Families wait for word of Rohingya said to have been abandoned at sea by India

Families wait for word of Rohingya said to have been abandoned at sea by India
UN, families and lawyers of more than 40 Rohingya refugees in India allege that they have been forced off an Indian navy ship this month near the shores of Myanmar with only life jackets (AP/File)
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Updated 20 May 2025
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Families wait for word of Rohingya said to have been abandoned at sea by India

Families wait for word of Rohingya said to have been abandoned at sea by India
  • “We are helping them as human beings and we will let them go where they want if it is safe,” a spokesman for the group said
  • The mostly Muslim Rohingya have been persecuted in Myanmar for decades

NEW DELHI: It has been more than a week since Akbar, a Rohingya refugee in India, has heard his niece’s voice, the longest they have not spoken to each other.

She is among more than 40 Rohingya alleged by the United Nations, family and lawyers to have been forced off an Indian navy ship this month near the shores of war-torn Myanmar with only a life jacket.

“I got her out of the lion’s mouth when we escaped Myanmar almost eight years ago. And now this has happened,” Akbar, whose name has been changed to protect his identity, said of his niece, who is around 20 years old.

Myanmar’s Ba Htoo forces — opposition fighters battling the junta that took power in a 2021 coup — say the group landed on May 9 on a beach in Launglon Township near southern Dawei city, a region that regularly witnesses gunbattles and air strikes.

“We are helping them as human beings and we will let them go where they want if it is safe,” a spokesman for the group said.

The mostly Muslim Rohingya have been persecuted in Myanmar for decades, with many fleeing a 2017 military crackdown. More than a million escaped to Bangladesh, but others fled to India.

There are around 22,500 Rohingya in India registered with the United Nations refugee agency, according to the advocacy group Refugees International.

Two other Rohingya refugees told AFP their relatives were part of the group that was detained by Indian authorities.

Tom Andrews, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, has called the repatriation an “unconscionable” act.

Andrews said he was “deeply concerned by what appears to be a blatant disregard for the lives and safety of those who require international protection.”

New Delhi has not commented on the reports.

Family members say the group was summoned by authorities in New Delhi on May 6, allegedly to collect biometric data.

They were moved to a detention center and then to an airport outside the Indian capital.

From there they were flown to India’s Andaman and Nicobar islands, an archipelago that lies a few hundred kilometers southwest of Myanmar.

Two days after being detained, the refugees called family members back in Delhi saying they had been dropped off in the seas off Myanmar.

The Ba Htoo spokesman said one member of the group was a cancer patient, adding that the “rest of them just feel tired from the long trip.”

AFP could not independently verify the claims.

Dilwar Hussain, a New Delhi-based lawyer representing refugees from the community, said they were “concerned about the safety and well-being of these refugees.”

A petition filed in India’s Supreme Court by two refugees whose family members are among the 43 people allegedly deported said it was carried out illegally.

India is not a signatory to the UN’s 1951 Refugee Convention, which prohibits returning individuals to countries where they face harm.

However, New Delhi rights lawyer Colin Gonsalves, who has challenged the group’s detention and deportation, said India’s “constitutional laws cover protection” of the personal liberty and right to life of non-citizens.

This case is not the first to be reported.

Indian media reported this month that more than 100 Rohingya were “pushed back” across the northeastern border into Bangladesh.

India’s Hindu nationalist government has often described undocumented immigrants as “Muslim infiltrators,” accusing them of posing a security threat.

Yap Lay Sheng, from the campaign group Fortify Rights, said the deportation of the Rohingya group was a “targeted attack against anyone perceived to be Muslim outsiders.”

Ramon, another relative of one of the deported group, said his brother told him he had been verbally abused.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, Ramon said the group was “accused of being involved” in the April 22 attack targeting tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir, in which gunmen killed 26 men. The attack sparked a four-day conflict between India and Pakistan.

“My brother asked me to leave India to avoid being in a situation like his,” said Ramon, who has been in India for more than a decade.

Their mother has been inconsolable since receiving news of her son’s deportation. Ramon struggles with sleepless nights over his brother’s safety.

“They should have deported all of us and thrown us into the sea,” he said. “We would have been at peace knowing we are together.”


