probes enforced disappearance by security forces under ousted Hasina 

Bangladesh probes enforced disappearance by security forces under ousted Hasina 
Updated 15 min 16 sec ago
AFP
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Bangladesh probes enforced disappearance by security forces under ousted Hasina 

Bangladesh probes enforced disappearance by security forces under ousted Hasina 
  • Human Rights Watch says security forces committed “over 600 enforced disappearances” since Hasina came to power in 2009
  • Many of those detained were from Hasina’s rivals, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Jamaat-e-Islami, the country’s largest Islamist party
Updated 15 min 16 sec ago
AFP

Dhaka: Bangladesh’s new authorities on Wednesday opened an investigation into hundreds of enforced disappearances by security forces during the rule of ousted premier Sheikh Hasina, the government said.
It includes the notorious Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) paramilitary force, accused of numerous rights abuses, and which was sanctioned by the United States for its role in extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances.
Human Rights Watch last year said security forces had committed “over 600 enforced disappearances” since Hasina came to power in 2009, and nearly 100 remain unaccounted for.
Many of those detained were from Hasina’s rivals, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Jamaat-e-Islami, the country’s largest Islamist party.
Hasina’s government consistently denied the allegations, claiming some of those reported missing had drowned in the Mediterranean while trying to reach Europe.
Hasina fled to India by helicopter on August 5 after weeks of student-led protests forced her to quit, ending her iron-fisted 15-year rule.
The five-member committee, headed by retired high court judge Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury, will also investigate other paramilitary police units, including the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), a government order late Tuesday said.
The UN rights office says both the RAB and BGB forces have “records of serious human rights violations, including enforced disappearances and torture and ill-treatment.”
The commission, ordered to begin work by the interim government led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, has 45 working days to submit its report.
Sanjida Islam Tulee, a coordinator of a group campaigning for the release of people detained under Hasina, welcomed the commission.
“Most importantly, the report needs to be published fully and no information is kept hidden,” Tulee told AFP, who heads the group called Mayer Daak, meaning “The Call of the Mothers.”
Tulee, who along with those who searching for missing relatives met earlier this month with Yunus asking for action, said she wanted the commission to listen to every family without discrimination.
She said they wanted the return of those missing, and for those responsible to face justice.
More than 600 people were killed in the weeks leading up to Hasina’s ouster, according to the United Nations rights team’s preliminary report, suggesting the toll was “likely an underestimate.”
The day after she fled, families gathered outside a military intelligence force building in Dhaka waiting desperately for their relatives.
But only a handful have been confirmed as released.
 

Topics: Bangladesh

Indian rape protests spiral into political street clashes

Indian rape protests spiral into political street clashes
Updated 18 min 50 sec ago
AFP
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Indian rape protests spiral into political street clashes

Indian rape protests spiral into political street clashes
  • Doctors, in a separate protest, are expected to hold a rally in memory of their murdered colleague later on Wednesday
  • An average of nearly 90 rapes a day were reported in 2022 in the country of 1.4 billion people
Updated 18 min 50 sec ago
AFP

KOLKATA: Thousands of protesters clashed in India’s eastern city of Kolkata on Wednesday, where demonstrations seeking justice for a murdered doctor spiralled into violent street skirmishes between political rivals.
The discovery of the 31-year-old doctor’s bloodied body at a state-run hospital in Kolkata on August 9 stoked nationwide anger at the chronic issue of violence against women.
That sparked strikes by medics and rallies backed by thousands of ordinary citizens across India, although many doctors have since returned to work.
But repeated protests in West Bengal state capital Kolkata have transformed into clashes between the state’s ruling All India Trinamool Congress (AITMC) and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The Hindu-nationalist BJP is the party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and holds power nationally, but sits in opposition in West Bengal.
“We want justice,” BJP supporters chanted, referring to the murdered doctor, then demanding the resignation of AITMC leader Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister.
“Go back! Go back!” AITMC supporters shouted in return.
On Tuesday, police clashed with protesters, firing tear gas canisters and water cannons, and arresting at least 245 people.
That prompted BJP supporters on Wednesday to launch a day-long shutdown of Kolkata, with skirmishes against AITMC supporters in the morning.
Protesters erected barricades to close roads and railway lines, with police reporting clashes between rival workers across the city and in adjoining districts.
Arjun Singh, a former BJP lawmaker, alleged his party loyalists were attacked by supporters of Banerjee’s AITMC, and two people were injured.
AITMC “activists blocked the roads to prevent BJP supporters from marching,” Singh said.
“Train services were disrupted as protesters squatted on railway tracks,” Kousik Mitra, a senior railways official said.
Police later enforced an uneasy peace between them and their rivals.
Doctors, in a separate protest, are expected to hold a rally in memory of their murdered colleague later on Wednesday.
One man has been detained for the murder, but Banerjee’s government has faced public criticism for the handling of the investigation.
India’s Supreme Court has ordered a national task force to examine how to bolster security for health care workers, saying the “horrific” killing had “shocked the conscience of the nation.”
The gruesome nature of the attack has invoked comparisons with the horrific 2012 gang rape and murder of a young woman on a Delhi bus.
It became a major political issue, and was seen as one factor in the BJP’s subsequent success in elections.
The attack also sparked widespread outrage in a country where sexual violence against women is endemic.
An average of nearly 90 rapes a day were reported in 2022 in the country of 1.4 billion people.

Topics: India

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Pope Francis says refusing aid to migrants a ‘grave sin’

Pope Francis says refusing aid to migrants a ‘grave sin’
Updated 31 min 20 sec ago
Reuters
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Pope Francis says refusing aid to migrants a ‘grave sin’

Pope Francis says refusing aid to migrants a ‘grave sin’
Updated 31 min 20 sec ago
Reuters

VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis on Wednesday strongly decried the treatment of migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea to enter Europe, saying it was a “grave sin” not to offer aid to migrant vessels.
“There are those who work systematically and with every means to reject migrants,” the pontiff said during his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square.
“And this, when done with conscience and responsibility, is a grave sin,” he said.

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Russian fuel depot on fire after drone attack

Russian fuel depot on fire after drone attack
Updated 26 min 5 sec ago
AFP
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Russian fuel depot on fire after drone attack

Russian fuel depot on fire after drone attack
  • Since the conflict began in 2022, Kyiv has repeatedly targeted Russian oil and gas facilities
  • Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky praised his forces for hitting oil facilities in Russia
Updated 26 min 5 sec ago
AFP

MOSCOW: A fuel depot caught fire in southwest Russia’s Rostov region after a Ukrainian drone attack, the regional governor said Wednesday.
Firefighters were still battling the flames, Governor Vasily Golubev wrote on Telegram, but no residential homes were threatened by the blaze.
The attack caused a “fire in a fuel depot,” and no-one was injured, Golubev wrote.
A large fire has been raging at an oil storage facility in Rostov’s city of Proletarsk since August 18 after a separate Ukrainian drone attack, some 200 kilometers (125 miles) from the Ukrainian border.
Since the conflict began in 2022, Kyiv has repeatedly targeted Russian oil and gas facilities, in what it has called fair reprisals for attacks on its energy infrastructure.
Earlier this month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky praised his forces for hitting oil facilities in Russia, saying the attacks would help bring a “just end” to the conflict.

Topics: Russia-Ukraine Conflict Russia Ukraine

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