Page 417 - Social Issues
Exhausted Venezuelans' desperate Peru quest toughens with new restrictions
Desperate Venezuelan migrants who made it across the border in time were breathing a sigh of relief hours before Peru's tightened controls came into effect today, preventing those not carrying passports from entering. "We have been on the road for five days. We travelled by bus and saw people, Venezuelans, walking along the road," Jonathan Zambrano, 18, told AFP. Thousands of migrants fleeing the crippling economic crisis in their homeland had faced a race against time to cross into Peru from either Ecuador or Colombia after last week's announcement from Lima that they had one week to enter before a passport would be required. Until today, a simple identity card was enough for Venezuelans heading south to escape food and medicine shortages, hyperinflation and failing public services back home. At one border crossing, Peruvian officers handed out balloons to exhausted children, but many Venezuelans feared it would be a different story once the new rules come into force. "People arrive .
Rohingya mark 'black day' one year after Myanmar violence
Rohingya refugees today marked the anniversary of a deadly military crackdown in their Myanmar homeland that drove 700,000 of the persecuted minority into Bangladesh, stateless and confronting a grim future. Raids by Rohingya militants on August 25 last year across Myanmar's Rakhine state spurred an army crackdown which the United Nations has likened to "ethnic cleansing". Waves of Rohingya fled by foot or boat to Bangladesh in an exodus unprecedented in speed and scale. Rohingya activists in Bangladesh's refugee camps vowed to mark the "black day" with prayers, speeches and song. The latest influx has placed enormous pressure on Bangladesh's impoverished Cox's Bazar district, which quickly grew into the world's largest refugee settlement. The squalid camps already hosted generations of Rohingya expelled from Rakhine and the latest arrivals pushed numbers close to one million. Abdul Malek, a 27-year-old refugee who fled an attack on his village last year, said the plight of the ...
Ecuador opens 'humanitarian corridor,' lifts passport measure on Venezuelans
Ecuador has opened a "humanitarian corridor" and lifted its own entry restrictions on the masses of migrants escaping Venezuela's free-falling economy and streaming towards the Peruvian border, hours before Lima tightens its border controls. Ecuadoran Interior Minister Mauro Toscanini said yesterday that there were currently 35 bus-loads of migrants on the move along the route authorities had opened to Peru. "We are going to continue as long as we can," said the minister, whose country is being crossed by tens of thousands of Venezuelans seeking to join relatives and take up work opportunities in Peru, Chile and beyond. Peru is one of the region's fastest growing economies, projecting 4.7 per cent growth next year. Venezuelans trying to cross the Peruvian border after a midnight deadline will be required to produce a passport; until then, an identity card will suffice. However, they will no longer need to produce a passport to enter Ecuador from Colombia. Ecuador -- where close to ...
Venezuelans rush to Peru to beat passport deadline
Venezuelans continued to surge out of their country today, joining the 7.5 per cent of the population that has already fled a deepening economic crisis, as regional governments struggled to cope with one of the biggest exoduses in Latin American history. The wave of Venezuelan migration has accelerated in recent days amid new restrictions imposed by some of Venezuela's overwhelmed neighbours, sparking a warning from the United Nations. Migrants were dashing to get into Peru before it tightens border controls at midnight. Venezuelans arriving after that deadline will be required to produce a passport, where an ID card had previously sufficed. "It remains critical that any new measures continue to allow those in need of international protection to access safety and seek asylum," UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said yesterday in a statement issued jointly with the International Organization of Migration in Geneva. Ecuador -- where close to half a million people have fled
Italy to 'take stock' of EU choices on migration: Conte
Rome, Aug 24 (IANS/AKI) Italy's populist Premier Giuseppe Conte said his country would "take stock" of the European Union's failure to agree on Friday to relocate 150 migrants stranded for days aboard the Coast Guard ship Ubaldo Diciotti at the port of Catania.
Mediterranean migrant deaths top 1,500 in 2018: UN
Rome, Aug 24 (IANS/AKI) A total 1,546 people died this year till August 22 while trying to cross the Mediterranean from North Africa while 65,576 migrants and refugees reached Europe by sea over the period, the UN migration agency said on Friday.
Concerted efforts needed to make city safer: LG
Delhi Lt. Governor Anil Baijal on Friday demanded various stakeholders involved in women security to work together in order to make the national capital safer for women.
