Spanish enclave in a quandary over Ceuta's 'lost boys'

Issued on: 22/05/2021 - 

Ceuta officials say they are currently caring for more than 400 children and teenagers Antonio Sempere AFP/File

Ceuta (Spain) (AFP)

Days after up to 10,000 people surged across the Moroccan border into Spain's Ceuta enclave, many hundreds are still here, mostly minors, posing a quandary for the tiny territory.

"We can't yet say how many people entered Ceuta -- we estimate between 8,000 and 10,000, and it seems 6,600 have returned to Morocco," Mabel Deu, one of the city's deputy leaders, told reporters on Friday.

Most of the migrants swam, but some came in inflatable boats, with Spanish government officials saying 1,500 of them were under 18. That figure has not been confirmed by the city.

"We don't know how many minors came in," Deu said.

By Friday, Ceuta had 438 children and teenagers in its care at two locations and was preparing a third, she said, acknowledging there were still "a good few hundred people wandering around the city".

Those at the centres are registered, fed and clothed and given a place to stay after being tested for Covid-19.

But many others are sleeping rough in parks or doorways, penniless and hungry.

Some came alone, while others crossed the border with friends or older siblings. Most are boys, either teenagers or in their early 20s.

"They told us they came to visit or that they were coming to see a football match with Ronaldo," Deu said, accusing the Moroccan authorities of "manipulative tricks" to encourage the huge wave of arrivals.

- 'We can't cope' -

Earlier this week, Ceuta officials admitted they were completely overwhelmed, appealing for a show of solidarity from Spain's 17 regions.

"We cannot cope, there are too many children," Carlos Rontome, another of the city's deputy leaders, told Spanish national radio.

"We are the frontier, we're the breakwater, but we have limited capacities. We're a small city of 19 square kilometres (seven square miles)... so it's very difficult to absorb all these people," he said.#photo1

"The only solution is to distribute them among the other regions."

This week, Spain's regions agreed to take in 200 unaccompanied minors who were already in Ceuta to free up space for the new arrivals.

"The problem cannot fall on (Ceuta's) shoulders alone... The whole country must tackle the problem while taking into account the best interests of the minor," said Social Justice Minister Ione Belarra.

Save the Children said the proposal could ensure the youngsters were better cared for.

"We believe that this measure could serve to alleviate the immediate pressure on Ceuta's protection system while offering better care to these children," Carmela del Moral, the NGO's head of child policies, told AFP.

- 'I dream of being a cleaner' -

NGOs say they've been overwhelmed by the scale of need in Ceuta.

"If we continue at this pace, it's impossible: no NGO, nor the Spanish state nor any European state could cope with this amount of people," said Abdesalam Mohammed Hussein, head of local NGO Alas Protectoras.#photo2

"We provide food and warm clothes, but we can't reach everyone because there are just too many."

An Arabic speaker, he says some youngsters said they went to the centres but found they "were full", while others didn't even know where they were.

Many say their parents have no idea where they are.

"My mum must be very worried by now, because I was the only person earning so we could eat," 16-year-old Omar Luriaghri told AFP.

But he can't call her because she doesn't have a phone.

"Frankly my dream is to work here as a cleaner," he said.

- Hotline for lost children -

For now, Ceuta is focusing on tracing the parents. On Thursday, it opened a hotline for worried families which was swamped with "more than 4,400 calls" in the first 24 hours.

"Our teams are working morning, noon and night to find the families and ensure the child's immediate return, because that's what the parents and the children want," Deu said.

"Many have been crying and wanting to go home since the first day."

For some on the streets, desperation is taking hold, with Spanish police on Friday having to revive a young Moroccan who tried to hang himself with a metal cable along the promenade.

"Sending children back is not legal and must not be tolerated," said Ricardo Ibarra, head of the Children's Platform, which groups 67 child rights NGOs, raising concerns about possible pushbacks -- informal cross-border expulsions without due process.

But an interior ministry spokesman insisted all returns were being carried out "through legally-established channels" and said they did not have a breakdown of returnees by age group.

It is Spain's government "that ultimately decides whether they have to return or can stay here," he told AFP.

© 2021 AFP

ON THE GROUND

Unaccompanied Moroccan minors in Ceuta: ‘We can’t stand sleeping on the streets anymore’


Issued on: 22/05/2021 - 

Many migrants are afraid of seeking help for fear of being deported. 

© FRANCE 24

Text by:FRANCE 24

Video by:Wassim Cornet

Spanish authorities have confirmed that at least 438 unaccompanied minors were among the more than 8,000 mainly Moroccan migrants who either scaled or swam around a border fence to reach the Spanish enclave of Ceuta earlier this week. But many are still roaming the streets, purposely avoiding aid groups for fear of detection and expulsion back to Morocco. FRANCE 24 reports.

At least eight aid organisations, including the Red Cross, have deployed to Ceuta since thousands of migrants arrived on the enclave’s shores.

