Month: June 2018

European Business Lobby Presses China to Stop Dragging Feet on Reform

Posted on by SeeEU

As the United States and China teeter on the brink of an all out trade war and tit-for-tat tariffs loom, a European businesses lobby is urging Beijing to stop dragging its feet on reforms and using unfair trade policies to pamper Chinese companies.

 

Each year, foreign trade groups in China roll out a laundry list of concerns about market access, regulatory hurdles and other policies that tilt the playing field in the world’s second largest economy.

 

This year, for the first time ever, the European Chamber of Commerce’s annual survey of the business climate found that 61 percent of its 532 company members saw their Chinese counterparts as equally or more innovative.

 

Increased spending on research and development, targeted acquisitions of foreign high-tech firms and growing demand for innovative products from consumers were helping driving that shift, the chamber said.

 

The high response is significant. Policies linked to innovation and competition are a key part of the intensifying US — China trade debate and concerns of foreign companies operating here.

 

European Chamber President Mats Harborn said that as Chinese companies become stronger and more competitive, it is time for Beijing to “remove the training wheels.”

 

“It’s time for China to lift or reduce the pampering of its own enterprises and expose them to even more open and fair competition for them to develop into the champions that China wants them to be,” Harborn said.

 

Currently, Chinese companies account for 115 of the Fortune 500 list of global enterprises. The Chinese government claims that of the world’s 260 “unicorns” — start up companies valued at more than a billion dollars — more than 160 are from China.

 

Since Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered an address at the World Economic Forum in Davos early last year, China has repeatedly pledged to further open up the country’s economy.

 

According to the group’s survey of its members 52 % said that the government’s promises of opening up had yet to be realized. And looking forward, 46 percent said they thought the number of regulatory obstacles would increase over the next five years.

 

Harborn said that time is running out for China and 2018 has to be the year that it delivers on its promises.

 

“Dragging the feet on delivering on promises that have been made in China will cause reactions around the world,” Harborn said.

 

The United States response to that has led to reactions such as the $50 billion, and more recently $200 billion, in possible tariffs that Washington could levy on Chinese goods.

 

“We don’t agree with that action but it is the result of what we have warned about earlier,” he said.

Washington and European companies alike have long voiced concern about trade policies in China that protect domestic companies and State Owned Enterprises through subsidies, regulatory barriers and unequal treatment.

 

The Trump administration has alleged that Beijing is stealing American intellectual property and forcing technology transfers. Beijing denies that is the case.

 

Still, the European chamber’s survey found that about one in five of its companies “felt compelled to hand over technology in exchange for market access,” despite Chinese government assurances to the contrary.

 

According to the survey, 19 percent said they felt compelled to transfer technology.

Harborn said that while the percentage may seem small, the value it represents is much larger. Numbers were even higher among companies in the aerospace and aviation sector (36 percent), civil engineering and construction (33 percent) and automakers (27 percent).

 

 “And no foreign company going to Europe has to even consider the issue of giving up technology for market access,” Harborn said.

 

Reciprocal treatment is a key concern from companies in China, regardless of whether they are from Europe and America. It is also a key aim of Washington’s trade dispute with Beijing and effort to make trade fairer.

 

But as the rhetoric in the U.S.-China trade dispute has heated up, some analysts argue that the focus has shifted too heavily to reciprocal and damaging tariffs. Actions that risk hurting not only the United States and China, but the global economy as well.

 

Harborn said confrontation through tariffs is not the most efficient way to get reforms and opening up that companies have been asking China to deliver.

 

“We are afraid that when you are exerting pressure this way [through threats of tariffs] that China keeps its aces up its sleeve and is presenting what is needed to defuse the tension at the time and is not is not addressing the fundamental and broader issues,” Harborn said.

 

Besides, he add, reforms are not only important for foreign companies but China’s own economic development as well.

 

 
…

your ad here

Turkey Getting F-35 Jets, Despite Congressional Objections

Posted on by SeeEU

Despite opposition in Congress, Turkey will receive its first F-35 Joint Strike fighter jet this week, Pentagon and aviation industry officials tell VOA.

Lockheed Martin, maker of the F-35, will hold a ceremony Thursday in Fort Worth, Texas, for Turkey’s new jets, according to a company spokesperson.

Both House and Senate versions of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) contain restrictions on Turkey’s participation in the F-35 program.

U.S. lawmakers are concerned about Ankara’s imprisonment of an American pastor and its plans to buy the Russian S-400 air defense system, which they say would “degrade the general security” of the NATO alliance and be incompatible with systems used by Turkey’s NATO allies.

The NDAA, and any language therein, would not become law until the House and Senate pass a final, joint version of the bill.

“As always, Lockheed Martin will comply with any official guidance from the United States government,” the company said.

After the rollout ceremony on Thursday, Turkey’s two jets will travel to Luke Air Force Base in Arizona at a later date so that Turkish pilots can learn how to use them, Air Force Lt. Col. Mike Andrews, a Pentagon spokesman, told VOA.

“Turkish F-35 pilots and maintainers have arrived at Luke Air Force Base, and will begin flight academics soon,” Andrews added.

A defense official noted the U.S. government could likely still be in custody of the aircraft when the newest NDAA is passed.

“After aircraft production of F-35 jets are complete, the U.S. government maintains custody of the aircraft until custody is transferred to the partner. This normally occurs after the lengthy process of foreign partner training is complete in about one to two years,” the official told VOA.

Turkey is a NATO ally and has been an international participant with the U.S.-made F-35 program since 2002.
…

your ad here

British PM May Denounces Child Migrants in Cages as ‘Deeply Disturbing’

Posted on by SeeEU

British Prime Minister Theresa May told members of parliament Wednesday the United States’ practice of housing children in cages is extremely troubling and inappropriate.

“The pictures of children being held in what appear to be cages are deeply disturbing. This is wrong. This is not something that we agree with,” May said.

May also said she would raise the issue with U.S. President Donald Trump when she meets with him in Britain next month.

The Trump administration has been the target of a growing chorus of criticism as images of migrant children in cages inside U.S. Border Patrol processing stations were distributed by the news media and on social media channels.

More than 2,300 children have been taken away from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border since the White House announced its “zero-tolerance” policy early last month.

U.S. law requires child migrants traveling alone to be sent to facilities run by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services within three days of being detained. The agency is then required to place the children in shelters or foster homes until they are reunited with a relative or a sponsor pending immigration court hearings.

Last month, however, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the government would criminally prosecute everyone who crosses the U.S.-Mexico border illegally, a decision that has led to the breakup of migrant families, with hundreds of children being placed under the government’s care.