Death toll rises to 27 in Pakistan building collapse as rescue ends

Death toll rises to 27 in Pakistan building collapse as rescue ends
Updated 10 sec ago
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Death toll rises to 27 in Pakistan building collapse as rescue ends

Death toll rises to 27 in Pakistan building collapse as rescue ends
KARACHI: The death toll from a collapsed multistory residential building in Pakistan’s Karachi city rose to 27 on Sunday as a three-day rescue operation ended, officials said.
Rescuers pulled 11 more bodies from the rubble of the building that collapsed on Friday, according to Dr. Summayya Tariq, the Karachi police surgeon. Ten people were injured and one of them died at a hospital, she said.
Authorities said they were investigating the cause of the collapse.
Building collapses are common in Pakistan, where construction standards are often poorly enforced. Many structures are built with substandard materials, and safety regulations are often overlooked to reduce costs.
In June 2020, an apartment building collapsed in Karachi, the capital of southern Sindh province, killing 22 people.

Iraq War a factor in 2005 London bombings: Ex-counterterror chief

Iraq War a factor in 2005 London bombings: Ex-counterterror chief
Updated 56 min 36 sec ago
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Iraq War a factor in 2005 London bombings: Ex-counterterror chief

Iraq War a factor in 2005 London bombings: Ex-counterterror chief
  • Neil Basu warns of ‘soul-destroying’ legacy of hate ahead of 20th anniversary of attacks
  • ‘Foreign policy and Iraq ... radicalized and made extremists of people,’ he tells The Guardian

LONDON: British foreign policy, including the Iraq War, contributed to motivations for the attacks in London on July 7, 2005, a former counterterrorism chief has said, warning that the atrocity left a “soul-destroying” legacy of hate.

Neil Basu’s remarks were made to The Guardian ahead of the 20th anniversary of the attacks, which were carried out by Islamist extremists and left 52 people dead and more than 750 injured.

British foreign policy has a direct effect on domestic security, said Basu, adding that one driver of the attacks was “foreign policy and Iraq,” referring to Britain’s central role in the conflict alongside the US.

“That does not excuse in any way what they did. That foreign policy decision has radicalized and made extremists of people who might not have been radicalized or extreme,” he said.

In the wake of the attacks, the shock in Britain was compounded by the revelation that the group of suicide bombers had been supported by Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda terror group.

“All terrorists will have a freedom fighter story,” Basu said: “Bin Laden would have had a freedom fighter story. We might think it’s crap. We might think it’s self-justification, but he will have had a story about liberating his lands from the great invaders.”

The ringleader of the attacks was Mohammed Sidique Khan. The husband and father said in a self-recorded video before his death by suicide: “We are at war and I am a soldier. Now you, too, will taste the reality of this situation.”

Basu warned that the new threat level to the UK from terrorism is far higher than in 2005. “There is no one path for any single individual to go down a terrorist route. There’s a multiplicity of paths, and one of them is: ‘I’m right, you’re wrong.’ Now that looks obscene to us … they are on God’s side. We are on Satan’s side,” he said.

“When terrorists hide behind a religion to commit an atrocity, people blame every follower of the religion and the religion itself. We ought to stop doing that.”

As a result of that behavior on a national scale, people in Britain are suspicious of those who “don’t look like you, think like you, eat like you, worship like you,” Basu said.

“That has got worse, not better, and that has been caused exactly as terrorists want, by dividing a society by committing the shocking act.”

The attacks also led to a reversal of decades of progress in race and religious relations, Basu said, highlighting a surging suspicion of Muslims in Britain in the decades since.

The “trajectory of tolerance” seen in the UK since the 1980s has been wiped out, he added, citing the July 7 bombings and 9/11 attacks in the US as crucial factors.

“That’s what I think has been most soul-destroying … It has interrupted a trajectory of tolerance that I was becoming very familiar and happy with,” Basu said.

“It started with 9/11 … 7/7 accelerated that in this country. The relationship between races is worse today, or as bad today as it was in the 70s and 80s. That period of tolerance is over, and feels very much over.”

For Muslims in Britain, the events of that decade led to wider damage within the community as members risked being tarred with suspicion by the public, Basu said.

A cycle of hatred and intolerance had been set in motion as a result, he added, warning of surging right-wing extremism and racism.

