LONDON: Britain’s new Labour government on Thursday said it had deported 46 people to Vietnam and East Timor, after ditching the previous Conservative administration’s plan to send migrants to Rwanda.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper this week said flights initially intended to fly undocumented migrants to the east African nation would instead be used to deport foreign criminals and immigration offenders.
The chartered return flight, which took off on Wednesday and arrived on Thursday, is the first ever to East Timor and the first to Vietnam since 2022, her department said.
“Today’s flight shows the government is taking quick and decisive action to secure our borders and return those with no right to be here,” added Cooper.
Labour, elected in a landslide election win this month, has scrapped the Tories’ Rwanda plan, which had been deemed illegal under international law by the UK Supreme Court.
Former prime minister Rishi Sunak had aimed for the first flights to take off this month, after legislating to designate the African nation a safe third country.
Cooper this week called the Rwanda scheme, intended to deter migrants making the Channel crossing in small boats from northern France, “the most shocking waste of taxpayers’ money” she had seen.
The Tories had spent £700 million ($900 million) on the scheme but only four migrants had relocated to Rwanda — and they went voluntarily.
She also told parliament Sunak’s government planned to spend more than £10 billion on the scheme in total.
Labour’s approach is to prioritize returns of failed asylum seekers to designated safe countries to ease a huge backlog in the claims system.
It also wants closer cooperation with European partners to “smash” the people-smuggling gangs behind the Channel crossings, which so far this year have seen nearly 16,000 people brought ashore.
Vietnamese nationals accounted for 20 percent of undocumented migrants intercepted making the journey between January and March this year, Oxford University’s Migration Observatory said.
In March this year, Sunak’s government launched a global social media campaign, aimed at Vietnam in particular, to deter people from using the route.
On Wednesday, a gang of British people-smugglers were jailed after trying to hide two Vietnamese migrants in a hidden compartment of their campervan as they traveled between France and the UK.
Eleven people have been convicted in the UK in connection with the deaths of 39 Vietnamese migrants who were found in the back of a lorry in 2019 after being smuggled from northern Europe.
UK uses Rwanda flights for Vietnam, East Timor deportations
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UK uses Rwanda flights for Vietnam, East Timor deportations
- Home Secretary Yvette Cooper: ‘Today’s flight shows the government is taking quick and decisive action to secure our borders and return those with no right to be here’
- Cooper called the Rwanda scheme, intended to deter migrants making the Channel crossing in small boats from northern France, ‘the most shocking waste of taxpayers’ money’ she had seen
Myanmar junta offers cash rewards to anti-coup defectors
- The Southeast Asian country has been consumed by civil war since a 2021 coup
- Embattled junta faces an array of pro-democracy guerillas and ethnic armed rebels
The Southeast Asian country has been consumed by civil war since a 2021 coup, with the embattled junta facing an array of pro-democracy guerillas and ethnic armed rebels.
After suffering major battlefield reverses, the military has touted elections around the end of the year as a pathway to peace – plans denounced as a sham by opposition groups and international monitors.
State media The Global New Light of Myanmar said Friday “individuals who returned to the legal fold with arms and ammunition are being offered specific cash rewards.”
The junta mouthpiece did not specify how much cash it is offering, but said 14 anti-coup fighters had surrendered since it issued a statement pledging to “welcome” defectors two weeks ago.
“These individuals chose to abandon the path of armed struggle due to their desire to live peacefully within the framework of the law,” the newspaper said.
The surrendered fighters included 12 men and two women, it added.
Nine were members of ethnic armed groups, while five were from the pro-democracy “People’s Defense Forces” – formed after the military ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected civilian government four years ago.
The junta’s offer of a gilded olive branch matches a tactic used by its opponents – who have previously tried to tempt military deserters with cash rewards.
The “National Unity Government,” a self-proclaimed administration in exile dominated by ousted lawmakers, has called the junta’s call for cooperation “a strategy filled with deception aimed at legitimizing their power-consolidating sham election.”
Lightning strikes kill 33 people in eastern India
- The deaths in Bihar occurred during fierce storms between Wednesday and Thursday, a state disaster management department statement said
- The state government announced compensation of 4 million rupees ($4,600) to the families of those killed by lightning
PATNA, India: Lightning strikes during monsoon storms in eastern India this week killed at least 33 people and injured dozens, officials said Friday.
The deaths in Bihar occurred during fierce storms between Wednesday and Thursday, a state disaster management department statement said, with the victims mostly farmers and laborers working in the open.
More heavy rain and lightning are forecast for parts of the state.
Bihar state’s disaster management minister, Vijay Kumar Mandal, said that officials in vulnerable districts had been directed to “create awareness to take precautionary steps following an alert on lightning.”
The state government announced compensation of 4 million rupees ($4,600) to the families of those killed by lightning.
