Italy defends blocking migrants, sending message to EU

This photo taken overnight on Sunday and obtained from Italian news agency Ansa, shows migrants disembarking from the rescue ship “Humanity 1” of German organization SOS Humanity, in Catania, Sicily. (AFP)
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Updated 09 November 2022
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Italy defends blocking migrants, sending message to EU

  • Meloni was speaking to lawmakers from her far-right Brothers of Italy party
  • Rome allowed the Geo Barents and Humanity 1 ships to dock in Sicily at the weekend and disembark around 500 migrants

ROME: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Wednesday defended allowing only the most vulnerable migrants to disembark from rescue ships, saying they are “not shipwrecked but migrants,” reports said.
She also said the decision by health authorities to subsequently let hundreds of people off two charity vessels docked in Sicily was “bizarre,” according to media reports from a closed-door meeting.
Meloni was speaking to lawmakers from her far-right Brothers of Italy party, amid fierce criticism and a row with France over her hard-right government’s treatment of migrants rescued by charity ships from the central Mediterranean.
“The Italian government is complying with all international conventions,” she said, according to the ANSA news agency.
The recent ban on two NGO ships “stopping in Italian waters, beyond the time necessary for rescue operations and to help fragile people, is justified and legitimate,” Meloni said.
“On board these ships there are not shipwrecked (people) but migrants.”
Rome allowed the Geo Barents and Humanity 1 ships to dock in Sicily at the weekend and disembark around 500 migrants, but another 250 were blocked from landing, until finally being let off late Tuesday.
Meloni said the decision was taken by health authorities, “declaring them fragile on the basis of possible risks of psychological problems,” a choice “we found bizarre,” according to ANSA.
Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said in an interview published Wednesday that Italy’s new approach is a signal to other European Union nations to better share the management of migrants crossing from North Africa.
He highlighted France’s offer of a port of safety for one rescue ship that had been off Italy as proof the strategy was working — even though Paris has not confirmed such an offer, and has sharply criticized Rome’s approach.
In an interview with regional journalists, Tajani was asked if the selective disembarkation was a signal, replying: “Indeed it was.
French “President (Emmanuel) Macron’s decision to open the port of Marseille to the Ocean Viking shows that something is moving.
“We are grateful to France which has shown its willingness to take a decision that reduces the pressure on Italy, demonstrating that it understands the need for a firmly supportive approach among EU countries.”
Meloni’s office late Tuesday thanked France for taking in the Ocean Viking, which has 234 people on board and had been waiting off Sicily for days for permission to disembark them.
French government spokesman Olivier Veran said Wednesday it remained in waters under Italian responsibility, saying Rome’s refusal to take in the ship was “unacceptable.”
Tajani said he would raise the issue of immigration at a meeting of EU ministers next week.
Rome wanted “an agreement to establish, on the basis of population, how migrants with a right to asylum are relocated to various countries.”
Rome is also pressing for EU deals with North African countries to stop migrants leaving there and “stop traffickers, destroying the engines of their boats,” he said.


Belgium’s Ghent university severs ties with three Israeli institutions

Updated 4 sec ago
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Belgium’s Ghent university severs ties with three Israeli institutions

BRUSSELS: Belgium’s University of Ghent (UGent) is severing ties with three Israeli educational or research institutions which it says no longer align with UGent’s human rights policy, its rector said.
Pro-Palestinian protesters in Ghent have been protesting against Israel’s military offensive in Gaza and have been occupying parts of the university since early this month.
The university’s rector, Rik Van de Walle, said in a statement that ties were being cut with Holon Institute of Technology, MIGAL Galilee Research Institute, and the Volcani Center, which carries out agricultural research.
“We currently assess these three partners as (very) problematic according to the Ghent University human rights test, in contrast to the positive evaluation we gave these partners at the start of our collaboration,” Van de Walle said.
Partnerships with MIGAL Galilee Research Institute and the Volcani Center “were no longer desirable” due to their affiliation with Israeli ministries, an investigation by the University of Ghent found, and collaboration with the Holon Institute “was problematic” because it provided material support to the army for actions in Gaza.
A spokesperson for the university said the move would affect four projects.
The three Israeli institutions did not immediately comment.
The protesters told Belgian broadcaster VRT they welcomed the decision but regarded it as only a first step. They said they would continue their occupation of parts of the university “until UGent breaks its ties with all Israeli institutions.”
The actions mirror those of students in the United States and elsewhere in Europe, calling for an immediate permanent ceasefire and for schools to cut financial ties with companies they say are profiting from what they regard as the oppression of Palestinians.

Muslim professionals quit ‘hostile’ France in silent brain drain

Updated 51 min 29 sec ago
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Muslim professionals quit ‘hostile’ France in silent brain drain

