UNPACKED

Nigel Farage, the ‘disingenuous grifter’

The former politician has conflated two different issues: British banks’ overzealous interpretation of anti-money laundering regulations and Coutts simply not wanting him as a customer.

Nigel Farage is riding the popularity wave that followed his de-banking

 | Daniel Leal/AFP via Getty Images

BY JAMIE DETTMER
JULY 31, 2023 4:00 AM CET
Jamie Dettmer is opinion editor at POLITICO Europe.

Britain’s elite Coutts Bank pinned several labels on Nigel Farage when deciding to drop him as a customer earlier this month — including those of “racist” and “xenophobe.” But it’s really the characterization of him as a “disingenuous grifter” that the former politician has done everything to prove since being de-banked.

After all, a grifter isn’t only a swindler and a con artist but also the operator of a circus sideshow, and since Brexit — when he was front and center — the populist provocateur has struggled to attract a crowd and move his act back to the main stage.

Farage has cast around for a compelling soapbox issue since Britain left the European Union, failing to gain much traction with his various campaigns, including, for a time, migrants crossing the English Channel and his opposition to lockdowns during the pandemic. But nothing took flame. The pandemic came and went, and Britain has somewhat moved on from worrying about immigration — the problem now is that the country doesn’t have enough foreign workers.

Thus, Farage has seemed more and more like a political curiosity; that is, until Coutts — the bank of toffs and kings — handed him an opening by de-banking him, apparently on the grounds that his political values weren’t aligned with theirs. Part of the NatWest Group, which has been marketing itself as a champion of what critics dub “woke capitalism,” the bank is now all about inclusion and climate action — all very un-Farage.

And the nativist political rabble-rouser has been having a field day ever since.

Even for Farage critics, the idea that a bank should dump a customer because of their political views is offensive and chilling. Surely, banks should be blind to such matters when taking on a customer or deciding to end their relationship with one. No one today can much participate in society without a bank account — try living without one. De-banking can essentially mean canceling.

On top of that, banks have a public role and public duties. They may be be privately owned but, nowadays, they’re underpinned by an implicit public underwriting of their business — one that became explicit when they were bailed out during the financial crash. So, from one perspective, banks have become a cross between commercial enterprise and public utility, playing a key role in keeping capitalist economies functioning while retaining a public bailout promise.

And NatWest must be considered a semi-public utility even more than its competitors — the British government is its largest shareholder, owning nearly 40 percent of the banking group. And should public utilities — say an energy company — be allowed to ostracize customers because of their politics? Clearly not.

Understandably, the reputational damage to NatWest and Coutts from this has been huge.

Farage has already secured the scalps of NatWest CEO Alison Rose and Coutts’ CEO Peter Flavel — both forced to quit for mishandling the former Brexit party leader’s ejection. And in Rose’s case, it was even more so for sharing information about Farage’s banking details with the BBC — an egregious breach of client confidentiality.

City turmoil has also followed. NatWest saw a billion-euro share wipeout one day last week, and the government is huffing and puffing, banking watchdogs are — as belatedly as ever — investigating, and the political furor is mounting. The drama isn’t over yet either, as it seems likely that NatWest Chairman Howard Davies will be defenestrated too, after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak noticeably failed to offer his support when asked if the chairmen should also quit

.

NatWest CEO Alison Rose was forced to resign for mishandling Farage’s ejection

 | Henry Nicholls/AFP via Getty Images

Farage is, of course, stoking this political uproar with gusto, using his nightly TV show on GB News, ably supported by his fellow star anchors on the populist-oriented channel. And it is here, on screen, that Farage has been utilizing his skills as an expert grifter, driving the narrative that banks are purposely setting out to silence those they disagree with politically en masse, and curtailing free speech by cutting off customers.

Smart political operator that he is, Farage has deftly conflated two very different issues here to boost his sideshow: Coutts simply not wanting him as a customer because of his political toxicity, and British banks’ overzealous interpretation of anti-money laundering and sanctions regulations requiring added scrutiny of politically exposed persons (PEPs) — that is, anyone entrusted with prominent public functions.

The banks in Britain have gone overboard in their handling of PEPs, closing and denying accounts, prying intrusively into personal matters and demanding ever more onerous documentation. Some PEPs fail to supply all the information demanded, balking at the meddlesome and burdensome nature of the inquiries. MPs, their family members and relatives have been ensnared in this, with Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt revealing he was denied an account at the digital bank Monzo last year because, he believes, he’s a PEP.

Thousands of people are believed to have been impacted.

Riding this wave, Farage featured Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle as a guest on his show last week. The MP explained the difficulties he’s faced with banks, and how a charity he joined as a board member found him to be a liability rather than a benefit because of the banking due diligence requirements the organization faced due to its ties with him as a PEP.

Farage also featured high society figure Countess Alexandra Tolstoy, an equine adventurer, broadcaster and businesswoman. Two months ago, NatWest terminated her accounts without warning, upending her life, as Tolstoy is apparently listed as a PEP because of a previous relationship with billionaire Sergei Pugachev — a Russian oligarch nicknamed “Vladimir Putin’s banker,” who broke with the Russian leader around 2010. Tolstoy has challenged her classification as a PEP but has got short shrift from NatWest.

Crucially, however, these cases, and others like them, are utterly different from Farage’s — despite the former politician giving the impression that they’re somehow linked. The banks can cancel anyone — he’s repeatedly said so himself on TV, warning, “You could be next.”

But aside from a handful of individuals who are allegedly seeing their accounts closed, or possibly being denied one on the grounds of their politics, there just hasn’t been any evidence of mass de-banking due to banks’ disapproval of customers’ political views.

And it’s even less likely now, after all the brouhaha over Coutts’ decision to dump Farage just because they didn’t like him.

SPACE JUNK

Mysterious item washed up on Australian beach identified

Allanah Sciberras

 Jul 31 2023

A mysterious item found washed up on a beach near Jurien Bay in Western Australia earlier this month is likely space junk from an Indian rocket.

The acorn-shaped object stunned authorities when it washed ashore at Green Head, about 220 kilometres north of Perth on June 16.

The Australian Space Agency believes the object was most likely debris from an "expended third-stage of a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle".

In a statement, the agency said medium-lift launch vehicle was operated by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

"The debris remains in storage and the Australian Space Agency is working with ISRO, who will provide further confirmation to determine next steps, including considering obligations under the United Nations space treaties," the agency said.

9NEWS
The object washed up on beach near Green Head, WA earlier this month.

Space lawyer and professor Melissa de Zwart told 9news.com.au last week that the object was a unique discovery.

"It is quite amazing that something this large has washed up," she said.

"It's quite interesting that this has happened."

Although it's pretty rare, space junk has been found scattered across Australia over the past years.

In October last year, rocket fragments linked to SpaceX were discovered in the NSW Snowy Mountains.

Nasa believes there are about 100 million pieces of debris orbiting the earth that are smaller than a millimetre and about 23,000 pieces larger than a softball.

This story was originally published on 9news and is republished with permission.