At least 243 died by lightning in 2024 and 275 the year earlier, according to the state government.
India’s eastern region, including Bihar, is prone to annual floods that kill dozens and displace hundreds of thousands of people during peak monsoon season.
Russia downs 73 Ukrainian drones, including three flying to Moscow
- Most of the drones were downed over Russia’s southwestern regions, including 31 over the Bryansk region that borders Ukraine
Russian air defenses destroyed 73 Ukrainian drones overnight, including three heading for Moscow, Russia’s defense ministry said on Friday.
Most of the drones were downed over Russia’s southwestern regions, including 31 over the Bryansk region that borders Ukraine, the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, writing on Telegram, made no mention of casualties or damage, but said emergency services were examining the area where drone fragments fell to the ground. The federal aviation agency, Rosaviatsia, briefly ordered the suspension of operations at two airports near the capital, Domodedovo and Zhukovsky, but services were later resumed.
Operations were halted well after midnight at a third Moscow airport, Vnukovo before being reinstated by the morning. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine about the attacks. Kyiv says that its strikes inside Russia are necessary to destroy infrastructure key to Moscow’s efforts in its war against Ukraine, now in its fourth year.
‘Tears of bitterness’: funeral of Kenya hawker killed in rally
- Boniface Kariuki was shot at point-blank range by an officer in riot gear during a rally against police brutality
- On that day, the 22-year-old mask vendor was not protesting
KANGEMA, Kenya: Before the white coffin containing Kenyan hawker Boniface Kariuki was carried into a vehicle for his final journey home, his mother screamed in grief – yet another parent to lose a child in deadly demonstrations roiling the east African nation.
On a recent Friday, hundreds of mourners streamed into a field near Kariuki’s home, roughly 100 kilometers from Nairobi, to witness his burial and vent their anger and grief.
The 22-year-old mask vendor was shot at point-blank range by an officer in riot gear during a rally against police brutality in June, and later died in a Nairobi hospital.
That day, Kariuki was not protesting.
The incident was captured on film and shared widely across social media, with mourners placing a still image of the moment just before he was shot on top of his coffin, which was also draped in a Kenyan flag.
His death has thrust the long-standing issue of police brutality in the country back into the spotlight and galvanized anger toward a government many Kenyans see as corrupt and unaccountable.
“Our grief cannot be understood. We shall miss you constantly,” his younger sister Gladys Wangare said.
“Your constant smile, genuine concern about our family. Life will never be the same again. Your place will remain empty,” she added.
As the coffin traveled to his hometown of Kangema, villagers gathered to see the entourage, with riot police eyeing the calm crowds from junctions.
Kariuki’s friend and fellow hawker Edwin Kagia, 24, described him as a hardworking, humble and “good guy” who was always cracking jokes.
“I used to hear that police kill people, but I could not imagine it would happen to my brother,” he said.
“We are in sorrow.”
Waves of protests have swept Kenya since June 2024, when proposed tax rises triggered widespread anger.
The increasingly violent rallies – often dominated by young men and paid thugs – have been met with a harsh police response, with rights groups saying at least 50 people have died in recent protests.
While President William Ruto has condemned the violence, promising those responsible would be held accountable, he has also backed the police – telling officers to shoot would-be looters “in the leg.”
At the funeral, Kariuki’s friend Kagia condemned the president’s remarks, urging him to apologize.
“The head of state uttering such statements de-filters the unity of the nation,” he said.
It came after the country’s top prosecutor said his office had “approved a murder charge against a police officer who allegedly murdered a mask vendor in Nairobi.”
Despite the arrest, people at the funeral remained skeptical and upset.
“Whoever did all this, let him actually not know any peace on this earth,” said Emily Wanjira, a spokesperson for the family.
“We are crying tears of bitterness.”
At least 4 dead and 1,300 evacuated after heavy rain in South Korea
- The Interior and Safety Ministry says a collapsed overpass retaining wall in Osan killed one person on Wednesday
- Parts of South Chungcheong province have seen up to 420 millimeters of rain
SEOUL: Two days of heavy downpours in South Korea have killed at least four people and forced more than 1,300 others to evacuate, officials said Thursday.
One person was killed when their car was buried by soil and concrete after a retaining wall of an overpass collapsed in Osan, just south of Seoul, during heavy rain on Wednesday, the Interior and Safety Ministry said.
Three other people were separately found dead Thursday in a submerged car, a stream, and a flooded basement in southern regions. Ministry officials said they were still investigating whether those deaths were directly caused by heavy rain.
The heavy rain has forced the evacuation of 1,382 people from their homes, the ministry said in a statement, adding 46 flights have been canceled.
Parts of southern South Chungcheong province have received up to 420 millimeters (16.5 inches) of rain since Wednesday, according to the ministry.