Trump told Republican lawmakers Tuesday he supported their attempts to draft immigration legislation that would end the practice of separating children from families.

The House of Representatives is set to vote Thursday on competing Republican bills overhauling U.S. immigration laws and boosting border security.
…

your ad here

Eritrea’s President Promises to Send Delegation to Ethiopia

Posted on by SeeAF

Eritrea’s president says he will send a delegation to Ethiopia to discuss Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s pledge to implement the terms of a peace deal negotiated in 2000.

Agreeing to that deal means ceding occupied land back to Eritrea and honoring a 2002 international court ruling that awarded Eritrea the disputed town of Badme.

Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki announced the overture Wednesday in Asmara in his annual Martyr’s Day address. He said the delegation would also “chart out a plan for continuous future action” between the countries.

Ahmed’s chief of staff, Fitsum Arega, later said on Twitter the prime minister is ready to welcome the Eritrean delegation. 

Eritrea and Ethiopia share a violent history. Eritrea fought a 30-year war for independence to break away from Ethiopia. It gained international recognition in 1993. However, conflict between the countries persisted, particularly on their border, which was disputed. Between 1998 and 2000, the countries fought a border war that resulted in at least 70,000 deaths.

Since then, tensions have remained high.

But in his speech Wednesday, Afwerki emphasized shared struggles and losses between the Eritrean and Ethiopian people. He blamed historic animosities on “misguided global policies” and the “toxic and malignant legacy” of the TPLF, the Ethiopian political party that, for decades, has controlled the country’s political and security spheres.

But sweeping changes have occurred in Ethiopia. Ahmed, the new prime minister, represents a different party within Ethiopia’s ruling EPRDF coalition and belongs to a long-marginalized ethnic group, the Oromo. Earlier this month, he replaced the army’s chief of staff. 

In his speech, Afwerki also said the United States had been “sending various signals” about its intentions to correct past wrongs, including its policies in the Horn, but he did not elaborate.

In late April, Ambassador Donald Yamamoto, the acting assistant secretary for the U.S. Bureau of African Affairs, made a rare visit to Eritrea, although neither country disclosed details of the meeting.

Some residents in Badme, which remains occupied by Ethiopia, told Reuters they are upset about Ahmed’s decision. Reports of protests in the small town have also circulated in recent days.

What will become of residents in Badme and other towns set to transfer to Eritrea is not yet clear.

A timeline for sending the delegation has not been established, but some reports suggest Ethiopia will remove troops from occupied areas along the border in July.

Ahmed’s pledge on the border issue is one of many reforms that the new prime minister has announced, leading to a wave of changes in the country. Ethiopia recently released thousands of dissidents and political prisoners who were arrested under a controversial anti-terrorism law.
…

your ad here

EU Countries to Address Migration Crisis in Brussels

Posted on by SeeEU

Eight European Union countries will meet in Brussels Sunday to discuss Europe’s largest migration crisis since World War II, a development that could affect the increasingly heated political disagreements among EU nations over the controversial issue.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker called the meeting, which is expected to be attended by Austria, Bulgaria, Italy, France, Germany, Greece, Malta and Spain.

The leaders will explore how to stop migrants from relocating to different EU countries after claiming asylum in one of the Mediterranean countries they initially entered.

The meeting will precede an EU summit later this month at which leaders will attempt to finalize a joint migration policy three years after more than 1 million people entered Europe, primarily those fleeing violence in the Middle East and Asia.

The issue has threatened German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s domestic coalition and triggered a firestorm over a boatload of migrants who were rescued from the Mediterranean Sea but were subsequently turned away by Italy’s new right-wing government.

On Monday, Germany’s conservative Christian Social Union gave Merkel two weeks to secure a European agreement. CSU leader and Interior Minister Horst Seehofer wants Germany to turn away migrants who have already registered in other EU countries. Merkel, however, opposes any unilateral moves that would undermine her 2015 open-door policy and her authority.
…

your ad here

Al-Shabab Militant Group Getting Lucky, Not Stronger in Somalia

Posted on by SeeAF

Somalia’s most dangerous terror group is likely not getting any stronger despite a series of deadly attacks, including one that claimed the life of a U.S. special operations soldier earlier this month.

 

The assessment, by U.S. military and counterintelligence officials, runs contrary to the conclusions of some analysts and comes as al-Shabab has been flexing its military might in recent weeks, highlighting attacks on both Somali and African Union forces.

One of the most publicized of these was a brazen June 8 attack on an outpost under construction two kilometers north of the town of Sanguni, in the Lower Jubba region of Somalia.

The al-Qaida-linked militants skirmished with a force of 800 Somali and Kenyan forces accompanied by U.S. special operations soldiers, one of whom was killed by mortar fire.

US: June 8 attack was ‘lucky shot’

 

U.S. officials are still trying to determine the size of the al-Shabab force at the time of the attack but say there is no indication of any increased capability.

 

“It was a lucky shot,” a U.S. military official told VOA on condition of anonymity. “I wouldn’t consider this a well-executed attack.”

 

Another military official said, in many ways, the deadly attack was typical of al-Shabab operations.

 

“Historically, al-Shabab has been willing to engage large forces, often using surprise and asymmetric tactics to improve their chances for success,” said Lt. Cmdr. Desiree Frame, a spokesperson for U.S. Africa Command. “We expect to see more conflict in southern Somalia as Somali Government Forces, AMISOM, and their partners make in-roads into al-Shabab-held territory.”

 

Still, accounts from Somalia indicate the al-Shabab forces were not deterred by the presence of U.S. special operations forces using armored vehicles and armed drones, as the June 8 deadly mortar strike was part of a three-day long assault on the outpost that included a failed attack using a vehicle-borne bomb.

 

“They know our movements,” an official with the Somali forces in Sanguni told VOA Somali. “It’s an open secret.”

 

Another Somali commander said al-Shabab also took advantage of the terrain, striking after recent flooding forced the Somali, Kenyan and U.S. forces to build the outpost in the open.

 

U.S. counterterrorism and military officials say there is no doubt the group remains the biggest threat to security in Somalia. But they have resisted attributing the increased pace of al-Shabab attacks to anything more than their annual Ramadan campaign.

 

“We do not assess that al-Shabab has recently increased their capabilities or their willingness to engage their enemies,” according to Africa Command’s Frame.

 

A senior U.S. counterterrorism official described al-Shabab’s activity as routine, noting its public statement “promote the virtue of waging jihad during Ramadan.”

Differing assessment of al-Shabab’s strength

 

Still, some analysts warn it is wrong to downplay the strides al-Shabab has made since being kicked out of its last urban stronghold, the port city of Kismayo, in 2012.