“We give them food, clothes and a hygiene kit, and we try to make their stay as easy as possible,” Manu Fernandez, a volunteer from Red Cross Andalucia explained, after his team was called in as emergency help to deal with the sudden influx of migrants.

Although many of the migrants are in dire need of help after suffering from hypothermia or dehydration during their cross-border journey, some, including children, are afraid of approaching aid groups for fear they will be detected by police and deported back to Morocco.

Authorities estimate that at least 1,000 people are sleeping it rough, which is quickly taking its toll on their health.

“We slept on the street, in a wooded area, and also in an abandoned house. It was so cold at night,” two migrant teenagers tell FRANCE 24’s reporters after finally deciding to approach the Red Cross. “We came here to get some food and water, we can’t stand being out on the streets anymore.”

Japan lawmakers accused of violating Olympic spirit by LGBTQ campaigners

Issued on: 22/05/2021 - 

The comments have sparked a backlash as Japan prepares to host the virus-postponed Olympics in two months' time Philip FONG AFP/File

Tokyo (AFP)

Rights activists have accused ruling lawmakers in Japan of violating the Olympic spirit with homophobic remarks that included saying same-sex relationships "resist the preservation of the species".

The comments -- made during discussions on a new anti-discrimination bill -- have sparked a backlash as Japan prepares to host the virus-postponed Games in two months' time.

Kazuo Yana from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) said during a meeting on Thursday that LGBTQ relationships "resist the preservation of the species, which should happen biologically", the Asahi Shimbun daily reported.

Fellow LDP member Eriko Yamatani also hit out at transgender athletes at the closed-door meeting, according to Jiji Press.

"Some people have stated an opinion that they have a male body but they are women. Therefore, they should be allowed to use the women's restroom. Or they participate in women's sports and win medals. A number of ridiculous things are happening," she reportedly said.

Broadcaster TBS and other Japanese media also quoted an unnamed lawmaker as saying that LGBTQ sexualities "can't be accepted in a moral way".

Pride House Tokyo -- a community hub officially recognised as part of the Olympic programme -- criticised the remarks in a joint statement Saturday with US-based campaign group Athlete Ally.

"These comments, if true, are in violation of the spirit of the Olympics and Paralympics which Tokyo is hoping to host," they said.

"How can athletes truly feel safe playing in a country where a member of the ruling party makes such discriminatory remarks?" added Pride House Tokyo's director Gon Matsunaka.

Another Japanese rights group that is supporting the new bill has called the reported remarks "extremely regrettable".

The Olympic charter states that "every individual must have the possibility of practising sport, without discrimination of any kind".

Tokyo 2020 organising committee chief Seiko Hashimoto -- appointed in February after her predecessor was forced to resign over sexist comments -- has pushed for greater gender equality at the Games.

Pride House Tokyo opened a permanent meeting space and information centre in central Tokyo in October.

© 2021 AFP

Countries urge broader patent waivers than just Covid vaccines

NATIONALIZE BIG PHARMA 

THERE IS NO INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Issued on: 22/05/2021 - 

Proponents of a patent waiver on Covid-19 vaccines and other treatments argue it would boost access in developing countries Luis ACOSTA AFP


Geneva (AFP)

Dozens of countries have revised a proposal at the WTO for patent waivers for medical tools needed to combat Covid, insisting it must be broader than just vaccines, non-governmental organisations said Saturday.

More than 60 countries have presented a revision of their text before the World Trade Organization on ditching intellectual property protections for Covid-19 jabs and other medical tools while the pandemic rages, according to the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) charity and NGO Knowledge Ecology International (KEI).

KEI published what it said was the revised text, which pushed for the waiver to be broad and long-lasting.

The WTO did not immediately verify the authenticity of the document, but a Western diplomat close to the waiver discussions confirmed it was genuine and had been distributed to all WTO members.

That text said the waiver should cover all medical "prevention, treatment and containment" tools needed to battle Covid.

In addition to vaccines, it should include treatments, diagnostics, vaccines, medical devices and protective equipment, along with the material and components needed to produce them, it said.

It also said the waiver should last for "at least three years" from the date it takes effect, following which, the WTO's General Council should determine whether it could be lifted or should be prolonged.

- 'Frightening increase' -

"We are pleased to see the governments sponsoring the COVID-19 intellectual property waiver proposal reaffirm that the waiver aims to remove monopoly barriers for all medical tools ... needed to tackle this pandemic," MSF South Asia chief Leena Manghaney said in a statement.#photo1

"With a frightening increase in infections and deaths in developing countries, and with potentially promising treatments in the pipeline, it is crucial that governments have every flexibility at their disposal to beat back this pandemic," she said.

The WTO has since October faced calls led by India and South Africa for the temporary removal of such IP protections, in what proponents argue will boost production in developing countries and address the dramatic inequity in access.

That notion has long met with fierce opposition from pharmaceutical giants and their host countries, which insisted patents were not the main roadblocks to scaling up production and warned the move could hamper innovation.