Shahdara district administration launches skill training programme for manual scavengers
The Shahdara district administration today launched a first-of-its-kind three-month skill training programme for 28 manual scavengers identified through a survey conducted in the area. They will undergo a four-hour skill development class Monday to Friday and will be paid a stipend of Rs 1,000 per month. The participants will be required to take an exam, conducted by the Domestic Worker Sector Skill Council, after the completion of the programme, Vinay Stephen of the Sadik Masih Medical Social Servant Society (SMMSSS) said. Thereafter, they will be placed in hotels, hospitals, and restaurants, he said. "You will be working in hospitals, hotels, and restaurants. You can also choose to render services as caretakers of patients at homes. Some of you who have BCom degrees can also be given an accounting job," Stephen told the inaugural class. It is a joint effort of the government and civil society to ensure that these people get employment and respect, District Magistrate (East Delhi) K
Mirchpur killings: HC asks Haryana to use fine imposed on convicts for rehabilitation of victims
The Delhi High Court today asked the Haryana government to utilise the Rs 13-lakh fine imposed on the convicts of the 2010 Mirchpur Dalit killing case for rehabilitation of the victim families. "The fine amounts collected shall be utilised by the Government of Haryana as part of the provision of pecuniary relief and rehabilitation to the victims," a bench of Justices S Muralidhar and I S Mehta said. The high court today sentenced to life imprisonment 12 members of the dominant Jat community and 21 other convicts to varying jail terms in the 2010 Mirchpur Dalit killing case in which a 60-year-old man and his physically-challenged teenaged daughter were burnt alive. The court imposed fines ranging from Rs 1,000 to Rs 10,000 for each of the offences, including murder, rioting and causing grievous hurt under the penal code and the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act, for which the 33 convicts were held guilty and if recovered, the total amount would come to around Rs 13 lakh. As a result ..
SC to hear plea for steps to protect leopards in India
The Supreme Court today agreed to hear in November a plea seeking steps for protection of leopards in the country including setting up a task force on the lines of tiger conservation project. A bench of justices M B Lokur and Deepak Gupta said that it will take up in the month of November a petition filed by advocate Anupam Tripathi, seeking directions to the Centre to set up Project Leopard and allocate funds for it accordingly to protect and preserve the leopard population. "If a specific task force may not be a viable option, in such a case the existing tiger task force and the forest guards protecting the tigers in the wild in India, their scope of duty may be widened to also include the leopards in the wild in India on priority basis," the plea said. It also sought directions to the Centre to take drastic and tough steps including "right to shoot and kill poachers" by the forest guard and task force. The petition also pointed out that two decades ago there were more than 45,000 ..
NSF rally in Kohima against entry of illegal immigrants
The Naga Students' Federation (NSF) today took to the streets of Kohima to protest against alleged influx of illegal immigrants and demand inclusion of Dimapur district under the purview of Inner Line Permit (ILP). The Inner Line Permit is required by non-Nagas to visit Nagaland and Dimapur is the only district in the state which is not under the purview of ILP. The NSF, the apex students' body of the state, described today's rally as the second phase of protest against "influx of illegal immigrants into the state". Addressing the gathering, NSF president Kesosul Christopher Ltu said the younger generation is worried that illegal immigrants would overtake the indigenous people of the state if the influx is not checked. "Government machineries have miserably failed to monitor implementation of ILP in the state," he alleged. Ltu claimed that check gates in different parts of the state remained ineffective maintaining no record of outsiders entering the state with ILP and ...
Italy threatens to pull EU funds over migrant boat crisis
Italy's deputy prime minister has threatened to pull the country's EU funding if the bloc does not come to the aid of 150 people stranded aboard an Italian coastguard ship. The migrants have been blocked at the Sicilian port of Catania on the Diciotti vessel since Monday night because the Italian government is refusing to allow them to disembark without commitments from the EU to take some of them in. A meeting of high-level representatives from around a dozen EU member states is due to be held today to discuss the issue, according to the Commission. "In recent months we have had the chance to see how a soft line with the European Union worked and how a hard line works," Italy's Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio said in an interview published on Facebook yesterday. "If on Friday nothing comes out of the European Commission meeting, if they decide nothing regarding the Diciotti and the redistribution of the migrants, I and the whole Five Star Movement will no longer be prepared to ...
Despite efforts, Rohingyas remain vulnerable in Bangladesh: WHO
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday expressed concern over the health condition of Rohingya refugees living in Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh and said a severe fund crunch has threatened continuation of health services in the refugee camps.
12 sexual harassment cases under probe: Air India tells WCD
There are 12 cases of alleged sexual harassment before its various internal complaints committee, Air India has informed the Women and Child Development Ministry. Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi reviewed the progress of cases of alleged sexual harassment in Air India and Air India Express in New Delhi yesterday. She met Air India CMD Pradeep Singh Kharola and officials of Ministry of Civil Aviation. Air India has informed the Women and Child Development Ministry that there are 12 ongoing sexual harassment cases before its internal complaints committee, a WCD official said. In the meeting, it was also pointed out that there were a number of cases forwarded by WCD Ministry pertaining to private airlines to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, the ministry said in a statement. It was reported last week that Gandhi had summoned Kharola to seek explantation behind the delay in completing probe in a sexual harassment case based on complaint of an air hostess of the ...