 

“It’s clear that we’re not just seeing a spike in attacks related to the Ramadan campaign,” said Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, a senior analyst at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “It’s clear that the organization has gotten stronger.”

 

And while Gartenstein-Ross thinks it is unlikely al-Shabab is strong enough to consistently challenge U.S. forces in the region, it has shown it can be potent against both Somalia and African Union forces in the area.

 

“They’ve been able to kill very high numbers and you didn’t see that five years ago. They’ve been able to actually overrun bases at times,” he said. “The danger is as African Union forces draw down, they may retake major urban areas. I think there’s a good chance of that.”

VOA Somali reporter Harun Maruf contributed to this report.
…

your ad here

Winners & Losers in Family Separation Trauma

Posted on by SeeUS

A game of political tug-of-war in Washington has amounted to trauma across the Rio Grande Valley, where droves of parents detained for crossing illegally are separated from their children. U.S. President Donald Trump describes his own choices as one of loopholes or “zero tolerance.”

“We can either release all illegal immigrant families and minors who show up at the border from Central America or we can arrest the adults for the federal crime of illegal entry. Those are the only two options: totally open borders or criminal prosecution for law breaking,” Trump said.

The Trump Administration’s “zero tolerance” policy places anyone who crossed illegally at risk of detention, including asylum-seekers and parents of minors. Since children cannot be held in detention centers, they are separated from their parents, with no word on when or how they might be reunited. Still, migrant families continue to take their chances.

In speaking with migrant families here in McAllen, Texas, there is a common thread between their stories. No matter how dreadful the circumstances may be here, the alternative — they say — is worse.”

“This young man, he made me cry,” Luis Guerrero, a volunteer for Catholic Charities told VOA. “Tears came out my eyes, because he said ‘we came down here because they (gangs) wanted to make my daughter a prostitute.’ That they came knocking on his door.”

“A mother that has a kid that is suffering, nothing will stop her from saving her son,” Sister Norma Pimental, executive director of Catholic Charities in the Rio Grande Valley said. “It doesn’t matter what we do here, unfortunately, where children suffer in order to attempt mothers to stop coming. But if her son is suffering, it’s a huge risk, but they are going to save their children if they can.”

Caught, then what?

Parents charged with illegal entry are processed and sent to a detention center, while their children are separated and sent to federal foster care facilities.

((MICHAEL AVENATTI, ATTORNEY AT LAW))

“Every mother that described having their child taken from them, stated that they had been lied to when the child was taken from them,” attorney Attorney Michael Avenatti said, describing his interactions with some of the mothers. “At no point in time did anyone with ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) or anyone else tell the mother what was really going on; namely, that they were taking the children from them, and it would be days, weeks, and months before they saw them again.”

Sister Norma Pimentel calls families that entered the United States illegally but have not been separated the “lucky ones” — a discretionary decision among Border Patrol chiefs, sometimes out of the sheer volume at detention centers, to allow some families to prove credible fear and seek asylum.

But even among families who were not separated, fear has infiltrated through stories of others.

“I heard various women say that a girl had supposedly been brought to a court, and they brought her there for 36 hours, except they didn’t take her where they had said…but to a jail, and when she arrived, her son wasn’t there anymore, Lucia, a migrant from Guatemala told VOA.

 

 
…

your ad here

US Embassy Rolls Out Mobile Library for Ugandan Schools

Posted on by SeeAF

With unemployment running high in Uganda, the U.S. embassy is trying to equip schoolchildren with the skills to be job creators in the future. The embassy on Monday launched the first-ever mobile library project, which will promote learning in primary schools. Halima Athumani reports from the town of Mukono.
…

your ad here

US Separating Increasing Number of Children from Parents at Border

Posted on by SeeUS

U.S. officials are separating undocumented children who cross the southern border with their parents at a faster rate than the government had previously acknowledged, data provided to reporters by immigration officials on Tuesday shows.

In the 35 days from May 5 to June 9, some 2,342 children — an average of 67 a day — were separated from their parents or custodians as the adults faced federal criminal charges for entering the country illegally, as well as deportation proceedings, as a result of a new policy the Trump administration refers to as “zero-tolerance.”

Numbers provided by the Department of Homeland Security late last week indicated that between April 19 and May 31, 1,995 children were removed from their parents and held in government-funded shelters, averaging roughly 48 separations a day.

Those dates roughly coincide with when Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the policy on April 6, and when DHS – which includes U.S. Customs and Border Protection – joined the initiative on May 7. VOA has requested additional data on separations from DHS that coincides with those key dates of the initiative.

Sessions ordered that all migrants crossing the border illegally be swiftly placed into federal criminal court proceedings for illegal entry into the country. With parents or custodians detained on federal charges, according to DHS the children cannot accompany the adults to those facilities, and are rendered “unaccompanied minors.”

They are then placed in the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services, which contracts out to non-profits; those organizations are in turn are running shelters to hold the children, some of which are younger than 4.

An audio recording made inside one such shelter by investigative news outlet ProPublica revealed wailing children pleading for their parents.

A request for information on the number of reunifications or deportations that have taken place since the policy was announced in April was not immediately provided on Tuesday’s call with DHS officials; a subsequent request by VOA for that data has not yet received a response.

Sharp criticism followed the recent decisions by Trump and his Cabinet officials, who have at times referred to the policy as a deterrent to border crossers, but also denied that it could be considered a “policy,” as DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said at the White House on Monday.

In a strongly-worded statement Monday, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein denounced the US policy.

“The thought that any state would seek to deter parents by inflicting such abuse on children is unconscionable,” al-Hussein said.

 
…

your ad here

From Texas Border, a Close Up View of Migrant Family Separation

Posted on by SeeUS

As Congress mulls over the future of two House immigration bills, migrant families who entered the United States illegally continue to be separated as a result of the Trump Administration’s “zero-tolerance” policy. In South Texas, VOA spoke with activists seeking an end to the practice, along with migrants who were lucky enough to avoid separation. Ramon Taylor reports.
…

your ad here

South Korea Backs Ending US Military Exercises

Posted on by SeeUS

South Korean Foreign Minister Kang, Kyung-wha said on Wednesday that the U.S. and South Korea jointly made the decision to suspend combined military exercises scheduled for August, but would not confirm if her government was given advanced notice before U.S. President Trump announced his intention to cancel the drills, after he met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore on June 12.

“We have made it clear that this is a goodwill gesture to strengthen the dialogue momentum at this point, but they are not irreversible. They could quickly come back should we see the dialogue momentum losing speed or North Korea not living up to its denuclearization commitment,” said Foreign Minister Kang.

