SINGAPORE: Singapore has turned away a ship carrying 40 people rescued off Myanmar, port officials said yesterday, amid media reports the passengers could be stateless Muslim Rohingya.
Singapore’s Maritime and Port Authority (MPA) said it denied entry to the Vietnamese-registered bulk carrier Nosco Victory because of a lack of information about its passengers.
The authority said in a statement it had received a “pre-arrival notification” that a vessel which rescued 40 people from the sea off Myanmar wanted to enter Singapore.
In coordination with the MPA, India’s Maritime Rescue and Coordination Centre in Port Blair advised the ship’s captain to “proceed to the nearest place of safety to disembark the rescued persons”.
However the captain ignored the instruction and insisted on proceeding to Singapore, which was at least three days away, the MPA added.
An Australian newspaper said the 40 are believed to be Rohingya, a stateless Muslim minority from Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine fleeing ethnic violence there.
Clashes between Buddhists and the Rohingya have left scores of people dead and displaced more than 115,000 people since June.
According to another newspaper, the 40 were believed to have been in the water for 30 hours before they were rescued on Dec. 5.
It said they are survivors from a Bangladesh-flagged ship the Nayou that sank on Dec. 4 while on its way to Malaysia, a largely Muslim country that has a large Rohingya population.
Up to 160 Rohingya aboard the Nayou are believed to have drowned, the newspaper said.
Rohingya ship turned away by Singapore
Rohingya ship turned away by Singapore
In surprise move, Spain to grant legal status to thousands of immigrants lacking permission
- The permits will apply to those who arrived in Spain before Dec. 31, 2025
- The measure could benefit between 500,000 and 800,000 people
BARCELONA: Spain’s government announced Tuesday it will grant legal status to potentially hundreds of thousands of immigrants living and working in the country without authorization, the latest example of how the country has bucked a trend toward increasingly harsh immigration policies seen in the United States and much of Europe.
Spain’s Minister of Migration, Elma Saiz, announced the extraordinary measure following the weekly cabinet meeting. She said her government will amend existing immigration laws by expedited decree to grant immigrants who are living in Spain without authorization legal residency of up to one year as well as permission to work.
The permits will apply to those who arrived in Spain before Dec. 31, 2025, and who can prove they have lived in Spain for at least five months. They must also prove they have no criminal record.
“Today is a historic day,” Saiz told journalists during a press conference. The measure could benefit between 500,000 and 800,000 people estimated by different organizations to be living in the shadows of Spanish society. Many are Latin American or African immigrants working in the agricultural, tourism or service sectors, backbones of Spain’s growing economy.
The expedited decree bypasses a similar bill that has stalled in parliament. Saiz said she expects immigrants will be able to start applying for their legal status from April once the decree comes into force.
The Spanish government’s move came as a surprise to many after a last-minute deal between the ruling Socialist Party and the left-wing Podemos party in exchange for parliamentary support to Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez wobbly government.
The news was welcomed by hundreds of migrant rights groups and prominent Catholic associations who had campaigned and obtained 700,000 signatures for a similar initiative that was admitted for debate in Congress in 2024 but was unlikely to get enough votes to pass.
As other nations, many emboldened by the Trump administration, move to restrict immigration and asylum worldwide, Spain has taken the opposite direction with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and his ministers often extolling the benefits of immigration to the economy.
The Iberian nation has taken in millions of people from South America and Africa in recent years, with the vast majority entering the country legally.