EU, Philippines agree to resume free trade negotiations

Online News EditorJuly 31, 2023

 

Update 1: Changes headline, updates throughout with trade talks, quotes

Manila, Jul 31 (EFE).- Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Monday in Manila they’d resume negotiations for a free trade agreement between the two parties after eight years without progress.

“Philippine government experts will work with the European Commission to achieve a bilateral free trade agreement,” Marcos said in a statement at the Malacanang presidential palace with Von der Leyen, after their Monday meeting.

Von der Leyen, the first commission president to visit the Philippines, added that the EU is the Philippines’ fourth largest trading partner and its first foreign investor, for which she expressed the need to take trade relations “to the next level,” since “much more” can be done.

“The teams will work now to create the right conditions to resume negotiations. (A free trade agreement) has enormous potential for both, both in terms of growth and jobs,” the European leader said.

He said “the cost of economic dependence,” indirect reference to China, for which he indicated that an agreement can help “diversify supply chains” and can also contribute to modernize both economies thanks to technological cooperation.

Von Der Leyen met Marcos to begin her two-day official visit to the Philippines. The two entities last held negotiations for a trade agreement in 2015, a year before the presidential term of Rodrigo Duterte, who prioritized economic relations with China.

Bilateral trade between the Philippines and the EU reached EUR 18.4 billion in 2022. EFE

fil-esj/lds

E.U. leader pays rare visit to Philippines after stormy ties with past president

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
July 31, 2023 

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., center right, walks with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, center left, during the arrive honors at the Malacanang presidential palace in Manila, Philippines, July 31, 2023.(Pool Photo via AP)

MANILA--European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was holding talks with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Monday in a sign of improving ties after a stormy period between the EU and his predecessor over human rights.

Von der Leyen arrived in Manila Sunday night for the first such top-level visit in nearly six decades of relations with the Philippines. Her visit is aimed at strengthening diplomatic, trade, security and overall relations, European and Philippine officials said, adding that she came at Marcos’s invitation.

The talks between von der Leyen and her delegation with Filipino officials were also expected to cover the Philippines’ chances of retaining special trade incentives depending on its adherence to international conventions on human and labor rights and good governance.

In February, a group of European parliamentarians said Manila’s chances of retaining those incentives, including slashed tariffs for a wide array of products, would increase if a long-detained opposition leader is freed and the Philippines rejoins the International Criminal Court.

The European Union trade incentives under the so-called Generalized Scheme of Preferences, or GSP Plus, for the Philippines and seven other developing countries are anchored on their adherence to more than two dozen international conventions on human and labor rights, environmental protection and good governance.

The trading incentives, which the Philippines started to enjoy in 2014, would end in December and the government could reapply within a two-year period to retain them, the European lawmakers said then.

But the Philippines came under intense EU criticism during former President Rodrigo Duterte’s six-year term, mainly because of the bloody anti-drugs crackdown he oversaw that left more than 6,000 mostly petty suspects dead. Marcos succeeded Duterte in June last year.

The killings sparked an International Criminal Court investigation as a possible crime against humanity. Duterte withdrew the Philippines from the ICC in 2018, but its prosecutor has proceeded to investigate the widespread deaths that occurred in the years when the country was still part of the court based in The Hague.

Duterte then often lashed at the EU’s criticisms of his brutal anti-drugs crackdown with profanity-laced outbursts.

European parliamentarians have also repeatedly demanded the release of opposition leader and former senator Leila de Lima, Duterte’s most vocal critic who was arrested and detained in 2017 on drug charges she said were fabricated by Duterte and his officials to stop her from investigating the killings.

Hannah Neumann, who led the European delegation in a visit to the Philippines in February, told a news conference then that rights conditions under the Marcos administration were “better than it was under Pres. Duterte” in reply to a question. “There are a lot of announcements that could indeed improve things if they’re implemented.”

The delegates then welcomed Marcos’ “commitment to change the focus of the ‘war on drugs’ away from a punitive approach towards prevention and rehabilitation.”

But they said extrajudicial killings have reportedly persisted and underscored the need for all the killings to be investigated and the perpetrators held to account to fight impunity.

Asked if a decision to release de Lima and rejoin the ICC would boost the Philippines’ chances of continuing to enjoy the EU trading incentives, Neumann said that would be “a strong sign in which direction the country wants to move.”

“The European Parliament has been quite clear that whoever wants to have preferential access to the European market needs to uphold social standards, human rights standards, environmental standards,” she said. “This is not going to go away.”

 

South Korean dog meat farmers push back against growing moves to outlaw their industry

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

July 31, 2023 at 14:10 JST

Kim Jong-kil speaks at his dog farm in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, Tuesday June 27, 2023. (AP Photo)

PYEONGTAEK, South Korea--The dogs bark and stare as Kim Jong-kil approaches the rusty cages housing the large, short-haired animals he sells for their meat. Kim opens a door and pets one dog’s neck and chest.

Kim says he’s proud of the dog meat farm that has supported his family for 27 years but is upset over growing attempts by politicians and activists to outlaw the business, which he is turning over to his children.

“It’s more than just feeling bad. I absolutely oppose these moves, and we’ll mobilize all our means to resist it,” Kim, 57, said in an interview at his farm in Pyeongtaek city, just south of Seoul.

Dog meat consumption is a centuries-old practice on the Korean Peninsula and has long been viewed as a source of stamina on hot summer days. It’s neither explicitly banned nor legalized in South Korea, but more and more people want it prohibited. There’s increasing public awareness of animal rights and worries about South Korea’s international image.

The anti-dog meat campaign recently received a big boost when the country’s first lady expressed her support for a ban and two lawmakers submitted bills to eliminate the dog meat trade.

“Foreigners think South Korea is a cultural powerhouse. But the more K-culture increases its international standing, the bigger shock foreigners experience over our dog meat consumption,” said Han Jeoungae, an opposition lawmaker who submitted legislation to outlaw the dog meat industry last month.

Prospects for passage of an anti-dog meat law are unclear because of protests by farmers, restaurant owners and others involved in the dog meat industry. Surveys suggest that one in three South Koreans opposes such a ban, though most people don’t eat dog meat anymore.

Dogs are also eaten in China, Vietnam, Indonesia, North Korea and some African countries, including Ghana, Cameroon, Congo and Nigeria.

Earlier this month, Indonesian authorities announced the end of dog and cat slaughter at an animal market on the island of Sulawesi following a yearslong campaign by local activists and world celebrities. The Tomohon Extreme Market will become the first such market in Indonesia to go dog and cat meat-free, according to the anti-animal cruelty group Humane Society International.

South Korea’s dog meat industry receives more international attention because of its reputation as a wealthy, ultra-modern democracy. It is also the only nation with industrial-scale farms. Most farms in South Korea have more than 500 dogs, according to a dog farmers’ association.

During a recent visit, Kim’s farm, one of the country’s largest with 7,000 dogs, appeared relatively clean but there was a strong stench in some areas. All dogs are kept in elevated cages and are fed with food waste and ground chicken. They are rarely released for exercise and typically are sold for meat one year after they are born.