Diplomatic momentum

During a press briefing in Seoul, the foreign minister said she was in in close communication with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo about the drills directly following the Singapore summit. And while the announcement canceling the exercises came suddenly, Kang said, South Korea was also considering this option to keep diplomatic momentum moving forward following the U.S.-North Korea summit where Kim reaffirmed his commitment to the “complete denuclearization” of North Korea.

The now cancelled Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercises normally held in August usually bring in 3,000 more American troops from abroad and involve 50,000 South Korean troops.

No decision has yet been made whether the other large-scale joint exercise held in the spring would be suspended as well. 

At the Singapore summit Trump said he would cancel the “war games” that he said were both enormously expensive and “provocative,” as an act of good faith and in response to North Korea’s commitment to denuclearization, its continued suspension of nuclear and missile teats, and the recent closing of its nuclear testing site.

North Korea has long called for the end of these joint military exercises that it says are offensive “rehearsals for war.” 

In the past U.S. officials refused to suspend the joint drills, that they defended as defensive in nature and legal under international law, for a pledge from North Korea to freeze its nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities that are prohibited by United Nations resolutions.

Kang also reiterated South Korea’s commitment to the U.S. alliance and said there has been no discussion about reducing the U.S. military presence in the country. 

President Trump raised concerns over the future of the alliance when he said in Singapore that he would like to withdraw all or some of the over 28,000 troops in South Korea at some point in the future, as both a cost saving measure, and to reduce a perceived overextended U.S. military presence overseas.

No sanctions relief

On the tough United Nations sanctions against North Korea, Kang echoed Washington’s position that they remain in place until there is “concrete action on complete denuclearization,” but she said other undefined measures could be offered in response to Pyongyang’s continued progress.

“Now when we talk about action, there is a lot that can be done prior to lifting of the sanctions. There are good faith measures. There are confidence building measures and the suspension of the military exercises is one such good faith measure,” said Kang.

However South Korean economic engagement with the North, she said, would be confined to research and development efforts only. 

At the inter-Korean summit in April, Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in agreed to explore ways to promote economic cooperation and work to modernize inter-Korean railways and roads that could provide the South with land routes to China and Russia that would reach Europe. 

Talks between the U.S. and North Korea are expected to be scheduled soon to expand Kim’s denuclearization pledge into a comprehensive plan that would detail the list of nuclear weapons, related facilities and ballistic missile systems to be eliminated, a dismantlement timeline, and verification process.

It also needs to be clearly defined the security guarantee and economic assistance North Korea would be provided for ending its nuclear program. 

Kang expects this year to come up with an agreed upon peace declaration, but expects it will take a long time to develop a peace treaty to replace the armistice put in place at the end of the Korean War in 1953.

Kim met with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday during a two-day visit to Beijing, where they discussed the denuclearization agreement reached in Singapore. 

After the summit North Korea state media reported that Trump agreed to a “step-by-step” process linking concessions to incremental progress, while U.S. officials insist that complete denuclearization must come before any relief is offered.

Inter-Korean talks are also continuing to ease tensions and increase cooperation. Military to military dialogue has been reestablished. The two Koreas also agreed this week to field unified teams at some events during the upcoming Asian Games scheduled for August in Indonesia.

Lee Yoon-jee in Seoul contributed to this report.
…

your ad here

Trump Rallies Republicans for Hill Immigration Vote

Posted on by SeeUS

President Donald Trump made a last-minute trip to Capitol Hill to convince lawmakers he backs their attempt to pass an immigration bill. Republican’s push to address border security and the fate of 800,000 undocumented young people comes amid growing outcry over the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance policy toward undocumented immigrants and the separation of families. VOA’s Congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson has more.
…

your ad here

As DRC Grapples with Ebola, Guinea Keeps Up Its Guard

Posted on by SeeAF

Just after a morning rain, Gourma Mamadou was shopping in this capital city’s crowded, open-air Kaloum market. The young man said he was well aware of the current Ebola outbreak simmering some 4,000 kilometers to the southeast in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the World Health Organization reports it has killed 28 people since April.

The outbreak may be relatively far away, but fear of Ebola is not.

Madamou said most of the Guineans he knows don’t mention Ebola, as if just speaking the word would invoke its terrible wrath. The virus ravaged Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone from 2014 into 2016, leaving 11,000 people dead, including 2,500 in his country.

People “are watching carefully,” the young shopper said, suggesting that frequent hand-washing and other hygienic precautions grew more commonplace with the Ebola experience. “Sometimes, it’s hard. That disease is so viral, but since it’s been eradicated, we don’t want it back in Guinea.”

Some good also grew out of Guinea’s exposure to the virus. Late in the West African outbreak, almost 6,000 people in Guinea were vaccinated with an experimental therapeutic, V920. A December 2016 report in The Lancet medical journal said the inoculations bolstered the interim finding that the vaccine “offers substantial protection.”

That same vaccine, not yet licensed in any country, is now being used in the DRC’s northwestern region. Pharmaceutical company Merck sent roughly 8,600 doses to Equateur province.

Dr. Sakoba Keita, who oversaw Guinea’s Ebola response and directs the country’s National Health Security Center, praised the vaccine.

“For us, the vaccine is very effective,” he said, saying it protected 95 percent of those inoculated and “greatly helped stop the chain of transmission of the Ebola virus in Guinea. That is the reason why the vaccine is at the forefront of our response mechanisms.”

Keita, more commonly known as “Dr. Ebola,” leads Guinea’s fight against a recurrence of the disease. He said the country of 13 million learned hard lessons from its Ebola experience.

Like its neighbors Liberia and Sierra Leone, Guinea was unfamiliar with the deadly virus. The outbreak, traced to a young boy infected by a bat in a Guinean jungle in December 2013, wasn’t identified until March 2014.

Then, as now, the international community stepped in to help. The World Health Organization worked with local governments to coordinate a response. Aid groups such as Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF) provided medical teams to support local health care workers and treat patients.

The United States was among the foreign governments joining in the effort to halt the disease, sending health workers, researchers and aid to help with a public awareness campaign, disease tracking and patients’ treatment.

The DRC has the most experience in combating the disease, which originally surfaced in 1976 in an area near the Ebola River. When Ebola broke out in Guinea, the DRC sent experts there.

So, when the DRC’s ninth Ebola outbreak surfaced months ago, Guinea — at the WHO’s request — sent medical personnel in a gesture of solidarity.

Given the DRC’s repeated outbreaks, Keita said it’s important to be ready in case Ebola ever returns to his country. 

Keito said Guinea is more prepared now than it was before its Ebola outbreak. Health workers have learned to recognize the disease and its symptoms. The general public is more aware of it, too. And Conakry’s Donka Hospital — the country’s biggest health facility, where MSF operated an Ebola treatment center — is being expanded to meet needs.