The positions appeared to shift earlier this month, when Washington came out in support of a global patent waiver for the jabs, with other long-time opponents voicing openness to discuss the matter.

The European Parliament voted narrowly this week to urge Brussels to get behind the proposal.

Observers have however said the ambitions for the waiver appear to differ significantly among the longtime supporters and those now coming around to the idea, who have seemed to focus more narrowly on vaccines.

It remains unclear if countries will be able to see eye to eye, but with the pandemic that has killed over 3.4 million people still far from over, there is intense pressure on them to do so.

With the new revision on the table, MSF called for "governments to immediately move towards text-based negotiations," insisting there was no time to lose.

In light of the WTO's usual glacial pace in decision-making -- with agreements requiring consensus backing by all 164 member states -- a deal could meanwhile take time.

According to MSF, more than 100 countries overall now support the proposal, including China and Russia.

A full 62 countries are now official co-sponsors of the proposal, with Indonesia, Fiji, Vanuatu and Namibia having joined in recent weeks.

© 2021 AFP

 CEASEFIRE.CA

Cooperation over conflict in the Arctic

• May 21, 2021
• Peggy Mason
• Blog

Ebook on RI-co-hosted Arctic Security Webinar Series now available

Our blog this week features highlights from a wonderful new ebook of the transcribed, edited proceedings of an Arctic Security webinar series that the Rideau Institute was privileged to co-organize with the Canadian Pugwash Group and the North American and Arctic Defence and Security Network (NAADSN).

The book is co-edited by NAADSN Network lead Dr. P. Whitney Lackenbauer and RI President Peggy Mason, with a forward by Canadian Pugwash Group Chair Paul Meyer, where he writes:

Arctic policy is marked by elements of competition alongside cooperation and one might formulate the underlying message of the conference as how we can minimize the former and maximize the latter.

The webinar proceedings featured six panels of two speakers each, covering the full spectrum of Arctic-related issues from climate change to maritime security, northern perspectives, and political and legal considerations against a backdrop of resurgent great power competition and its implications for Arctic security and stability.

This ebook not only includes the oral presentations in full but also the edited transcription of the extensive question and answer period following them.

Chapter I. Reconceptualizing Arctic Security

In this scene setting chapter, Dr. Whitney Lackenbauer, Canada Research Chair in the Study of the Canadian North and a Trent University Professor, takes us through key Canadian policy documents relating to the Arctic, quoting first from Canada’s 2017 defence policy, Strong, Secure, Engaged:

The Arctic region represents an important international crossroads where issues of climate change, international trade, and global security meet…

He goes on to underscore the long history of cooperation on economic, environmental and safety issues of Arctic states, particularly through the Arctic Council, in respect of which he affirms:

All Arctic states have an enduring interest in continuing this productive collaboration…

But the transformational impact of climate change and the rise of commercial, research and tourism activity in the north — all against a backdrop of rising global great power competition, raises the fundamental question about whether these developments:

may ultimately undermine the spirit of peace and cooperation that has animated the Arctic in recent decades.

Whitney challenges readers to think beyond the binary concept of cooperation or competition and instead to focus the discussion on an environment characterized by both and where the fundamental challenge is therefore to bolster regional cooperation and work to avoid inter-state competition spilling over into conflict.

He articulates our over-arching objective as follows:

Our desire is to … reinforce an international order in the Arctic that promotes human security and environmental security.

On the issue of Arctic sovereignty, Dr. Lackenbauer brilliantly explodes the myth that it is somehow under threat or on “thinning ice”:

One of the reasons why Canada’s sovereignty is so strong is that it has been based explicitly, since Joe Clark’s 10 September 1985 speech, on the idea of an indivisible Arctic geography—of land and water (in both frozen or liquid state)—that Indigenous Peoples have used and occupied since time immemorial.

This is front and centre to Canada’s legal and political positions, and our sense of Arctic ownership.

That does not mean we are without boundary and other legal disputes with the USA and others in relation to the Arctic, the most well-known being the status of the Northwest Passage. The U.S. argues it is an international strait through Canada’s Arctic islands, and Canada, with considerable legal force behind it, argues that these are historical internal waters.

Whitney writes of our policy to “agree to disagree,” in place since 1988:

This is a core difference of opinion, but one that, as allies, friends, and neighbours, Canada and the U.S. have been able to solve without prejudicing our respective legal positions.

One of the most important distinctions that Dr. Lackenbauer makes in this opening chapter is between internal Arctic dynamics and spillover from elsewhere:

I suggest to you that climate change, access to Arctic resources, and uncertainty over Arctic boundaries are not driving the hard security or defence agenda in the North American Arctic.

Celebrated Canadian peace and security expert Ernie Regehr,  in his presentation, which initially focuses on Russian military operations in the Arctic, clearly demonstrates this point.  He writes:

The Russian Eastern and Central Arctic military installations are oriented primarily to protecting the Northern Sea Route and the resource base in the area, to patrolling borders, and to search and rescue facilities that are present throughout those bases along the entire North coast.

The orientation of that string of northern bases is towards regional defence and stability.