Kim said two of his children, age 29 and 31, are running the farm with him, and that business has been going pretty well. He said the dogs bred for their meat are different from pets, an idea opposed by activists.

It’s difficult now to find dog meat restaurants in Seoul’s bustling downtown, though many still exit in the countryside.

“I only earn one-third of the money I used to make. Young people don’t come here. Only ailing old people come for lunch,” said Yoon Chu-wol, 77, the owner of a dog meat restaurant in Seoul’s Kyungdong traditional market. “I tell my elderly customers to come and eat my food more frequently before it’s banned.”

Farmers also face growing scrutiny from officials and increasingly negative public opinion. They complain that officials visit them repeatedly in response to complaints filed by activists and citizens over alleged animal abuse and other wrongdoing. Kim said more than 90 such petitions were filed against his farm during a recent four-month span.

Son Won Hak, general secretary of the dog farmers’ association, said many farms have collapsed in recent years because of falling dog meat prices and weaker demand. He thinks that’s a result of activist campaigns and unfair media reports focusing on farms with inferior conditions. Some observers, however, say consumption of dog meat was already declining, with younger people staying away from it.

“Quite honestly, I’d like to quit my job tomorrow. We can’t confidently tell our children that we’re raising dogs,” Son said. “When my friends called me, they said ‘Hey, are you still running a dog meat farm? Isn’t it illegal?’”

The number of farms across South Korea has dropped by half from a few years ago to about 3,000 to 4,000, and about 700,000 to 1 million dogs are slaughtered each year, a decline from several million 10 to 20 years ago, according to the dog farmers’ association. Some activists argue that the farmers’ estimates are an exaggeration meant to show their industry is too big to destroy.

In late 2021, South Korea launched a government-civilian task force to consider outlawing dog meat at the suggestion of then-President Moon Jae-in, a pet lover. The committee, whose members include farmers and animal rights activists, has met more than 20 times but hasn’t reached any agreement, apparently because of disputes over compensation issues.

Agriculture officials refused to disclose the discussions in the closed-door meetings. They said the government wants to end dog meat consumption based on a public consensus.

In April, first lady Kim Keon Hee, the wife of current President Yoon Suk Yeol, said in a meeting with activists that she hopes for an end to dog meat consumption. Famers responded with rallies and formal complaints against Kim for allegedly hurting their livelihoods.

Han, the lawmaker, said she “highly positively appraises” influential figures speaking out against dog meat consumption.

Han said her bill offers support programs for farmers who agree to close their farms. They would be entitled to money to dismantle their facilities, vocational training, employment assistance and other benefits, she said.

Ju Yeongbong, an official of the farmers’ association, said farmers want to continue for about 20 more years until older people, their main customers, die, allowing the industry to naturally disappear. Observers say most farmers are also in their 60s to 70s.

Borami Seo, a director of the South Korea office of the Humane Society International, said she opposes the continued killing of millions of dogs for such a prolonged period. “Letting this silent cruelty to (dogs) be committed in South Korea doesn’t make sense,” Seo said.

“(Dog meat consumption) is too anachronistic, has elements of cruelty to animals and hinders our national growth,” said Cheon JinKyung, head of Korea Animal Rights Advocates in Seoul.

How Tunisia Became the EU’s Border Guard


Last year, Tunisia overtook Libya as the primary point of departure for refugees seeking entry into Europe. The EU has responded to this by paying the North African nation billions to violently police migrants.

A boat carrying migrants in the Mediterranean Sea after being intercepted by the Tunisian Maritime National Guard and brought back to the shore of the Tunisian city of Sfax, June 23, 2023. (Khaled Nasraoui / picture alliance via Getty Images)


BY JODY RAY
07.29.2023
Jacobin

The European Union has struck a deal with the Tunisian government to quell migration coming to European shores. What has been termed a “strategic partnership” after weeks of talks between the two governments has resulted in $1.12 billion to Tunisia to rescue its fledgling economy and bail out debts to directly deal with a growing migrant crisis.

While the funds are contingent on specific economic reforms, human rights groups have sounded the alarm that the European taxpayer money is funding the collective expulsions of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa. According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), most of the migrants are Ivorian, Cameroonian, Malian, Guinean, Chadian, Sudanese, and Senegalese. Between July 2 and 6, HRW estimate that Tunisian security forces expelled between five hundred and seven hundred people, including children and pregnant women.

Tunisia’s geography, situated at the northernmost point of Africa, makes it a prime point of departure for migrants willing to risk the dangerous oversea journey to nearby Sicily. Migrants from neighboring African nations often hand out their entire life savings to people smugglers or human traffickers.

Their numbers are increasing. In the first quarter of 2023 alone, the Tunisian government stopped seventeen thousand migrants from departing in boats, as floating bodies — which increased by more than three thousand from the previous year — continued to wash ashore daily in the port city of Sfax. So far this year, over seventy-five thousand migrants have reached Italy, more than double the numbers from 2022. Tunisia has overtaken Libya as the primary hub for departure.

This development has direct political consequences. Throughout Europe, single-issue parties around immigration reduction are on the rise, and other nationalist movements are using the crisis to make the case for closed borders. While immigration as a concern has always fueled fringe-right elements in European politics, this particular crisis alone has led to the collapse of the Dutch government and the rise of the Alternative for Germany.

And while international headlines concentrate on the European political fallout or the structure of the $1.12 billion heading to Tunis, fewer provide context on how the government in Tunisia has managed the crisis so far. The developments provide a stark reminder that politicians continue to see the plight of migrants from Africa to Europe as a primarily domestic problem, not an issue stemming from global inequality and war.

The EU has long pressured Tunisia to do something about the migrant issue. During a public meeting in Tunis with German interior minister Nancy Faeser and her French counterpart Gérald Darmanin, Tunisian president Kais Saied said, “Tunisia will never accept to be the guardian of any other country’s borders and will not accept the settlement of migrants on its soil.”

This stated policy has seen Tunisian authorities remove hundreds of migrants to a desolate area along the border with Libya, following a wave of xenophobia and violent attacks against foreigners, some not even migrants, following the president’s statement.

Even the establishment press has admitted that Saied is using this migration issue as “a scapegoat to distract attention from his creeping authoritarianism and the country’s economic problems.”

“Not only is it unconscionable to abuse people and abandon them in the desert, but collective expulsions violate international law,” said Lauren Seibert, a refugee and migrant rights researcher at HRW. Since de facto policies around forced expulsion have been underway, the International Organization for Migration in Libya said that it has been able to provide some emergency medical assistance to people.

The Red Crescent has since rescued hundreds of migrants from the desert, two hundred of whom reported wanting to return to their origin countries. The rest have asked to be taken to Europe.

Interviews conducted by HRW found that migrants had been forcibly arrested “by police, national guard, or military in and near Sfax, a port city southeast of the capital, Tunis.” They were then transported “300 kilometers to Ben Guerdane, then to the Libya border, where they were effectively trapped in what they described as a buffer zone from which they could neither enter Libya nor return to Tunisia.”