“As we learn new things about the disease,” Keito said, “we prepare so that we are ready to contain it quickly if we were to face a new outbreak.”

Abdourahmane Dia is a multimedia journalist with VOA’s French to Africa Service.
…

your ad here

Scan on Exit: Can Blockchain Save Moldova’s Children from Traffickers?

Posted on by SeeEU

Laura was barely 18 when a palm reader told her she could make $180 a month working in beetroot farms in Russia — an attractive sum for a girl struggling to make a living in the town of Drochia, in Moldova’s impoverished north.

That she had no passport, the fortune teller said, was not a problem. Her future employers would help her cross the border.

“They gave me a [fake] birth certificate stating I was 14,” Laura, who declined to give her real name, told Reuters in an interview.

That was enough to get her through border controls as she traveled by bus with a smuggler posing as one of her parents.

It was the beginning of a long tale of exploitation for Laura — one of many such stories in Moldova in eastern Europe, which aims to become the first country in the world to pilot blockchain to tackle decades of widespread human trafficking.

Trafficking generates illegal profits of $150 billion a year globally, with about 40 million people estimated to be trapped as modern-day slaves — mostly women and girls — in forced labor and forced marriages, according to leading anti-slavery groups.

The digital tool behind the cryptocurrency bitcoin is increasingly being tested for social causes, from Coca-Cola creating a workers’ registry to fight forced labor to tracking supply chains, such as cobalt which is often mined by children.

Moldova has one of the highest rates of human trafficking in Europe as widespread poverty and unemployment drive many young people, mostly women, to look for work overseas, according to the United Nations migration agency (IOM).

Due to the hidden nature of trafficking and the stigma attached, it is unknown how many people in the former Soviet country have been trafficked abroad but IOM has helped some 3,400 victims — 10 percent of whom were children — since 2001.

In Russia, Laura was forced to toil long hours, beaten and never paid. After ending up in hospital, she was rescued by a doctor, only to be trafficked again a few years later when an abusive partner sold her into prostitution.

She now lives with her daughter in a rehabilitation center in the northern village of Palaria with help from the charity CCF Moldova.

“I had a lot of suffering,” the 36-year-old said. “I am very afraid of being sold again, afraid about my child.”

​Scans and bribes

Moldova plans to launch a pilot of its digital identity project this year, working with the Brooklyn-based software company ConsenSys, which won a U.N. competition in March to design an identity system to combat child trafficking.

Undocumented children are easy prey for traffickers using fake documents to transport them across borders to work in brothels or to sell their organs, experts say.

More than 40,000 Moldovan children have been left behind by parents who have migrated abroad for work, often with little supervision, according to IOM.

“A lot of children are staying just with their grandfathers or grandmas, spending [more] time in the streets,” said Lilian Levandovschi, head of Moldova’s anti-trafficking police unit.

Moldova, with a population of 3.5 million, is among the poorest countries in Europe with an average monthly disposable income of 2,250 Moldovan Leu ($135), government data shows.

ConsenSys aims to create a secure, digital identity on a blockchain — or decentralized digital ledger shared by a network of computers — for Moldovan children, linking their personal identities with other family members.

Moldova has strengthened its anti-trafficking laws since Laura’s ordeal and children now need to carry a passport and be accompanied by a parent, or an adult carrying a letter of permission signed by a guardian, to exit the country.

With the blockchain system, children attempting to cross the border would be asked to scan their eyes or fingerprints.

A phone alert would notify their legal guardians, requiring at least two to approve the crossing, said Robert Greenfield who is managing the ConsenSys project.

Any attempt to take a child abroad without their guardians’ permission would be permanently recorded on the database, which would detect patterns of behavior to help catch traffickers and could be used as evidence in court.

“Nobody can bribe someone to delete that information,” said Mariana Dahan, co-founder of World Identity Network (WIN), an initiative promoting digital identities and a partner in the blockchain competition.

Corruption and official complicity in trafficking are significant problems in Moldova, according to the U.S. State Department, which last year downgraded it to Tier 2 in a watchlist of those not doing enough to fight modern day slavery.

Moldova is eager to prove that it is taking action, as a further demotion could block access to U.S. aid and loans.

​Tricked

Many details have yet to be agreed before the blockchain project starts, including funding, populations targeted, the type of biometrical data collected, and where it will be stored.

But the scheme is facing resistance from some anti-trafficking groups who say it will not help the majority of victims — children trafficked within Moldova’s borders and adults who are tricked when they travel abroad seeking work.

“As long as we don’t have job opportunities … trafficking will still remain a problem for Moldova,” said IOM’s Irina Arap.

Minors made up less than 20 percent of 249 domestic and international trafficking victims identified in 2017, said Ecaterina Berejan, head of Moldova’s anti-trafficking agency.

“For Moldova, this is not a very big problem,” she said, referring to cross-border child trafficking, adding that child victims may travel with valid documents as their families are in cahoots with traffickers in some cases.

But supporters of the blockchain initiative say low official trafficking figures do not account for undetected cases, and they have a duty to attempt to stay ahead of the criminals.

“Many times, authorities are late in using latest technologies,” said Mihail Beregoi, state secretary for Moldova’s internal affairs ministry. “Usually organized crime uses them first and more successfully. … Any effort [to] secure at least one child is already worth trying.”
…

your ad here

IMF Chief: Ukraine Anti-corruption Court Law Needs Amending 

Posted on by SeeEU

Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund, welcomed on Tuesday the adoption by Ukraine’s parliament of a law to create an anti-corruption court, but said lawmakers needed to amend it to guarantee the court’s effectiveness.

Creating an independent and trustworthy court dedicated to handling corruption cases is one of the key conditions for Ukraine to receive further funding under its $17.5 billion aid-for-reforms program from the IMF.

Earlier in June, parliament passed the law after months of delay, but the draft contained an amendment that activists said would undermine the reform by allowing appeals on existing cases to be handled by the current courts system.

In the Fund’s first direct comments on the law, Lagarde said she had spoken with President Petro Poroshenko and said she was encouraged by the adoption of the legislation.

“We agreed that it is now important for parliament to quickly approve … the necessary amendments to restore the requirement that the HACC (anti-corruption court) will adjudicate all cases under its jurisdiction,” she said in a statement.

The law is meant to ring-fence court decisions from political pressure or bribery in Ukraine, where entrenched corruption remains a deterrent to foreign investors and knocks two percentage points off Ukraine’s economic growth each year, according to the IMF.