He further notes:

The U.S. Navy strategy blueprint, as they call it, sees the threat of armed conflict in the Arctic as coming from accidents, miscalculation, or spillover from other conflicts, not from Arctic-generated conflict.

He adds:

And it’s worth noting and emphasizing that these concerns have also been accompanied by a marked increase in calls for the reinstatement of military-to-military and broader consultations in the Arctic, for these to be routine, and for them to include Russia.

Good governance is a key defence and security strategy

In addition to strategic-level military operations in the Arctic, Regehr looks at domestic military and paramilitary forces and their contributions to national, regional and ultimately strategic stability:

The point is that national armed forces in the Arctic, when focused on domestic chores for which civilian agencies generally have the lead responsibility [ search and rescue, oil spill mitigation], are nevertheless contributing to not only local and national security and well-being, but also to regional and strategic stability.

In a context of a low overall threat level within the region, Regehr emphasizes:

an important factor in keeping threat levels low is the way the region is governed … [I]nternally stable and competently governed states are at much reduced risk of direct foreign military intervention.

That makes good governance a key defence and security strategy.

Ernie Regehr also focuses in some detail on the provocative ballistic missile SHIELD proposal for NORAD modernization we examined in our 12 February blog. It is not a shield at all, of course, but a system of missiles intended to shoot down other missiles. He writes:

The SHIELD planners recognize the reality … that there is unlikely to be any credible defence against conventionally-armed massed cruise missiles. The SHIELD operational plan thus proposes pre-emptive strikes on cruise missile platforms before the individual missiles are launched.

 And that, of course, is a military dynamic in which the advantage is perceived to go to the pre-emptive attacker. In other words, the advantage seems to go to the side that attacks first, and that’s not a formula for stability in the context of a major crisis.

He emphasizes two basic realities:

One, Arctic stability and security have a lot to do with governance and regional cooperation on local needs and issues.

And secondly, … it is unlikely that major powers are going to arm or SHIELD their way into strategic stability, but strategic stability remains the urgent imperative.

In conclusion, Ernie Regehr writes:

I would say that if the U.S. and Russians did manage to undertake consistent and persistent talks on arms control and on emerging security issues as a means toward strategic stability, that could indeed be a genuinely significant development both for Arctic and global security.

Note that the specific topic of great power competition and its implications for Arctic security are examined in Chapter 5, discussed below.

Chapter 5: Resurgent Great Power Competition: What Does It Mean for Arctic Security and Stability?

Dr. Andrea Charron begins her presentation with her “bottom line upfront” that:

I’m not sure that the resurgence and emergence of Russia and China are at the same level of concern as they are in other parts of the world. Rather, competition in the Arctic is buffered thanks to organizations like the Arctic Council…

However, she cautions that urgent steps are needed to improve continental defence and argues that:

Canada can contribute valuable information, especially to intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance … in support of … “information dominance.”

Charron also throws cold water on the idea of a significantly increased focus of the U.S. military on the Arctic, giving as evidence “policy and money”. She writes:

In a report to Congress released on 27 January 2021, entitled “Renewed Great Power Competition: Implications for Defense, Issues for Congress,” there is not a single reference to the Arctic.

Happily, it seems that Canadian defence planners are thinking along the same lines and have, so far, limited Canadian plans — and funding — for NORAD modernization to the “niche area of domain awareness,” as we discussed in our 23 April blog on the defence aspects of the federal budget brought down on 19 April, 2021.

Chapter 6: Conclusions and Recommendations for Canadian Action

RI President Peggy Mason identifies a “three-pronged” approach to keeping the Arctic military threat low:

The first is building resilient Arctic states from the community level up. Canada has a huge amount to do here, and that, in turn, … requires sufficient resources and meaningful Northerner participation.

She continues:

Prong two is on diplomacy and arms control — the full gamut, from high-level strategic talks down to military-to-military talks, to build and reinforce strategic stability. We have a new opportunity to do that with a new American president, to build the broader strategic stability on which the Arctic also depends, all the way down to dialogues at the Arctic level.

And the third essential element relates to NORAD modernization, with Mason emphasizing the key principles that need to underpin the effort:

Prong three is a focus on continental defence to remove vulnerabilities to the extent possible and to do it in a way that is not destabilizing, that does not incentivize arms racing, and that does not undermine deterrence, which is based on mutual vulnerability.

Canadian [non] participation in the American ground-based ballistic missile defence (GBMD). 

Dr. Lackenbauer poses the question this way:

I think the most contentious questions will be about missile defence and whether or not the new deterrence by denial approach and the SHIELD construct unveiled by the United States encourage Canadians to revisit our stance against direct participation in missile defence, which we have held over the last couple of decades.

If so, what should our direct participation look like?

Peggy Mason was unequivocal in her response, arguing the system was dangerously provocative, ruinously expensive and, to date, completely unfunded. She concludes:

I’ve been involved in these discussions at the government level on ballistic missile defence, and Canada joining, and I’d … suggest that Canada should run in the other direction, rather than getting involved in the political dimension of that [discussion], which is quite difficult.