Amnesty International has also come out against the billion-dollar payoff from the EU to Tunisia, stating that the EU is now “complicit” in abuses against asylum seekers, refugees, and migrants. As noted in a statement from Eve Geddie, advocacy director at Amnesty’s European Institutions Office:

This ill-judged agreement, signed despite mounting evidence of serious human rights abuses by [Tunisian] authorities, will result in a dangerous expansion of already failed migration policies and signals EU acceptance of increasingly repressive behaviour by Tunisia’s president and government.

Coming against a backdrop of escalating violence and abuses against sub-Saharan African migrants by Tunisian authorities, the decision shows no lessons have been learned from previous similar agreements. This makes the European Union complicit in the suffering that will inevitably result.

Camille Le Coz, associate director of the Brussels-based Migration Policy Institute, told the New York Times, “The deal shows that once again, Europe is ready to turn a blind eye to its values to provide a short-term fix to a migration problem.”

“What’s missing is a reference to protection concerns and the human rights abuses against migrants.”



CONTRIBUTORS

Jody Ray is a writer and journalist based in New Orleans. He is the creator of Exit Strategy, a project that seeks to discover the world through political conflict, culture, and cuisine.




FURTHER READING

The European Union Is Stepping Up Its War on RefugeesNATHAN AKEHURST

Europe’s Border Regime Is Killing ThousandsEOGHAN GILMARTIN
TOMMY GREENE

Europe’s Militarized Borders Are a Band-Aid for Climate ChaosNATHAN AKEHURST

How Deportation Became the Core of Europe’s Migration PolicyDAIVA REPEČKAIT

SRI LANKAN REFUGEES

Refugee To Illegal Migrant: The Journey Of Sri Lankan Tamils To India

Unlike other refugee communities in India, Sri Lankan Tamils have a unique claim that they are not technically refugees, but they have to be considered as repatriates.

Road to Nowhere: The Minnur refugee camp in Ambur district, Tamil Nadu Photo: Shahina K K

Latest Issue

The pungent odour of a burning tire, the jarring echoes of gun shots and the grim sight of a partially-charred corpse lying in the middle of an empty street—70-year-old Theresa, exiled from Sri Lanka, is engulfed by a vivid array of emotions while recollecting memories of her homeland. Theresa, who fled to India in 1990 along with her family and now living in a rehabilitation camp in Minnur, Tamil Nadu, talks about her life—from the blissfully ignorant childhood to the disquieted adolescence and unsettled youth eclipsed by ethnic conflicts and civil war in Sri Lanka.

Theresa and her husband Samuel belong to Vavuniya district located in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. They joined hundreds of Sri Lankan Tamils who fled the country following the civil war (1983 to 2009). Theresa, her husband and her two sons were accommodated in a refugee camp—which was later rephrased as a rehabilitation camp—in Minnur village in Ambur, the district bordering Karnataka. But the couple did not bring their only daughter, the youngest of all, who was left with other family members who remained in Sri Lanka. The trauma of war and the hardships of life in exile had taken a heavy toll on Samuel’s health; he passed away eight months after their arrival in India. Theresa’s sons, Jebaneson and Antony Raja, fled to Australia in 2013—illegal migration was the only way as both did not have citizenship of any country. That was the last time Theresa could see her children.

According to the Chennai-based Rehabilitation Commissionerate, the department responsible for the wellbeing of the Sri Lankan refugees in Tamil Nadu, there are 58,357 Sri Lankan Tamil refugees living in 106 camps in 29 districts across Tamil Nadu as of May 1, 2023; 10,269 are children below the age of 11. According to human rights activists working for the refugees, there are an equal number of people living outside the camps. They estimate that Tamil Nadu is home to more than one lakh Sri Lankan refugees living across the state—registered and unregistered.

‘Repatriates, Not Refugees’

Unlike other refugee communities in India, Sri Lankan Tamils have a unique claim that they are not technically refugees, but they have to be considered as repatriates. In the early 19th century, the forefathers of the present generation of Sri Lankan Tamils were moved to the island nation by the British to work in the tea estates. According to V Support, an organisation working for the rights of Sri Lankan repatriates, the Tamil people in Sri Lanka suffered racial discrimination and were denied citizenship when Sri Lanka got independence in 1948. The two pacts signed between India and Sri Lanka in 1964 and 1974 gave them the assurance that the Indian-origin Tamils would be given citizenship in both the countries—around 50 per cent of them in India and the rest in Sri Lanka. However, this promise was never fulfilled as the civil war broke out in 1983. All the piecemeal activities came to a halt and there was a huge influx of Sri Lankan Tamils to India since then.

“We believed we were refugees, but since the BJP came into power, we came to know that we are illegal migrants,” says Saravanan Nataraja, a refugee in Minnur camp. According to an affidavit submitted by the Central Government in the Supreme Court in 2019 (Ulaganathan vs Govt of India), Sri Lankan Tamils living in India are illegal migrants. Though the Tamil Nadu state government maintains the stand that they are not against the idea of granting citizenship, this decision rests with the Union government. “The status of a refugee would at least bring you some love and empathy, but being identified as an illegal migrant would always portray you as a potential offender,” says Saravanan.

Tamil Nadu Is Home To More Than One Lakh Sri Lankan Refugees Living Across The State—Registered And Unregistered.

What makes these people deprived of even the status of a refugee? India is not a signatory to international protocols regarding the welfare of refugees. India has chosen not to sign either the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol, both of which have garnered an extensive number of signatories, totalling 140 countries, constituting an overwhelming majority. “Technically speaking, anyone living in India with no valid documents is an illegal migrant, not a refugee, because India has not recognised the refugee status,” says Kulaintha Swamy, an activist working for the rights of the Sri Lankan Tamils in India. Ironically, Sri Lankan Tamils living in various camps in India are eligible for documents such as Aadhaar card and driving licence. They are granted ration cards too. “Still they call us illegal migrants,” says Saravanan.

When it comes to Sri Lankan Tamils, even the celebrated Citizenship Amendment Act did not come to their rescue. “Why Sri Lanka was excluded from the purview of this Act?” asks Antony Arul Raj, another activist in Tamil Nadu. “If the Act was brought to provide asylum for people who are persecuted in neighbouring countries, there is no reason to eschew the Sri Lankan Tamils,” he says.

Repatriation is Impractical

A majority of Sri Lankan Tamils that Outlook spoke to expressed a strong reluctance to return to Sri Lanka. Given the option, they would prefer to remain in India and obtain Indian citizenship. Udayakumar, a resident of Minnur camp, explains, “Sri Lanka is a completely unfamiliar world to our children. The younger generation hasn’t even set foot in Sri Lanka and lacks any understanding of what it’s like there.”

“Over the past 40 years, more than 50,000 children have been born in India,” says Romeo Roy Alfred, a lawyer. “For them, Sri Lanka is simply a foreign country. Even for the older generation, who migrated to India, their roots are firmly planted here, as they are descendants of those who moved to Sri Lanka to work in the tea estates. They consider themselves as people of Indian origin.”
The Current Financial Crisis In Sri Lanka Has Only Worsened The Situation As Even Those Who Wanted To Go Back Are Having Second Thoughts.