Establishing the court, adjusting gas prices and honouring budget commitments are key conditions to unlock the next loan tranche under the IMF program, which expires next year.

Lagarde said she and Poroshenko had “also agreed to work closely together, including with the government, toward the timely implementation of this and other actions, notably related to gas prices and the budget.”
…

your ad here

Kenya Seeks to Boost Girls’ Education by Providing Free Sanitary Products

Posted on by SeeAF

Menstruation often means missing school for many girls in parts of Africa. But should the state provide sanitary products to girls who cannot afford them to prevent them from falling behind in their studies?

That question continues to stir debate in several East African countries but especially in Kenya, where President Uhuru Kenyatta last year signed the  Basic Education Amendment Act requiring the government to provide free sanitary towels to schoolgirls. 

A 2016 U.N. report estimated that one in 10 girls in Sub-Saharan Africa misses school during her menstrual cycle due to an inability to access affordable sanitary products.

After two years of debate, Kenya’s parliament voted overwhelmingly last year in favor of a measure that advocates say lifts that barrier to education. In June of 2017, President Kenyatta signed the amendment into law.

Sanitary towels handed out

This May, Gender Affairs Cabinet Secretary Margaret Kobia cleared the way for the distribution of one million sanitary towels to girls in Kenya’s Makueni and Kitui counties.

The government said it targeted more than 200,000 schoolgirls for distribution as part of a pilot program.

Through funds provided by the government  and channeled to the county governments, the new law is set to benefit girls in all of Kenya’s 47 counties.

The government allocated $4.6 million to the gender department ministry to buy the towels.

Femme International

Rachel Ouko is the Nairobi program coordinator for Femme International, a non-profit organization that provides menstrual cups and reusable, washable pads to underprivileged girls in Kenya and Tanzania.

“If that system can work very well, it will have a great impact on school-going girl,” Ouko said. “First of all, we have free education, so no girl should have an excuse of not going to school. Then there is free sanitary pads, so no girl should not have an excuse of going to school because they lack sanitary pads.”

Activists around the region say the issue is most pronounced in rural areas, and the problem is more complex than just supplying sanitary pads.

In 2017, the U.N. Children’s Fund estimated around 60 percent of girls in Uganda missed class because their schools lacked private toilets and washing facilities to help them manage during their periods.

Cycle of frustration

Regina Kasebe is a Uganda social worker with Action Alliance, also known as Solidarity Uganda.

“Issues of women and girls cut across nations and you find that in schools when these young girls, most of them come from poor families and in the schools where we majorly work with and the challenge they have is during menstruation,” Kasebe said.

“Because they do not have sanitary towels, they do not use anything, so for those days you have to stay home you cannot go to school when you are in such a situation, so there is missing school during the days of menstruation and also they drop out because they get frustrated because they cannot continue handling the same issue over and over again,” she said.

Kasebe said girls in rural areas are also more likely to be married off once they have started menstruating, further contributing to drop-out rates.

Several African nations have taken steps to improve access to sanitary products for both women and girls.

Uganda announced in 2017 that sanitary pads would be exempt from value-added tax, and in November, Kenya removed duties on raw materials used in the production of sanitary pads to help make the product more affordable.

Missed work, school

According to Sustainable Health Enterprises, an NGO, 18 percent of women and girls in Rwanda missed work or school last year because they could not afford to buy menstrual pads. The NGO estimates that a lack of affordable sanitary pads costs Rwanda’s economy $115 million per year.

Activists hope other countries in the region will follow Kenya’s example and take steps to make sanitary products more accessible, and thus help girls overcome a big disadvantage they have been facing at school.
…

your ad here

Merkel to Trump: Falling German Crime Stats ‘Speak for Themselves’

Posted on by SeeEU

Chancellor Angela Merkel coolly rebuffed U.S. President Donald Trump’s assertion that migrants were behind a surge in crime in Germany, pointing to statistics that showed crime was in fact down.

“My answer is that the interior minister presented the crime statistics a short while ago and they speak for themselves,” Merkel told a news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron when asked about a recent flurry of tweets from Trump.

“We are seeing a slight positive development. We must always do more to fight criminiality. But they were very encouraging numbers,” she added.

Statistics published last month showed that overall crime fell 9.6 percent in Germany in 2017.

A government-sponsored study published in January showed that violent crime had risen about 10 percent in 2015 and 2016, attributing more than 90 percent of the rise to young male asylum seekers.

Merkel has faced opposition at home for a decision in 2015 to open Germany’s borders to hundreds of thousands of migrants, mostly Middle Eastern asylum seekers who crossed by sea from Turkey to Greece and overland through the Balkans. That route has since been closed under a 2016 deal Turkey-EU deal.

In a tweet on Monday, Trump said that the people of Germany were turning against their leadership because of loose migration policies.

“Crime is way up. Big mistake made all over Europe in allowing millions of people in who have so strongly and violently changed their culture,” Trump said.

He followed that up with a tweet on Tuesday that said: “Crime in Germany is up 10% plus [officials do not want to report these crimes] since migrants were accepted. Others countries are even worse. Be smart America!”

His tweets come amid a storm of criticism from Democrats and some Republicans for his administration’s policy of detaining immigrant children separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said it was “not the American president’s role to speculate —  as he did yesterday — that the German people would march towards the chancellery to remove Mrs. Merkel.”

“Mr. Trump may govern the USA, he doesn’t govern Europe,” Juncker added.
…

your ad here

US-led Coalition Says Kills Islamic State Oil and Gas Head in Syria

Posted on by SeeEA

The U.S.-led coalition in Syria said on Tuesday it had disrupted Islamic State’s funding by killing the man who ran its oil and gas network and other members of the group last month.

“The death of these [Islamic State] members hinders the terrorist group’s ability to finance operations throughout Iraq and Syria … the ability to pay fighters, procure weapons, and maintain equipment will be degraded,” it said in a statement.

The coalition said it killed the oil and gas network leader Abu Khattab al-Iraqi and three other Islamic State members on May 26 in the “Middle Euphrates River valley.”

Al-Iraqi had “managed revenue generation through the illicit sale of oil and gas,” it said.

In Syria the U.S.-led coalition uses air power and special forces to back the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias, in their fight against Islamic State.

The SDF took swaths of northern and eastern Syria from Islamic State last year, including the jihadists’ Syrian capital of Raqqa. It continues to fight Islamic State in some desert areas east of the Euphrates.
…

your ad here

Egyptians Angered by New Austerity After Eid Feast

Posted on by SeeEA

Many Egyptians hoped to ignore their economic hardship as they celebrated the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. Instead, they were told they will have to tighten their belts even more.