PARIS: After being knocked back at some 50 interviews for consulting jobs in France despite his ample qualifications, Muslim business school graduate Adam packed his bags and moved to a new life in Dubai.
“I feel much better here than in France,” the 32-year-old of North African descent told AFP.
“We’re all equal. You can have a boss who’s Indian, Arab or a French person,” he said.
“My religion is more accepted.”
Highly-qualified French citizens from Muslim backgrounds, often the children of immigrants, are leaving France in a quiet brain drain, seeking a new start abroad in cities like London, New York, Montreal or Dubai, according to a new study.
The authors of “France, you love it but you leave it”, published last month, said it was difficult to estimate exactly how many.
But they found that 71 percent of more than 1,000 people who responded to their survey circulated online had left in part because of racism and discrimination.
Adam, who asked that his surname not be used, told AFP his new job in the United Arab Emirates has given him fresh perspective.
In France “you need to work twice as hard when you come from certain minorities”, he said.
He said he was “extremely grateful” for his French education and missed his friends, family and the rich cultural life of the country where he grew up.
But he said he was glad to have quit its “Islamophobia” and “systemic racism” that meant he was stopped by police for no reason.
France has long been a country of immigration, including from its former colonies in North and West Africa.
But today the descendants of Muslim immigrants who came to France seeking a better future say they have been living in an increasingly hostile environment, especially after the attacks in Paris in 2015 that killed 130 people.
They say France’s particular form of secularism, which bans all religious symbols in public schools including headscarves and long robes, seems to disproportionately focus on the attire of Muslim women.
Another French Muslim, a 33-year-old tech employee of Moroccan descent, told AFP he and his pregnant wife were planning to emigrate to “a more peaceful society” in southeast Asia.
He said he would miss France’s “sublime” cuisine and the queues outside the bakeries.
But “we’re suffocating in France”, said the business school graduate with a five-figure monthly salary.
He described wanting to leave “this ambient gloom”, in which television news channels seem to target all Muslims as scapegoats.
The tech employee, who moved to Paris after growing up in its lower-income suburbs, said he has been living in the same block of flats for two years.
“But still they ask me what I’m doing inside my building,” he said.
“It’s so humiliating.”
“This constant humiliation is even more frustrating as I contribute very honestly to this society as someone with a high income who pays a lot of taxes,” he added.

A 1978 French law bans collecting data on a person’s race, ethnicity or religion, which makes it difficult to have broad statistics on discrimination.
But a young person “perceived as black or Arab” is 20 times more likely to face an identity check than the rest of the population, France’s rights ombudsman found in 2017.
The Observatory for Inequalities says that racism is on the decline in France, with 60 percent of French people declaring they are “not at all racist”.
But still, it adds, a job candidate with a French name has a 50 percent better chance of being called by an employer than one with a North African one.
A third professional, a 30-year-old Franco-Algerian with two masters degrees from top schools, told AFP he was leaving in June for a job in Dubai because France had become “complicated”.
The investment banker, the son of an Algerian cleaner who grew up within Paris, said he enjoyed his job, but he was starting to feel he had hit a “glass ceiling”
He also said he had felt French politics shift to the right in recent years.
“The atmosphere in France has really deteriorated,” he said, alluding to some pundits equating all people of his background to extremists or troublemakers from housing estates.
“Muslims are clearly second-class citizens,” he said.
Adam, the consultant, said more privileged French Muslims emigrating was just the “tiny visible part of the iceberg”.
“When we see France today, we’re broken,” he said.


North Korea fires ballistic missile, South Korea’s military says

Updated 55 min 32 sec ago
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North Korea fires ballistic missile, South Korea’s military says

  • South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff did not immediately provide details of the projectile or its trajectory
  • North Korea has launched a range of ballistic and cruise missiles as well as tactical rockets in recent months

SEOUL: North Korea fired a ballistic missile toward the sea off its east coast, South Korea’s military said on Friday.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff did not immediately provide details of the projectile or its trajectory.
North Korea has launched a range of ballistic and cruise missiles as well as tactical rockets in recent months, describing them as part of a program to upgrade its defensive capabilities.
Earlier on Friday, the powerful sister of North Korea leader Kim Jong Un said its tactical rockets were intended solely as a deterrent against South Korean military aggression, while denying that Pyongyang was exporting the weapons.
The missile launch comes at the same time as a visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to the Chinese northeastern city of Harbin.


French police ‘neutralized’ armed person who tried to set fire to synagogue in Rouen — Darmanin

Updated 51 min 25 sec ago
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French police ‘neutralized’ armed person who tried to set fire to synagogue in Rouen — Darmanin

  • The incident occurred early on Friday morning

PARIS: French police in Rouen shot dead an armed man who set fire to the city’s synagogue, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin and local officials said on Friday.
The incident occurred in central Rouen, 130 kilometers northwest of Paris, early on Friday morning, Darmanin said in a post on social network X.
The attacker’s identity and motive were still unclear. He was carrying a knife and iron bar, according to local authorities.
France hosts the Olympic Summer Games in two months and recently raised its alert status to the highest level against a complex geopolitical backdrop in the Middle East and Europe’s eastern flank.
Elie Korchia, the president of France’s Consistoire Central Jewish worshippers body, said police had “avoided another anti-Semitic tragedy.”
Regional broadcaster France 3 said fire fighters were on the site. The fire had been brought under control, a Rouen city hall official said.
Rouen’s mayor said the Normandy town was ‘battered and shocked’.
The city in 2016 was rocked by an attack later claimed by the Islamic State, when a priest was killed with a knife during service in town of Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, in the southern part of Rouen’s urban agglomeration.


Suspected gunshots near Israeli embassy in Stockholm prompt police cordon

Updated 17 May 2024
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Suspected gunshots near Israeli embassy in Stockholm prompt police cordon

STOCKHOLM: Swedish police have detained several people and cordoned off an area in Stockholm after a patrol heard suspected gunshots, they said on Friday, with the Israeli embassy located in the closed-off area.
"A police patrol at Strandvagen in Stockholm heard bangs and suspected there had been a shooting," police said on their website, adding that the affected area lay between the capital's Djurgarden Bridge, its Nobel Park and the Oscar Church.
Several people have been detained and an investigation has been launched into a suspected serious weapons crime, they added.
"In connection with the ongoing forensic investigation, findings have been made that strengthen the suspicions that a shooting took place," police said on its website.
Reuters could not immediately reach police and the Israeli embassy for comment.
Swedish news agency TT said police declined to comment on whether there was a link between the incident and the Israeli embassy.