Romeo reveals that those who have been repatriated to Sri Lanka advice people not to make the same “mistake”. Granting citizenship to Sri Lankan Tamils in Sri Lanka has become entangled in legal complications and bureaucratic red tape. Moreover, racial discrimination persists even though the civil war has ended. The current financial crisis in Sri Lanka has only worsened the situation as even those who wanted to go back are having second thoughts.

Bleak Future

“A person with no citizenship is not eligible to apply for a government job; our children cannot appear for the common entrance examinations like NEET. The young generation disillusioned and they easily fall into the hands of drug peddlers,” says Saravanan.

Most Dravidian parties in Tamil Nadu have been historically sympathetic towards the Sri Lankan Tamils. There are initiatives to offer housing and financial assistance to registered Sri Lankan refugees who reside in camps. Under these initiatives, the head of the family receives Rs 1,000, the wife receives Rs 750, and each additional family member receives Rs 500 per month. This provides significant relief for the Sri Lankan Tamils who are living in dire conditions in the camps. However, there are no specific programmes targeting the education of children, apart from the general initiatives available to all residents of Tamil Nadu. The government is yet to address the pressing issues of rampant unemployment, alarmingly high suicide rates, and the prevalence of drug abuse.

Difficult Lives: (Clockwise from top) Saravanan, who is an inmate of Minnur camp, lives with his family in a rented house; an informal school at the camp; Theresa, a Sri Lankan Tamil, now stays in the camp

Photo: Shahina K K

What’s worse, the inmates of the camps must inform revenue officials if they plan to be away for more than 24 hours. Saravanan explains, “In the past, the conditions were stricter. We had to sign in the morning and evening every day in front of the village officer. Now, this rule has been relaxed.” Anyone visiting the camp, including journalists, is closely monitored by the Q Branch of the police in Tamil Nadu. In essence, the Sri Lankan Tamils, many of whom have Indian origins, live at the mercy of the State. They reside in a partially closed, partially open prison, lacking the same dignity as fellow human beings who were born and raised in India.

“We don’t belong here,” says Saravanan. “At the back of our minds, we always carry the burden of this thought. Therefore, we live like cowards. Even if I witness an accident, someone being lynched, or a clash between groups, I restrain myself and keep my distance, which goes against my conscience. But if I intervene and something goes wrong, I would be the easiest target because I belong to no country.”

(Edited by S S Jeevan)

(This appeared in the print as 'We Belong To No Country')

Shahina K K in Ambur, Tamil Nadu

Narrative Around Refugees And Asylum Seekers Appear Politically Insinuated

The narrative around refugees and asylum seekers across the globe appears politically insinuated.

 Because data tells a different story

Drowning in the Sea: Artwork by Faud, 14, a Syrian refugee. Black dots depict refugees in a stormy sea Courtesy: Art with refugees

 

Jaffer Latief Najar

UPDATED: 26 JUL 2023 8:04 AM

Recently on July 7, 2023, the Dutch government collapsed over radical yet opp­osing outlooks of coalition parties on the issue of a proposed new immigration policy. The mounting concerns over the problem of a housing crisis, high gas prices and inflation are developing a narrative that blames foreign migrants—international students, wealthier “expats” and particularly asylum seekers as the key cause. It has ensued into the formation of a policy proposal, pressing the Dutch government to introduce a new bill that appears to restrict the rights of family members to join refugees from countries temporarily at war.

The difference in the views of coalition parties over this new bill caused the collapse of the government. Akin to or even harsher than such a policy, the United Kingdom has already devised a plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda to ‘deter’ people from arriving in the UK. Notably, such a pattern indicates the upsetting concerns and narratives that are appearing against the “soaring outsider” in Europe, especially refugees and asylum seekers.

The subject that attracts less attention is the extent to which the refugees and asylum seekers are increasing the humanitarian cost or inflation of a state, and forcing countries to bring intense policy frames against the rights of refugees and asylum seekers. According to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), in 2022, 108.4 million people were forcefully displaced worldwide because of persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations or events seriously disturbing public order. Among these, 35.3 million (32.5 per cent) were refugees and 5.4 million (4.9 per cent) were asylum seekers. Should 5.4 million asylum seekers among a population of seven billion worldwide be a cause of concern; and can’t the economically powerful states (including European countries) even offer to provide assistance to a minute proportion of them, rather than render strident policies, and how are such minor populations destabilising economies, politics, and increasing inflation?

European Union statistics further indicate that the narrative and panic about refugees and asylum seekers appear politically insinuated, and not what the data suggests. For instance, in 2022, only 881,200 people sought asylum among all the countries of the European Union (EU). Should a minute population of 881,200 people among 447.7 million inhabitants in the European Union be a concern?

Compared to worldwide forceful displacement data of UNHRC, the number of asylum seekers amounts to merely 0.81 per cent (approximately). However, the EU data also suggest that there is a sharp rise of 52 per cent in asylum in 2022 in Euro­pean countries, as compared to the previous years, which appears to have been triggered by the war in neighbouring Ukraine.

Nevertheless, it is still a smaller amount as compared to the worldwide forceful displacement of people and asylum seekers. More importantly, the EU data also show that non-EU citizens are overrepresented in low-end and working- class occupations such as cleaners and helpers (11.4 per cent), personal services workers (7.3 per cent), personal care workers (5.5 per cent), building and related trade workers, excluding electricians (6.1 per cent), labourers in mining, construction, manufacturing and transport (six per cent, food preparation assistants (2.6 per cent), agricultural, forestry and fishery labourers (2.4 per cent), while being underrepresented in comparatively privileged sectors such as public administration and defence, compulsory social security, education, human health and social work activities, professional, scientific and technical activities, teaching professionals, business and administration associate professionals, etc. While it indicates the disparity and inequality of representation and scope of work of non-EU citizens, it also accentuates the extent to which the refugees and asylum seekers are impacting the economy of the host countries in Europe. Relatively, it suggests how non-EU citizens contribute to the working class economy of the EU, reflecting the limited scope of influence and representation of refugees in the EU, challenging the dominant perspective.

The Refugee Perspective

At the receiving end, the community of refugees and asylum seekers in Europe appears to have experienced multiple obstacles, hierarchies, and discrimination. For instance, in one of my podcast episodes on European Union refugee policies on the Global Development Review Podcast, Anila Noor, a refugee herself and feminist activist, who closely works with the UN and EU on refugee rights, shared that refugees and asylum seekers are treated and recognised as a ‘burden’ in Europe, which undermines the human dignity and contribution of refugees. She further pointed out that there is a disconnect and deficit between policies, policymakers, and rights groups, restricting the refugees’ equal participation and voices for policies that are sought for them. She pointed out that rather than a human rights approach, there is a rise of border control approach in the recent policy reforms in Europe. Her key concern, as representative of a refugee networks in Europe, was that there is not enough space for refugees to share their views and contribute to the policies. Rather, a tokenistic approach—involving a few community members for the sake of representation—is being applied and observed, which benefits neither the state nor the communities. She insists, ‘Listen to us, our experience, our perspectives’.
Framing Refugees And Asylum Seekers As A ‘Burden’ Increases The Risk Of Harm To The Already Susceptible Groups.