This Raksha Bandhan, gift a 'skill' to your sister: Pradhan
Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan today appealed to the countrymen to "gift a skill" to sisters on Raksha Bandhan to make women self-reliant, saying that with changing times, our understanding of responsibility to protect them should also be re-imagined. "Gift a skill to your sister this year instead of gifting her material things, which though high on emotive value, does little to empower her well-being. Pay her fees for enrolment in a skills' programme. Take her to a skill-counselling centre. "To protect a sister is to equip her to become economically self-reliant, to unshackle her from a cycle of dependency that is often her biological destiny, to gift her a skill that will see her through life's challenges," the Union skill development minister said in a video released on his social media accounts. The minister also appealed to spread the initiative through social media and otherwise.
Disease outbreaks curtailed; lives saved due to efforts of B'desh govt: WHO
Outbreaks of deadly diseases were "prevented and rapidly curtailed" among nearly 10 lakh Rohingya refugees and thousands of lives were saved due to the efforts of the Bangladesh government, WHO and other health partners in the last one year, the global health body said today. The regional office of the World Health Organisation's (WHO) South East Asian Region said despite this, the Rohingya refugees remained vulnerable even today with their evolving health needs and a severe fund crunch, threatening the continuity of life-saving health services in their camps. "Unprecedented efforts have been made in the last year and in the most challenging conditions. Deadly diseases such as cholera have been prevented and measles and diphtheria curtailed rapidly with quick roll-out and scale-up of health services and mass vaccination campaigns. "It is remarkable that not only has the mortality rate among the Rohingyas remained lower than expected in an emergency of such a scale, it has also reduced
Video-conference facility in over 900 courts, jails yet to match up: Data
Over 900 courts across India have been equipped with video-conference facility for speedy trial in cases in which the accused are lodged in different jails, whereas the corresponding number of prisons having similar provision is far less, according to Law Ministry data. The data, part of a note prepared for discussion in Parliament on e-courts project, states that 929 district courts under the 24 high courts of the country have been equipped with video-conference facility. But the corresponding number of jails where such facilities have been installed is only 342. Phase II of the eCourts Mission Mode Project seeks to ensure installation of video-conference equipment in 2,500 court complexes and 800 jails across India. According to the data, under the Allahabad High Court, 56 court complexes have been provided with video-conferencing facility, but none of the jails have it. Under the Patna HC, 43 court complexes have the facility, but no jail has been equipped with it so far. The ...
Trump admin's immigration policies changes could substantially harm US competitiveness: top CEOs
The Trump administration's "inconsistent" immigration policies, including on the H1-B visa for professionals, could "disrupt" operations of American firms and inflict "substantial harm" on their competitiveness, CEOs from top US companies have warned. In a letter to US Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, members of the Business Roundtable, including Apple CEO Tim Cook, Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo Indra Nooyi, President and CEO of Mastercard Ajay Banga and Chairman and CEO of Cisco Systems Chuck Robbins said that confusion around US immigration policy "creates anxiety for employees who follow the law." The Business Roundtable, an association of chief executive officers of America's leading companies, told Nielsen yesterday that "inconsistent government action and uncertainty undermines economic growth and American competitiveness." Due to a shortage of green cards for workers, many employees find themselves stuck in an immigration process lasting more than a decade, they ...
Rohingyas continue to battle uncertain future in Bangladesh camps
Hafez Ullah had fled Myanmar in early September last year, following the torching of his village near the Maungdaw township in northern Rakhine by the Army.
Rohingya crisis a year on: Refugees going nowhere as cash crunch looms
With a repatriation plan in tatters and funding evaporating for a million refugees with ever-growing needs, Rohingya Muslims who fled Myanmar to Bangladesh face a grim future one year after the latest eruption of a decades-old conflict. Raids by Rohingya militants on August 25 last year across Myanmar's Rakhine state spurred an army crackdown which the United Nations has likened to "ethnic cleansing". Around 700,000 of the Muslim minority fled by foot or boat to Bangladesh, their villages ablaze behind them, in an exodus unprecedented in speed and scale. The crisis has heaped enormous pressure on Bangladesh's impoverished Cox's Bazar district, which already hosted around 300,000 of the stateless group. Myanmar says it is ready to take those who fled back. But it refuses to recognise the Rohingya as citizens, falsely labelling them "Bengali" illegal immigrants. A deal between Myanmar and Bangladesh to start sending them back has also gone nowhere, caught up in bureaucracy and mistrust,