Chapter 4: A Changing Arctic: Political and Legal Considerations

This blog has only skimmed the surface of the rich discussions contained in this far-reaching ebook. To give just a hint of what else lies in store, we offer the concluding statement from the presentation of Dr. Elizabeth Riddell-Dixon, a brilliant legal scholar on the UN Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in general and the Arctic in particular:

In conclusion, while media stories may lead us to conclude that we’re heading for “World War III on Ice,” the evidence supports more positive conclusions. In the delineation of Arctic extended continental shelves, there’s no need to resort to military solutions, as there is a regime in place and its rules are being respected.

The high degree of cooperation exhibited by Arctic countries in the delineation process and the fact that they continue to discuss issues related to overlaps both bode well for future settlements. While the overlaps in the extended continental shelves delineated in the Arctic Ocean are considerable, they will be resolved peacefully and in accordance with international law.

Chapter 3: A Changing Arctic: Northern Perspectives

The final word, however, goes to Northerner Bridget Laroque, an Indigneous resident of the Northwest Territories with extensive knowledge and experience of Indigenous, gender and governance issues in the Arctic:

To the state, security is about power, hard power, and yet, in Indigenous worldviews, security is about soft power: cooperation, peace, and responsibility.

As Indigenous Peoples, our worldview is about “holism.” Everything is interconnected.

To download the ebook Beyond The Cooperation-Conflict Conundrum or to read it online, click here.

Photo credit: NAADSN

Arctic nations pledge to cooperate on climate despite rising tensions

Issued on: 21/05/2021

A serviceman stands near a Russia's Bastion mobile coastal defence missile system on the island of Alexandra Land, which is part of the Franz Josef Land archipelago, on May 17, 2021. © Maxime Popov, AFP

Text by: NEWS WIRES


Arctic countries on Thursday pledged to fight global warming, which is happening three times faster in the Far North, and to preserve peace in the region as its geopolitical importance rises.

Accelerated global warming, untapped resources, new maritime routes opened up by retreating sea ice, and the future of local populations all topped the agenda as foreign ministers of countries bordering the Arctic gathered in Reykjavik in Iceland.

“We are committed to advancing a peaceful Arctic region where cooperation prevails on climate, the environment, science and safety,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told his Arctic Council counterparts from Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia and Sweden.

“The Arctic as a region for strategic competition has seized the world’s attention” but “rule of law” must be ensured so that it remains “a region free of conflict where countries act responsibly,” he added.

The statements were thinly-veiled warnings to China, which although only an observer on the Council has made no secret of its interest in the vast territory rich in natural resources and where retreating sea ice has opened up new maritime routes.

Blinken was also certainly targeting Russia, after tense exchanges that preceded Thursday’s meeting about the risk of a “militarisation” of the Arctic.

Military manoeuvres

Russia has steadily beefed up its military presence in the Arctic in recent years, reopening and modernising several bases and airfields abandoned since the end of the Soviet era.

But Sergei Lavrov, foreign minister for Russia—which succeeded Iceland as rotating chair of the Arctic Council on Thursday—also accused NATO of using a “play on words” to justify setting up a military presence on Russia’s doorstep.

In order to circumvent an agreement between Russia and NATO, deployments in Norway were called a “rotational presence instead of permanent presence,” Lavrov said.

“Today, we have highlighted at the meeting that we see no grounds for conflict here. Even more so for any development of military programs of some blocks here,” Lavrov told reporters.

The Russian envoy also said his country supported the idea of hosting a summit of Arctic nations during its two-year presidency of the Council.

Lavrov has also called for a resumption of regular meetings between the chiefs of staff of the Council’s member countries.

Russia has been excluded from these meetings since 2014, after the annexation of Crimea.

The Arctic Council was set up 25 years ago to deal with issues like the environment and areas of international cooperation, and its mandate explicitly excludes military security.

With the departure of Donald Trump, who sparked agitation by proposing to buy Greenland in 2019 and repeated opposition to Russian and Chinese ambitions in the region, eyes have been on the line adopted by President Joe Biden’s administration.

Blinken, who on Wednesday met with Lavrov in their first face-to-face meeting which was described as “constructive” by both countries, ostensibly emphasised “cooperation” rather than tensions.

On Thursday, Blinken also ended his four-day tour, which started in Denmark, by visiting Greenland directly, where he told reporters that the US wished to make their partnership with Greenland “even stronger” and that he could “confirm” the US was no longer attempting to buy Greenland.

Climate change

The US top diplomat also focused on the fight against global warming, much in line with his counterparts who have rejoiced in recent days at the “return” of America to the international community consensus on the climate issue.

“The climate crisis is our most serious long term threat with the Arctic warming three times faster than anywhere else on the planet,” Canadian Foreign Minister Marc Garneau told the Council.

The alarming data was part of a report published Thursday by the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), which also warned of an increased risk of the region’s sea ice disappearing completely in summer, before reforming in winter.