My own observations and experience of ethnographic research and community engagement with undocumented workers, refugee groups, and working class migrants in Europe also signify that there are challenges that require policy and practice reforms in a way that provide safe, secure, and dignified access to the basic rights of refugees and migrants in Europe, not stern policy modifications.

For instance, I observed that refugees and undocumented migrants are facing obstacles in accessing proper health care services or benefits and the bureaucracy (with a systemic discriminatory attitude) offers limited space for refugees to access work, livelihood, employment, and welfare benefits. The housing crisis and rising prices also led to further financial worries and compromised living conditions. Lack of mental health support, disconnect with families/diaspora, and language barriers also appear to have been impacting the daily routines, well-being and experiences of refugees and asylum seekers. Notably, waiting and regular pushbacks at asylum and reception centres have also made refugee and asylum-seeking communities more susceptible, requiring them to explore alternative channels of access, which are unsecured, financially extractive, and exploitative in many forms.

Such pushbacks appear to have also been subtly placed in the recent policy attempt of the Dutch government or the UK’s plans (among others) that restrict the entry of refugees or their families. Such a pattern may also be observed in future policies in other countries of the European Union.

Yet, framing refugees and asylum seekers as a “burden” or “soaring outsiders” increases the risk of harm to already susceptible groups, communities, and individuals, who are escaping from persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations, or events seriously disturbing public order. While such framing may well benefit the politics and dominant narrative-building machinery to convince their anti-immigrant constituencies for domestic discourses or other gains, practically, it places a minor and repeatedly marginalised community of refugees and asylum seekers at the further threshold of the margins, increasing their susceptibilities and weakening their fundamental rights, even in the projected “advanced” democracies of Europe.

(Views expressed are personal)
(This appeared in the print as 'Striking Difference')

Jaffer Latief Najar is an ethnographer associated with the International Institute of Social Studies at the Hague in The Netherlands as a final year PHD researcher

How Climate Change Is Driving Mass Human Displacement

Climate change is driving mass human displacement and forcing the need to establish climate governance policies that go beyond the traditional perception of who is a 'refugee'

The sections that suffer the most when it comes to climate-displacement or climate-induced distress migration are women and children.

 

Latest Issue

Rakhi Bose
UPDATED: 26 JUL 2023

Assam resident Seher Ali’s life is a paradox. Three decades ago, Ali’s family lost their ancestral home in Charagaon due to a rise in water levels. A river now flows where Ali’s house had once stood. “Our village went underwater. Nothing of the house remains but that is still our official address in many documents,” Ali states.

After 30 years, he still has nothing more than an address without a home. He now lives in a temporary shanty on the outskirts of Niz Baghbar, four kilometres north-east of Baghbar hillock in the (currently flooded) Barpeta district of Assam. This year, the flood situation in Barpeta has left 43,000 people affected. Ali fears that he and his family might once again end up in relief camps where they have spent much of their lives. “We have become like refugees in our own land,” he says. But as per international refugee law, Ali does not qualify to be called a refugee, neither does he get disaster relief-rehabilitation at home.

Ali is one of the lakhs of people in India who have lost their homes and livelihoods to climate-related phenomena in the past few decades. In 2021 alone, nearly 50 lakh people were internally displaced in India due to climate change and disasters, as per the annual Global Trends Report by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).

Lost in Terminology

The scope of the global refugee crisis has more than doubled in the past few decades. However, much of the data on refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) does not include “climate refugees” or “environmental refugees”. This is because traditionally, a refugee is associated with persecution based on caste, class, race, gender, ethnicity and/or political allegiance. Refugees also need to technically cross an international boundary and enter a destination nation to be identified as refugees.

Refugee Status Determination (RSD) is a vital part of helping refugees realise their rights under international law. However, climate refugees are not recognised as refugees under international law and there is no specific template for the protection and rehabilitation of climate-displaced persons. This means that climate refugees and climate displaced remain outside of the purview of rights guaranteed to refugees.

So, who is a climate refugee? The Global Governance on Climate Change defines climate refugees (or environmental refugees) as people who are compelled to leave their habitats (immediately or in near future), because of sudden or gradual alterations in their natural environment related to at least one of three impacts of climate changes—sea-level rise, extreme weather events, drought, and water scarcity. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates that there could be as many as 200 million environmental refugees by 2050.
In The Absence Of Official Refugee Status, Those Who Get Displaced Or Lose Their Livelihoods Due To Environmental Phenomena Are Often Left To Fend For Themselves.

In the absence of official refugee status, those who get displaced or lose their livelihoods due to environmental phenomena are often left to fend for themselves. “It isn’t easy to rebuild once you have lost everything. But I tried,” Ali recalls. About 15 years ago after moving from relief camp to temporary housing, Ali arrived in Baghbar with the hopes of rebuilding his life. He managed to purchase 400 bighas of land. But “home” would remain elusive.

What he didn’t know was that the land had been allotted for animal husbandry. Due to delay in setting up of the proposed pig farm on the area, touts started selling plots to erosion-affected/displaced people like Ali. Last winter in December, the government in Assam evicted Ali along with 48 other families from those plots. He has lost his father and elder brother in past few years. Having lost the little he had managed to rebuild, Ali, who had no papers for the property, moved to a tent on the village’s periphery, reduced once again to an outsider, living on the outskirt.

International Institute for Environment and Development climate researcher Ritu Bharadwaj, who has been studying the impact of environmental change on communities in India, states that international climate refugees have barely any rights in the destination country due to the lack of international accordance, meaning that upon entering destination country, they are likely to be dubbed “illegal settlers”.

During a recent study she and her team conducted in the environmentally-vulnerable Kendrapara area of Odisha, they found several climate refugees from Nepal and Bangladesh. While other climate displaced in India may avail advantages like MNREGA or disaster relief, climate refugees get nothing. “Just because they don’t have a legal climate refugee status, they are illegal immigrants,” she states.

Forced into Statelessness

Climate displacement can also render people “illegal” within their home country. The issue of “illegality” emerges strongly in Assam where the ‘National Register of Citizens’ exercise threatens to disenfranchise millions based on their ability or inability to prove their citizenship. Thus, adverse climate impact can lead to not just homelessness but also induce what Assam-based activist Faruk Khan calls “statelessness”.

The D-voter electoral category in Assam includes thousands of people whom the government disenfranchises on the account of their inability to show proper citizenship credentials. D voters do not have voting rights and are essentially deemed as foreigners. In 2021, 1.08 lakh persons were declared D-voters in Assam. Khan claims that among them, thousands of these D-voters are actually climate displaced persons.