“I look at the rise of extreme right-wing terrorism in this country … of right-wing, racist attitudes toward black and brown people, and I look at the rise in hate crime reporting … and can’t help but think we’ve got a vicious cycle that started when certain vicious groups started killing people on western soil. I think they were intending to do that, and they have succeeded,” he said.


Korean man opens musalla at home to serve Muslim migrant workers

Korean man opens musalla at home to serve Muslim migrant workers
Updated 06 July 2025
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Korean man opens musalla at home to serve Muslim migrant workers

Korean man opens musalla at home to serve Muslim migrant workers
  • Often called the ‘Hawaii of South Korea,’ Jeju Island increasingly relies on migrant workers
  • Many employed in fisheries come from Muslim-majority Indonesia and Pakistan

SEOGWIPO, Jeju: On the southern coast of Jeju Island, far from the honeymoon resorts and tourist beaches, a modest home near a fishing village has quietly become a spiritual refuge for a largely invisible community: Muslim migrant workers.

Step past the shoe rack and the quiet hum of a record player, and you will find a small musalla. Clean, carpeted and softly lit, the space offers something rare for Muslims living on South Korea’s remote holiday island: a place to pray, rest, and feel recognized.

The prayer space was created by Nasir Hong-suk Seong, 35, a Korean fish farm operator who converted part of his home into a musalla after moving to Jeju earlier this year.

The island’s only masjid is in Jeju City, more than an hour by car from the southern coast where most migrants work in fisheries.

“Fish farm workers are on call 24 hours, so they can never make the time to go to the masjid for Jummah prayers,” Seong told Arab News.

“When I first arrived, I asked where they prayed. I was very sad when I heard it was almost impossible for them to attend Friday prayers and that they mostly prayed in the corner of their small dorm rooms.”

Often called the “Hawaii of South Korea,” Jeju is better known for its volcanic peak and tourist beaches than for labor migration. Yet, the island’s economy has been increasingly reliant on migrant workers, many of whom are Muslim men coming mainly from Indonesia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Jeju Province officially recorded 3,567 migrant workers in 2024. Seong estimates that in his region alone, 300 fish farms employ about 1,500 of them, with half identifying as Muslim.

Seong moved to Jeju from the port city of Incheon, where he used to run a guesthouse and often hosted Muslim guests. Getting to know them helped him see through the negative stereotypes of Islam in the West, and in 2023 he converted to the Muslim faith.

“About 30 percent of my guests were from Muslim-majority countries. As I got to know them through hosting, they turned out to be incredibly kind and respectful,” he said.

“There are so many people who misunderstand the religion. I think when people talk about Islam in Korea, they think of something foreign, something unknown. But it can be as simple as taking care of your neighbors.”

Such, too, was the purpose of Seong’s musalla. He spent a month preparing it at the home belonging to his grandfather. Starting in March, he spent all his after-work hours furnishing the space.

“When I moved in, I had nothing. Not even furniture or a pillow. This musalla was the first thing I made,” he said.

“I always keep it open. People can come for group prayer anytime ... and seeing them pray here makes me happy.”

Modest but maintained with care, the musalla is fitted with prayer rugs lined on the floor. A low shelf holds editions of the Qur’an in English, Arabic and Korean. Arabic calligraphy decorates the walls. A handmade qibla sign marks the direction of prayer.

Khalid Hussein, a 38-year-old from Pakistan, has been working in Jeju for the past 15 years. Employed at Seong’s fish farm, he has been visiting the musalla regularly, also to be in touch more with his identity.

“It became easier for us,” Hussein said.

“Jeju is 100 percent different. The culture, religion — everything is different. So, we need to compromise.”

He was at the musalla with his colleague, Zahaid Hussain, who also came from Pakistan on a contract that brought him to Jeju.

“I felt good when I was finally able to offer Friday prayers,” Zahaid said. “I was happy.”


Thousands of Buddhists gather in north India for Dalai Lama’s 90th birthday

Thousands of Buddhists gather in north India for Dalai Lama’s 90th birthday
Updated 06 July 2025
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Thousands of Buddhists gather in north India for Dalai Lama’s 90th birthday

Thousands of Buddhists gather in north India for Dalai Lama’s 90th birthday
  • Dalai Lama announced that the institution of Tibet’s spiritual leader would continue after his death
  • Followers and friends, including actor Richard Gere, took part in week-long celebrations

NEW DELHI: Thousands of Buddhists gathered in Dharamshala in northern India on Sunday to mark the 90th birthday of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.