“We have a duty to strengthen our cooperation for the benefit of the people inhabiting the Arctic,” Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod said.

At the previous Council meeting in 2019 in Finland, the Trump administration blocked the signing of a joint declaration for the first time since the Council’s creation 25 years ago, as it refused to include climate change in the final statement.

The adoption of a joint statement on Thursday went without a hitch, as did the agreement of a 10-year strategic plan for the first time in the Council’s history.

In addition to the countries bordering the Arctic, the Council also includes six organisations representing the indigenous peoples of the region and 13 observer countries.

(AFP)

Pay dispute hits Sri Lanka team morale for Bangladesh games: captain

Issued on: 22/05/2021 - 

Sri Lanka's captain Kusal Perera (L) and teammate Niroshan Dickwella practise in Dhaka ahead of their first one-day international cricket match against Bangladesh Munir Uz zaman AFP

Colombo (AFP)

A pay battle between Sri Lankan players and the national board has hurt team morale ahead of a one-day series in Bangladesh starting Sunday, skipper Kusal Perera said.

Sri Lanka Cricket have cut fees for 24 national players by up to 40 percent in new contracts which have been rejected by the players.

Perera said no agreement had been reached before leaving for Bangladesh where they are to play three 50 over games

"It will be a lie to say that the pay cut issue won't mentally affect our players," Perera told an online press conference Saturday.

"I hope we will be able to negotiate with the board upon our return."

He said the pay structure devised by the board's new cricket director Tom Moody and former Sri Lanka skipper Aravinda de Silva was causing mental stress for the team.

"This is an additional challenge for me as I try to create an environment where players go to the middle and perform fearlessly," he said.

A lawyer for the players has accused Sri Lanka Cricket of holding the team "at gunpoint" in a bid to force the new contracts through.

Former captain Angelo Mathews and Test captain Dimuth Karunaratne -- who suffered the biggest cuts -- were dropped from the tour of Bangladesh.

Mathews' annual fee fell from $130,000 a year to $80,000 while Karunaratne was offered $70,000, a drop of $30,000.

"The players are not in agreement to sign unfair and non-transparent contracts and urge Sri Lanka Cricket to not hold the players at gunpoint," said lawyer Nishan Premathiratne.

Sri Lanka Cricket has said players could earn more under a new performance-based pay scheme.

Moody said this week that he studied pay structures in other nations before coming up with the scheme.

Sri Lanka Cricket officials said that on top of base fees there are payments for each match and allowances for travel outside Colombo.

© 2021 AFP

COVID RACISM

Hungary's Roma battle Covid on their own

Issued on: 22/05/2021 

"No one else is looking after us, so we have to do it ourselves," said Jozsef Radics, who is helping Roma get vaccines Peter Kohalmi AFP

Kistarcsa (Hungary) (AFP)

Hungary's Roma community has been largely left out of the country's aggressive Covid-19 immunisation rollout and has been forced to fend for itself, leaders of the poverty-stricken minority say.

"No one else is looking after us, so we have to do it ourselves," said Jozsef Radics, 53, one of the organisers of the "Vaccines for Life!" campaign that aims to sign up Roma living in isolated communities for jabs.

Greeting local residents as they enter a ramshackle yard on the edge of Kistarcsa, a small town east of Budapest, Radics explains the registration process, sets up email addresses if needed and inputs their data into an official database.

"These people are disadvantaged in many ways, including lacking information and access to the internet, which makes them particularly vulnerable to the virus," the Roma activist told AFP.

- Anti-vaccine sentiment -

Often blamed for petty crime, the Roma -- who make up around seven percent of Hungary's population of 9.8 million -- face widespread poverty and exclusion from mainstream Hungarian society and sometimes racially-motivated violence.

Many live in one of around 1,300 mostly-Roma settlements on the edge of villages and towns like Kistarcsa that house approximately 200,000 people, according to official data.

Radics told AFP that some 13,500 settlement dwellers have registered for the jab so far thanks to the campaign.#photo1

"There's a long way to go. We look for local leaders in each community to continue the project once we leave to go to another settlement," he said.

The campaign also produced videos made for sharing on social media that feature Roma celebrities like rappers to appeal to younger age-groups, as well as singers who are trusted by older people.

"The government's vaccination promotion billboards only feature white faces, so the videos provide strong Roma voices to counter the anti-vaccination voices that are common in places like this," Radics said.

Trained by health workers, the activists are armed with answers to typical questions about the side-effects and effectiveness of jabs, as well as how to deal with aggressive anti-vaccine sentiment.

"We don't try to convince anyone, just to give them information," said Radics's activist colleague Fruzsina Balogh, adding that conspiracy theories around vaccines have deterred many Roma.

A Covid-19-themed Egyptian hieroglyphic-style meme that "went viral" and was also widely shared in Roma communities claimed that the jab brainwashed people into becoming "slaves".

Another widely-circulated rumour claimed that vaccines are a plot by US tech billionaire Bill Gates to implant chips in brains, according to Balogh.