“In Assam, security forces and state authorities keep tabs on migrants. Whenever a person comes to a new area, they are marked. And many times, they are put under the “foreigner” category based on biased suspicions,” Khan, who runs a non-profit organisation called ‘D-Voter Forum’, states, adding that once a person loses their own home, it becomes very hard for them to establish their identity anywhere else. They forever remain “outsiders”, seen and perceived with suspicion. “Such suspicions, of course, are allayed by communal and xenophobic narratives,” Khan adds.

The sections that suffer the most when it comes to climate-displacement or climate-induced distress migration are women and children.
In the Sundarbans delta complex shared between West Bengal and Bangladesh, for instance, village after village in Sagar Island and Ghoramara Island have become submerged due to rising sea level and rapid land erosion. About 75 per cent of Ghoramara Island now submerged and soon, the whole island is expected to disappear. Many like Chitto Das, who belonged to Khasimara village, have had to move to inland villages like Goshaba, in another part of the Sundarbans.

The Sections That Suffer The Most When It Comes To Climate-Displacement Or Climate-Induced Distress Migration Are Women And Children.

In most of these climate migrant households, women have been left alone to deal with recurrent cyclones and floods, and tend to inundated soil while their husbands migrate to urban centres like Kolkata for work. As per the Rural Household Survey, over 25 per cent of the principal earners (majority male) of individual families have migrated out of their homes in the islands and temporarily searching for work or working elsewhere.

Manju Sarkar, who runs an SHG in Goshaba, states that several women who migrated to Goshaba from the submerged villages like Khasimara, Lohachara, Baishnabpara, now live on rented plots or shanties in other villages and try to raise the family on meagre incomes while the husbands work in faraway cities as labourers. Even those who live in further inland areas like Goshaba have been affected by environmental change as recurrent flood and cyclone water has left their farms salinated and unfit for farming.

Another dire impact is the incidence of child trafficking, child marriages, debt bondage and other social ills in families affected by environmental change. Rafiqul Islam, who works extensively to curb child marriages in Assam, states that in most cases of trafficking in environmentally vulnerable zones, families often have no means to take care of the children and even voluntarily allow trafficking of one child to feed the rest.

“The one school in Charagaon is in shambles. There are about 3,500 people living in the area and not a single school above Class 5. There are no employment opportunities for youth so even if a trafficked child is managed to be rescued, they are likely to be pushed back into trafficking or into crime,” Islam states, adding that the state as well as central government has remained more or less apathetic to the needs of children affected by climate change.

Invisibility of Distress Migration

Two kinds of events cause climate induced movement. Rapid onset events typically include flash floods, cyclones, hurricanes, flash droughts, or even heat waves now in India. These events have high visibility and empirical data is more easily available to measure ‘Loss and Damage’, which is useful in estimating the economic and property losses. Slow onset events, on the other hand, typically include sea level rise, salination, desertification and prolonged drought. These events produce more long-term impact including loss of home or livelihood. These events also drive deeper distress migration, which refers to the voluntary movement of people in anticipation of impending environmental adversity or ongoing crisis. “As opposed to opportunistic migration, distress migration often leads to migrants facing issues with renegotiation of space. This can be in the form of discrimination faced in urban spaces, of the loss of identity and cultural belongingness,” states Bhardwaj.

Towards Climate Governance

Last year, Pradyut Bordoloi, Congress parliamentarian from Assam’s Nagaon, introduced the Climate Migrants (Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill as a private member’s bill. The Bill outlines a framework for the protection and rehabilitation of climate-displaced persons by providing for a dedicated climate fund and for periodic surveys in climate change-prone areas to assess the scale of the displacement. The bill has been dubbed ‘doomed to not pass’ by media and sceptics and does not inspire much hope among climate change activists or those working with climate migration. But it’s a starting point.

Professor Parthankar Choudhary, Dean and former Head of the Department of Ecology & Environmental Science at the E. P. Odum School of Environmental Sciences at Assam University, also highlights that India’s Disaster Management Act 2005 has been more or less effective in mitigating the fallout of natural disaster.

“Global temperature rise, excessive precipitation, drought, and the like can broadly be categorised under climatic hazards. Thus its effects inter alia fall under the category of Disaster, and ideally are dealt with under the Disaster Management Act, 2005,” he states. But while the DM Act might help victims of short-onset events, the act fails to provide much relief to victims of long-offset events. Additionally, social stratification and marginalisation often compound the issues and deny people even the rights and safeguards that the government provides.

Climate governance is likely to become top of the agenda of governments globally in coming years due to the inevitability of climate change necessitating extensive systems to deal with it. The world has already realised it. Even the most conservative estimates of annual climate-induced displacement and impact speak for themselves. The question is, how long can governments remain in denial?

(This appeared in the print as 'Addresses Without Homes')

Sinead O'Connor's Letter To Miley Cyrus Warning Her Against Being 'Pimped' Goes Viral

An open letter penned by Sinead O'Connor to Miley Cyrus has gone viral following the Irish music legend's death aged 56. The two infamously had a feud a decade ago after comments made by Cyrus.

https://www.outlookindia.com/
UPDATED: 29 JUL 2023 

An open letter penned by Sinead O'Connor to Miley Cyrus has gone viral following the Irish music legend's death aged 56. The two infamously had a feud a decade ago after comments made by Cyrus.

The feud took place 10 years ago in 2013, when Cyrus, then 20, told Rolling Stone magazine that the video for her hit track, 'Wrecking Ball', which included a lot of nudity, was inspired by Sinead's song 'Nothing Compares 2 U'.

Cyrus's famous video sees the star in various stages of undress riding on a wrecking ball. In some scenes, she is seen crying into the camera while singing, much like the video for 'Nothing Compares 2 U'.

Apparently O'Connor was not impressed with the comparison or the video at the time, Mirror UK reported.

In response to the article, O'Connor wrote publicly to Cyrus, warning her of the dangers of the music industry and how "nothing but harm will come in the long run from allowing yourself to be exploited".

In the letter, which was originally published on her website, O'Connor wrote: "I wasn't going to write this letter, but today I've been dodging phone calls from various newspapers who wished me to remark upon your having said in Rolling Stone your Wrecking Ball video was designed to be similar to the one for Nothing Compares.

"So this is what I need to say … And it is said in the spirit of motherliness and with love.

"I am extremely concerned for you that those around you have led you to believe, or encouraged you in your own belief, that it is in any way 'cool' to be naked and licking sledgehammers in your videos.

"It is in fact the case that you will obscure your talent by allowing yourself to be pimped, whether its the music business or yourself doing the pimping.

"Nothing but harm will come in the long run, from allowing yourself to be exploited, and it is absolutely NOT in ANY way an empowerment of yourself or any other young women, for you to send across the message that you are to be valued (even by you) more for your sexual appeal than your obvious talent."

In the powerful letter, O'Connor continued: "The music business doesn't give a shit about you, or any of us. They will prostitute you for all you are worth, and cleverly make you think it's what YOU wanted… and when you end up in rehab as a result of being prostituted, 'they' will be sunning themselves on their yachts in Antigua, which they bought by selling your body and you will find yourself very alone.