With the Eid al-Fitr feast in full swing, the government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi on Saturday declared it was slashing fuel subsidies, pushing up prices of petrol and public transport by as much as 50 percent.

People returning to work Tuesday in Cairo seethed at the new sums they had to pay to board buses or fill up their vehicles with petrol.

“We knew there were going to be price rises, but didn’t expect it to be this big,” said Sabah Hassan, a mother of six who works as a cleaner at a nursery.

Hassan said her transportation costs have jumped from around 5 pounds per trip ($0.28) to at least 10 ($0.56).

“My household gas has doubled, and so has my water bill — how will my 1,000-pound ($55) wages cover it all?”

The fuel price increase was the latest in a raft of austerity measures Egypt is carrying out as part of major economic reforms, the price of a $12 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund.

The country’s economy, which was battered by the unrest that followed a 2011 popular uprising, has begun to improve since Sissi came to power in 2014. Authorities and many economists credit the reforms with helping to attract long-term foreign investment and accelerate growth in gross domestic product.

But fiscal reforms have hit ordinary Egyptians hard.

The fuel subsidy cuts came just days after the government said prices for electricity would rise by an average of 26 percent and for piped drinking water by nearly half.

Sissi, who was re-elected against virtually no competition in a landslide April vote, has urged patience from the Egyptian people, saying recently the country could only reap the benefits of austerity with everyone on board.

“I don’t like to talk about other countries, but I hope we take note,” he said earlier this month in an apparent reference to protests over tax increases in Jordan — warning that similar unrest in Egypt threatened stability.

The government has said it will increase welfare spending to help poor Egyptians.

Some Egyptians said they would willingly foot the bill for stability and an improved economy. Aside from economic problems, Egypt faces an Islamist militancy in its Sinai Peninsula.

“It’ll cost me more to fuel my motorbike, but this is a small price to pay to support Sissi and put Egypt back on track,” said Ahmed Mohamed, a 36-year-old cafe worker.

‘All we do is spend’

Mohamed said he was glad to see the back of the 2011 uprising that had toppled longtime leader Hosni Mubarak and then the Muslim Brotherhood. Other Egyptians did not share his views.

“Sissi should think of ordinary people for once,” said Nermin, a textile industry manager, declining to give her full name. “All we do is spend, and see nothing in return.”

A taxi driver, who gave his name as Mohamed Mubarak, said it was becoming more and more expensive to run his car.

“In Mubarak’s days, I would go to the petrol station with 50 pounds, fill her up, and have money left. Now it’s 140 pounds. All for the sake of tahiya Masr [long live Egypt],” he said, mocking a Sissi slogan.

Despite discontent, most Egyptians said they had no plans to protest — out of fear of chaos that might follow, or of arrest.

Rare, small-scale protests broke out last month over a sudden increase in fares on Cairo’s metro system. Several people were arrested in connection with the demonstrations, which were made illegal in 2013 without permission from the interior ministry.

“No one will raise their voice — people are scared and feel shackled,” Mubarak said.

He charged 30 pounds for a normally 20-pound fare.
…

your ad here

Trump: ‘We’re getting there’ in NAFTA Talks with Canada, Mexico

Posted on by SeeUS

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday progress was being made in slow-moving talks to update the NAFTA trade accord between the United States, Canada and Mexico, but he held out the prospect of striking bilateral pacts if a three-way deal could not be reached.

“We’re trying to equalize it. It’s not easy but we’re getting there,” he told a group of U.S. small business executives. “We’ll see whether or not we can make a reasonable NAFTA deal.”

Renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement, which Trump called a “disaster” for the United States, was a goal he had set out during his election campaign.

Negotiations to modernize NAFTA started last August and were initially scheduled to finish by the end of December 2017.

That deadline has been extended several times as Canada and Mexico struggle to accommodate far-reaching U.S. demands for change, such as a sunset clause that would allow one nation to pull out after five years. Canada and Mexico reject the idea.

At a news conference in Mexico City, Mexican foreign minister Luis Videgaray said he expected the next negotiating meeting of ministers to be held in July.

The Canadian government believes a deal to update NAFTA is still possible despite a U.S. move to impose tariffs on Canadian and Mexican steel and aluminum, Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said Tuesday in Ottawa.

Trade frictions between the United States and Canada have been particularly strained in recent weeks, with Trump taking umbrage at remarks by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that were critical of the heavy U.S. tariffs.

Trump said on Tuesday the two nations had a good relationship, but that Americans were being taken advantage of when it came to trade.

“We have to change our ways. We can no longer be the stupid country,” Trump said. “We want to be the smart country.”
…

your ad here

Hundreds of Thousands of Child Migrants Detained Across Globe, Reports Say

Posted on by SeeAF

Some 50 million migrant children worldwide were living in other countries or were still living in their native countries after having been forcibly displaced from their homes in 2016, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund.

The September 2016 report titled “Uprooted: The Growing Crisis for Refugee and Migrant Children,” said “migrating and displaced children are at risk of some of the worst forms of abuse and harm.”

The report said the 10 countries that hosted the largest number of refugees are in Asia and Africa. Turkey had by far the largest number of refugees.

More than 100 countries detain children for immigration reasons, according to the Global Campaign to End Child Immigration Detention.

The campaign has researched only a small number of countries that detain children on the basis of their immigration status: Australia, Malaysia, Israel, South Africa, Greece, Mexico and the United States.

The UNICEF report said some countries do not detain migrant children at all, while others separate them from their families by placing them in child care facilities. Other countries detain children with convicted adult felons.

There is, however, a lack of verified information on the number of children “deprived of liberty each year,” said the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child and more than 50 other human rights groups.

While the campaign estimates that hundreds of thousands of children are locked in immigration centers every day, Human Rights Watch said in its report, “Children Behind Bars: The Global Overuse of Detention of Children,” that more than 1 million children are behind bars around the world.

The Human Rights Watch report also cited a U.N. human rights treaty that prohibits the “mandatory and indefinite detention of children.”

Nevertheless, the report said Australia has had a mandatory detention policy for all asylum seekers since 1992. At the end of October 2015, Australia held 112 children in mainland detention centers and another 95 children in a regional center on the island of Nauru.

In the U.S., the administration of President Barack Obama “dramatically expanded family immigration detention capacity” from 100 beds to more than 3,000 in an attempt to deter migrants from Central America, the report said.

The Obama administration, however, subsequently “backed away from that rationale.”

The report said Thailand’s immigration laws allowed the “indefinite detention of all refugees” and that migrant children were detained in “squalid cells without adequate food or opportunity to exercise or receive an education.”