"Willingness to get vaccinated is much higher in settlements where the death rate was higher," she said.

- 'We exist' -

Although statistics on Covid-19-related deaths in the settlements are not available, a virus outbreak in a Roma area can spread quickly, Balogh said.

"In many houses there are no public utilities, even water, so people are forced to share a communal facility," she said, pointing to a blue pump at the end of a dusty unpaved street in Kistarcsa.

"Many families with three or four children also live in cramped houses. If someone gets infected it is impossible to separate them, so everyone gets sick," said Balogh, 27, who lost her 28-year-old ex-partner to Covid-19 last year.

With more than 4.8 million Hungarians already having received a first vaccine dose, Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government began relaxing restrictions last month.

But access to many businesses and workplaces now hinges on showing proof of vaccination.#photo2

Hungarian officials did not respond to an AFP request on whether the government had any plans to encourage Roma to get vaccinated, or state support specifically aimed at helping the Roma community during the pandemic.

"I want to get the vaccine to find a job more easily and to get back my freedom, for example to take my children to an ice cream shop," Adrienn Tejfel, a 36-year-old mother, told AFP after registering in Kistarcsa.

While packing up on a recent day before moving on to another town, Radics told AFP that his team would help non-Roma register too if needed, but that the campaign at least aims to show "the rest of society that we exist".

© 2021 AFP

WATER IS LIFE

Too thirsty? France's Volvic blamed as streams run dry

the village in the Auvergne region is just down the road from the hulking Volvic bottling plant owned by French food and beverage giant Danone.

Issued on: 22/05/2021 - 07:41Modified: 22/05/2021 - 07:38

Pierre Grodecoeur outside his home in Les Moulins Blanc,

 where a stream once as deep as his knee now sometimes

 runs dry Thierry ZOCCOLAN AFP

Volvic (France) (AFP)

The lush volcanic hills surrounding Volvic in central France have long been a source of mineral water prized worldwide, but locals and geologists warn that too much is now being pumped out, putting the entire region at risk.

"We used to have water up to our knees and the stream could turn two mills," said Pierre Grodecoeur, 69, pointing out the flow outside the house where he was born in Les Moulins Blancs.

The mills are long gone, Grodecoeur said, and these days the stream bed is often dry.

His village in the Auvergne region is just down the road from the hulking Volvic bottling plant owned by French food and beverage giant Danone.

Since 2014, the government has allowed Danone to bottle up to 2.8 million cubic metres a year -- or 2.8 billion one-litre bottles.

That translates into an extraction of nearly 89 litres per second from the Volvic water table, compared with just 15.6 litres when bottling operations first began in 1965.

But at the nearby fish hatchery of Saint-Genest-l'Enfant, a registered landmark dating from the 17th century where the Volvic source naturally emerges, there are now some months when no water flows at all.#photo1

The owner, Edouard de Feligonde, had to shut down the fishery a few years ago after duckweed formed slick green films over basins that became stagnant for lack of current.

"Danone is destroying a historical monument so that it can send its bits of plastic to the other side of the world," said Feligonde, who is waging a legal battle against the multinational with the lawyer and former environment minister Corinne Lepage.

- 'Desertification' -

Robert Durand, a geologist, told AFP that the average flow rate at the Volvic source had fallen to 50 litres per second, far below the 470 litres per second measured in 1927.

Water shortages are already impacting the region's biodiversity by reducing the natural humidity of the forested hills.

"It can be described as the beginning of a desertification," said Christian Amblard, an expert with France's CNRS research institute in Clermont-Ferrand, the historic capital of Auvergne.

He cited declines in black alder trees and the siskin songbirds that nest in them, and in ash trees and golden orioles.#photo2

"Only the hand of man and Volvic are responsible," he said.

Laurent Campos-Hugueney, a farmer and member of the Water is a Public Good collective, said streams around Volvic no longer flow strongly enough to support irrigation.

"There hasn't been any plant or vegetable operations in the area for several years," he said.

But Jerome Gros, director at the Volvic bottling site, disputed the claim that his operations were sucking the waterbed dry and said Danone was investing heavily in protecting the source.

"We have saved 380 million litres between 2017 and 2020 even as sales remained stable," Gros told AFP.

In 2014, for example, Volvic needed to pump out two litres to fill a one-litre bottle, with the excess used for sterilising and rinsing equipment.

"Today we're down to just 1.4 litres for every litre bottled," he said.

- 'Shooting itself in the foot' -

Critics are not convinced, noting that Volvic pumps up water from up to 100 metres deep, and that stream depletions cannot be ascribed to the weather since rainfall has remained steady over the past years.

"It's like you're emptying a bathtub from the bottom," said Francois-Dominique de Larouziere, a geologist who is member of the local Preva environmental preservation group.

Authorities have also allowed Volvic to spread its volume allotment over the entire year, meaning it can pump more in summer when demand spikes, leaving everyone else high and dry.