A Nobel peace laureate and one of the world’s most influential figures, the 14th Dalai Lama has been living in India since 1959, after he fled Tibet with thousands of others following a failed uprising against Chinese rule.

Dharamshala, a town in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, has been his place of residence over the past six decades and also hosts the Tibetan government-in-exile.

Followers, monks, Indian officials and friends — including American actor Richard Gere — surrounded the Dalai Lama at the Tsuklakhang Tibetan Buddhist complex, where, despite monsoon rain, they greeted him with prayer and traditional Tibetan music and dance.

They celebrated his birthday and recent announcement that the 600-year-old institution of the Dalai Lama would continue after his death.

“This institution of the Dalai Lama is our identity, and I am glad it will be there. I came here for the Dalai Lama’s birthday from Delhi; you can understand how important he is for us,” said Loden, a Tibetan garment merchant living in New Delhi.

“This Dalai Lama is very popular and the whole world knows him, respects him, follows him. So yes, there is a bit of concern about the future Dalai Lama, about his acceptability in the world. I am sure this Dalai Lama would have thought about it. He has done great work for us Tibetans.”

When a Dalai Lama dies, Tibetan Buddhists believe he is reincarnated. Senior monks and members of the Tibetan government-in-exile will then search for the child who is the reincarnation, relying on dreams and visions, rituals at sacred lakes, signs at the Dalai Lama’s death, and other omens.

The 14th Dalai Lama was 2 years old when a search party decided he was the 14th reincarnation of Tibet’s spiritual leader.

Over the years, he has indicated that the continuation of the institution was ultimately up to the Tibetan people, and, if they no longer found it relevant, it could cease to exist, and there would be no 15th Dalai Lama.

He confirmed plans for a successor on Thursday.

“I am very happy that the Dalai Lama chose reincarnation. There should not have been any debate around it. It is our faith, and we trust every decision that the Dalai Lama makes. We can sacrifice our lives for him,” said Gatsog, a Tibetan refugee and monk in Dharamsala who attended the birthday celebrations.

The Dalai Lama has long led the Tibetan diaspora — most of whom live in India — in their struggle for autonomy and resistance against Chinese domination in Tibet.

His succession has drawn concerns among Tibetans living abroad that China might try to appoint the next Dalai Lama to tighten its control over Tibet, a region it invaded in 1950 and has governed ever since.

“China has no role in our religion. It is a matter of our faith. It is only about the decision of the Dalai Lama. We support his decision,” said Sonam Dolma, a Tibetan translator who has been living in India since 2007.

“I don’t have any concerns about the future Dalai Lama as he would be chosen by this Dalai Lama. So, it would be good for us. We just hope the world accepts him.”


A man is injured in a struggle with an escaped lion in southern Turkiye

A man is injured in a struggle with an escaped lion in southern Turkiye
Updated 06 July 2025
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A man is injured in a struggle with an escaped lion in southern Turkiye

A man is injured in a struggle with an escaped lion in southern Turkiye
  • Kir Suleyman, a farmer, was hospitalized with wounds to his head, shoulder and legs

ISTANBUL: A farmer was seriously injured when he was attacked by a lion that had escaped a zoo in southern Turkiye on Sunday, local media reported. The lion was later shot dead.
The male lion, named Zeus, escaped his cage at Land of Lions in Manavgat, a resort city on the Mediterranean coast, in the early hours, the private Demiroren News Agency said. A few hours later, he attacked the 53-year-old man, who was sleeping outdoors after watering pistachio trees.
“I heard a whispering sound. When I lifted the blanket, the lion fell on me,” Suleyman Kir told the agency. “We struggled and fought. ... I grabbed his neck and squeezed. At that moment, he ran off a little.”
The Ilhas News Agency reported that police officers searching for the lion heard the noise of the struggle and scared it off by shooting into the air. Ilhas also showed footage of the lion strolling outside homes before disappearing into scrubland.
Kir was hospitalized with wounds to his head, shoulder and legs. Police teams and drones found the lion in a nearby wooded area.
Land of Lions’ website boasts that the park holds “the world’s largest lion family” of more than 30 animals. It also contains tigers, bears and wolves.
It wasn’t clear how the lion escaped but an investigation has been launched. The zoo did not comment on Sunday.