In Indonesia, Malaysia and Mexico, there is “large-scale detention of migrant children,” according to Human Rights Watch and other organizations.
…

your ad here

US Expected to Announce Withdrawal From UN Rights Council

Posted on by SeeUS

The United States is expected Tuesday to announce it is pulling out of the United Nations’ Human Rights Council, according to State Department officials.

Officials speaking on condition of anonymity told reporters from several outlets that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley are expected to make a joint appearance to announce the decision.

Haley threatened last year that the U.S. might pull out of the 47-nation group over its repeated criticism of Israel and inclusion of nations with poor records on human rights. The move follows months of talks on reforming the council.

On Monday, the U.N.’s human rights chief, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein of Jordan, denounced the U.S. policy of separating parents and children who cross into the United States illegally.

 
…

your ad here

Trump Meeting With Lawmakers Amid Migrant Controversy

Posted on by SeeUS

U.S. President Donald Trump is meeting with Republican lawmakers Tuesday about immigration legislation amid growing cries for him to end his migrant policy separating children from their parents at the U.S. southern border with Mexico as they illegally enter the United States.

Trump, in several Twitter comments, continued to defend his break-up-the-families policy, saying, “We must always arrest people coming into our Country illegally.”

He said, “Now is the best opportunity ever for Congress to change the ridiculous and obsolete laws on immigration. Get it done, always keeping in mind that we must have strong border security.”

The House of Representatives is set to vote later in the week on two immigration bills, including provisions that would curb the separation of children from their parents at the border. The measures would also create a path to citizenship for up to 1.8 million young immigrants already in the U.S. who were brought illegally to the U.S. years ago by their parents, but it is not clear that either piece of legislation has enough votes to win passage.

In a meeting with Republican senators Monday, Trump threatened to shut the government in late September, as a new fiscal year starts October 1, if Congress does not approve $25 billion in funding for a wall along the Mexican border to thwart further illegal migration into the U.S. So far, Congress has approved little funding for the barrier, keeping Trump from meeting one of his signature vows during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Numerous Republican and Democratic lawmakers have called for Trump to abandon the border policy as indefensible. All four former living U.S. first ladies, Michelle Obama, Laura Bush, Hillary Clinton and Rosalynn Carter, condemned the separation of children from their parents.

Trump’s wife, Melania Trump, through a spokeswoman, said she “hates to see children separated from their families” and that the U.S. should be “a country that follows all laws, but also a country that governs with heart.”

One Republican governor, Maryland’s Larry Hogan, in an act of protest of Trump’s policy on breaking up families when they are detained, withdrew the state’s small National Guard contingent from the border where it had been assisting federal agents. Another Republican governor, Massachusetts’ Charlie Baker, dropped his offer to send troops to the border.

In a Washington speech, Trump said Mexico does “nothing for us” to block the flow of immigrants from reaching the U.S.

“If you don’t have Borders, you don’t have a Country!” Trump tweeted.

He once again inaccurately blamed opposition Democrats for the border dispute, even though his administration set the policy on separating children from their parents.

“Democrats are the problem,” Trump tweeted. “They don’t care about crime and want illegal immigrants, no matter how bad they may be, to pour into and infest our Country, like MS-13. They can’t win on their terrible policies, so they view them as potential voters!

Mexico weighed in on the controversy, strongly rebuking Trump.

“In the name of the Mexican government and people, I want to express our most categorical and energetic condemnation of this cruel and inhuman policy,” Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray told a news conference.

 
…

your ad here

EU Tries to Ease German, Italian Concerns Over Migration

Posted on by SeeEU

European Union leaders will try to reassure Germany and Italy over migration at a summit next week as a stand-off in Berlin threatens Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling coalition.

The EU could take steps to stop asylum seekers moving on from the country in which they are registered and start deciding asylum requests at centers to be established beyond EU borders in the future, according to a draft summit statement.

The proposed steps come ahead of the June 28-29 summit in Brussels at which EU leaders will attempt to agree on a joint migration policy three years after more than 1 million people arrived in Europe, causing a crisis for the union.

Their joint draft statement is not public and its wording might change. But it showed the bloc is trying to accommodate a new, anti-establishment government in Italy, as well as Berlin where Merkel’s coalition partner issued an ultimatum for an EU-wide deal on migration.

If the summit fails to reach a satisfactory outcome, Berlin would issue a unilateral ban on refugees already registered in other EU states from entering the country, said the junior governing Christian Social Union that has the interior ministry.

German police data suggest any such ban would only affect several hundred people a month and hence have no big impact on the overall number of refugees in Germany.

The EU border agency Frontex said more than 90 percent of current arrivals in Italy, Greece and Spain register for asylum there. Many still often go north, including to Germany. This “secondary movement” violates EU law but has been widespread.

“Member States should take all necessary internal legislative … to counter such movements,” the text said in an indirect response to German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer.

Merkel opposes the proposal that comes from a party facing a tough vote in its home base in Bavaria in October against a resurgent far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has advocated harsh anti-immigration line.

The AfD on Tuesday accused the CSU of copying its ideas on how to deal with the migrant crisis.

French President Emmanuel Macron and Merkel called in a joint statement on Tuesday for a European solution on migration and said secondary movement must be tackled.

Immigration low, tensions high

The EU is bitterly divided over migration. It has struggled to reform its internal asylum rules, which broke down in 2015, and has instead tried to tighten its borders and prevent new arrivals. To that end, it has given aid and money to countries including Turkey, Jordan, Libya and Niger.

Next week, EU leaders will also agree to look into opening “disembarkation platforms” in regions such as north Africa to decide asylum requests before people get to Europe.

European capitals from Rome to Budapest advocate such centres but concerns that processing people outside EU borders could violate the law have long blocked any such initiative.

“Such platforms should provide for rapid processing to distinguish between economic migrants and those in need of international protection, and reduce the incentive to embark on perilous journeys,” the draft statement said.

Italy closed its ports to rescue ships and said it prefers Frontex to work in Africa to prevent people from coming rather than patrol the Mediterranean and rescue those in distressed boats.

Tripoli already runs migrant camps in Libya where the EU pays the U.N. migration and refugee agencies to help resettle people to Europe legally or deport them to other African countries.

But reform of EU internal asylum rules is stuck. Southern and wealthy central states demand that all EU members host some new arrivals but eastern states refuse leading to a stalemate.

In evidence of that division, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said on Tuesday the CSU demand for internal border checks is unacceptable.

Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said it would be “very difficult to reach a solution” on hosting asylum seekers next week. There is, however, agreement on strengthening external borders and bringing together the border protection databases.

“So much progress has been made, we can’t let all slip away now. So we need to give key countries something to keep them on board,” one EU official said of the proposed text.
…

your ad here