The government's top official for the region, Philippe Chopin, told a parliamentary commission in April that "environmental conditions, in particular drought, caused a drop in the aquifer that we do not believe can be blamed" on Volvic's extractions.#photo3

His assertions were rejected by many in Volvic, where the issuance of building permits was suspended last August because of the risk of drinking water shortages -- though the mayor denied any proof that Volvic's operations were the cause.

"How can you tell people they can't water three tomato plants in the middle of summer, when they see full trucks leaving this factory?" De Larouziere said.

"Danone is shooting itself in the foot, but when the faucet stops running, it's going to be painful."

'Ecological disaster' feared as Greece battles forest fire

Issued on: 22/05/2021 - 

More than 270 firefighters have been fighting the blazes on the Geraneia mountain range Yorgos KONTARINIS Eurokinissi/AFP

Athens (AFP)

Hundreds of firefighters battled Greece's first major forest fire of the summer on Saturday, as experts warned of a "huge ecological disaster" in the nature conservation area near Athens.

The fire, which broke out late Wednesday in the Geraneia mountains some 90 kilometres (55 miles) west of the capital, is "one of the biggest in the past 20 to 30 years, and has come early in the season," fire chief Stefanos Kolokouris told ANT1 television.

He said better weather conditions allowed firefighters to bring the main front of the outbreak under control late on Friday, but there remain "several active and scattered" blazes.

More than 270 firefighters, backed by 16 aircraft and by the army, were fighting the blazes, the fire service said.

No injuries have been reported, but a number of houses have been damaged or destroyed and a dozen villages and hamlets evacuated.#photo1

The scale of the damage, notably for farmers, will only be clear once the fire is completely under control, the civil protection agency said.

But experts and associations quoted in Greek media have warned of an "ecological disaster on an immense scale".

Some 54 percent of the dense and hitherto protected pine forests have been burnt, the leftist Avghi daily said. And 6.1 percent of the mountain range is part of the European Union's Natura 2000 network of nature conservation sites.

Euthymios Lekkas, professor of environmental disaster management at the University of Athens, said the fires have burnt more than 55 square kilometres (21 square miles) of pine forest and other land, some of it agricultural.

"It's a huge ecological disaster that needs work to avoid landslides and terrible flooding in the autumn," he told ERT public television.#photo2

The civil protection agency said the blaze started near the village of Schinos next to the resort of Loutraki, apparently by someone burning vegetation in an olive grove.

- Tortoises and hedgehogs -

Smoke from the fire choked Athens with ash falling from the sky.

Rescue associations sought Friday to help injured animals, burned or dehydrated from the fires, bringing food, water and first aid.#photo3

One organisation, Caesar's Paradise, said birds, tortoises, hedgehogs and wild boar as well as cats and dogs had been found dead from the smoke and flames.

The Greek NGO ANIMA said it was particularly concerned because the fires erupted "in the spring, when animals give birth to their young".

"It's difficult for newborns to run or to fly with their own wings like adults," the organisation said on social media.

The WWF launched a petition calling on the government to take "serious prevention measures against forest fires".

These may be of natural origin, or criminal, with a view to real estate speculation, or due to negligence.

In 2018, 102 people died in the coastal resort of Mati, near Athens, in Greece's worst-ever fire disaster.

© 2021 AFP

Firefighters control main front of forest fire near Athens

Issued on: 22/05/2021 - 

The blaze started late on Wednesday near the village of Schinos 

VALERIE GACHE AFP

Athens (AFP)

Hundreds of Greek firefighters battled a forest fire near Athens for a third day on Saturday, but brought the main front of the blaze under control as weather conditions improved.

The fire, on the Geraneia mountain range, some 90 kilometres (55 miles) west of the capital, is "one of the biggest in the past 20 to 30 years, and has come early in the season," fire chief Stefanos Kolokouris told ANT1 television.

More than 270 firefighters, backed by 16 aircraft and by the army were fighting the blazes, the fire service said.

No injuries have been reported, but a number of houses have been damaged or destroyed and a dozen villages and hamlets have been evacuated.#photo1

Better weather conditions allowed firefighters to bring the main front of the outbreak under control late on Friday, but there remain "several active and scattered" blazes, Kolokouris said.

Euthymios Lekkas, professor of environmental disaster management at the University of Athens said more the fires have burnt more than 55 square kilometres (21 square miles) of pine forest and other land, some of it agricultural.

"It's a huge ecological disaster that needs work to avoid landslides and terrible flooding in the autumn," he told ERT public television.#photo2

The scale of the damage, notably for farmers, will only be clear once the fire is completely under control, the civil protection agency said.

It said the blaze started late on Wednesday near the village of Schinos close by the resort of Loutraki in the Corinthian Gulf, apparently by someone burning vegetation in an olive grove.

Smoke from the fire choked Athens with ash falling from the sky.

It was the first forest fire of the season.

In 2018, 102 people died in the coastal resort of Mati, near Athens, in Greece's worst-ever fire disaster.

© 2021 AFP