She completed the letter with the lines: "Whether we like it or not, us females in the industry are role models and as such we have to be extremely careful what messages we send to other women.

"The message you keep sending is that its somehow cool to be prostituted … it's so not cool Miley… its dangerous. Women are to be valued for so much more than their sexuality."

At the time, Cyrus didn't react well to the letter - comparing O'Connor to the troubled star Amanda Bynes, who has had several mental health episodes.

On social media, Cyrus also re-shared pictures of the star in 1992 when she tore up a photo of Pope John Paul II on US TV show 'Saturday Night Live', sparking a ferocious backlash.

O'Connor then penned several follow-up letters, and even threatened legal action against Cyrus.

However, later that year Cyrus seemed to call a truce with the star, saying on The Today Show that the spat "didn't really matter" and it was "all good".

In a recent interview, Cyrus told Vogue how she "carried some guilt and shame around myself for years" as a result of the Wrecking Ball and VMAs twerking controversies.

O'Connor's letter is being re-circulated as hundreds of fans paid tributes to the late singer on both sides of the Irish Sea on Thursday night following her shock death.

Did Nazis consider Iranians to be ‘Aryans’?

SARDARI PROJECT

JULY 31, 2023
ARASH AZIZI

A German teacher singles out a child with "Aryan" features for special praise in class. picture: 

DIZ Muenchen GMBH, Sueddeutscher Verlag Bilderdienst

“A little knowledge is a dangerous thing”. This well-known saying in the English language is well-suited to the study of history. As dangerous as outright fabrications can be, partial and selective facts can sometimes be even more misleading. A case in point is in the Nazi conception of the Aryan race and whether Nazi officials considered Iranians to be included in it. Throughout time, many misleading claims, often for politicized purposes, have been made about this question. In this article, I rely on the work of relevant scholars to show what Nazis really thought of Iranians and what they meant by the concept of the ‘Aryan’ race.

What does Aryan mean?

Like many terms and symbols used and abused by the Nazis, the term ‘Aryan’ or ‘Ariya’ has a distinct history that goes back centuries. The term was an ethnic self-designation used by various peoples in ancient India and Iran. It thus appears in sacred texts of Hinduism and Zoroastrianism that go as far back as the 2nd millennium BCE as well as inscriptions of antiquity. A notable example of the latter is an inscription found at the burial site of Dariush the Great, an ancient monarch ruling over Iran who died in 486 BC. Giving something of a biography of himself, Dariush tells the posterity that he is “an Aryan, of Aryan lineage”.

Centuries later, with the development of modern linguistics in the 18th century, scholars discovered that many languages of India, Iran and Europe had a common ancestor and could all be classified together as belonging to the Indo-European family of languages. Many languages around the world are connected together since populations have moved around in a variety of ways over centuries. But, in the decades to come, nationalist thinkers in Europe, the US, India and Iran would use this linguistic category to claim, without evidence, that “Indo-European” was actually a biological ‘race’, now often called the ‘Aryan race’. This worldview intensified in the nineteenth century, as scientific racism and sharp division of human beings into “races” became popular amongst many European thinkers. German explorer Julius Klaproth claimed “Aryans” or “Indo-Germanics” were an ancient light-skinned people while French philologist Frederic Eichhoff opined that “evidence of both physiology and linguistics” shows that all Europeans “came from the Orient”.

Racist European thinkers of the 19th century later influenced Nazi racial ideology. One of the most influential examples was Houston Stewart Chamberlain, a British-German philosopher whose popular 1899 book, The Foundation of the Nineteenth Century, was compulsory reading for teachers in Germany under Emperor Wilhelm II and later a major influence on Hitler and Nazis.

Importantly, European racists who propagated the Aryan theory often also believed that contemporary peoples of Iran and the Middle East were no longer “pure Aryans” as evident by their non-white skin. In simpler words, they did not belong to the supposedly superior race of ‘Aryans’. In mid to late nineteenth century Germany, a new version of the Aryan myth claimed that Aryan roots were actually in northern Europe. As contemporary Iranian-German historian David Motadel explains, these German thinkers believed that ‘Aryans’ had moved from Europe to Asia “and founded the ancient civilizations of the East” while “on the Asian fringes they degenerated through mixing with foreign races”. This meant that by the 20th century, “only the ‘Nordic race’, the core race in central and northern Europe, remained purely ‘Aryan’.”

Nazis and the Aryan myth

During the 1920s and 30s, the Nazis made a version of this belief in an “Aryan race” central to their ideology. In his manifesto Mein Kampf, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler called ‘Aryans’ a ‘culture-bearing race’ and claimed that they had come from northern Europe and had founded civilizations around the world but had disappeared because of mixing with others. The Nazis heavily promoted the Aryan myth as part of their propaganda that asserted ancient roots for the German people and a supposed return to stolen glory. Hitler and other German Nazis made it clear that the modern Iranians were not considered to be pure Aryans. Speaking on Iranians, Hitler would later falsely assert: “Nations which did not rid themselves of Jews, perished. One of the most famous examples of this was the downfall of a people who were once so proud – the Persians [the old European name for Iranians].”

More crudely, Hitler would tell the German army command in 1939: “We will continue to stir up unrest in the Far East and in Arabia. We must think as Masters and see in these peoples at best lacquered half-apes, who want to feel the whip.”

Top Nazi theorist Alfred Rosenberg further expounded on this separation between ancient and modern peoples of Iran. In his 1930 book, The Myth of the Twentieth Century, Rosenberg wrote that ancient Iranians were “Aryans with northern blood” but added that they had degenerated because of mixing with “lower races”.

Rosenberg wrote: “Once, the Persian king gave order to cut into the rock face of Behistun [in Iran] the following words: ‘I, Darius the Great King, King of Kings, an Aryan, having Aryan lineage’ Today the Persian muleteer [a person who drives a mule] pulls ahead soullessly by this wall: he represents thousands – culture and personality are born together with race and also die with it.”

In other words, ancient Iranians were superior “Aryans” while Iranians of today, like the “Persian muleteer” who was passing by, had lost that ancient glory by diluting their stock. As Motadel explains: “Most National Socialist ideologues agreed with the idea that ‘Aryans’ – in their attempt to cultivate the Orient – perished as a result of infiltration (Überfremdung) by ‘Semitic races’.”

Nazis in power

When the Nazis came to power in Germany in January 1933, they began to legislate on the basis of their racist worldview. A central goal of Nazi policy was exclusion and, ultimately, annihilation of Jews. As regards to people who were neither Jewish nor “Aryan”, a variety of ideas existed amongst various Nazis. While this article is focused on Iranians, many other populations, such as the Romani and Black Africans, were also considered racially inferior by the Nazis.

In 1933, a Civil Service Law, the Law for the Restroration of Professional Civil Service, was passed that limited certain rights to those Germans classified as Aryans. Defining “Aryan” for the purposes of this law, Nazi official Albert Gorter wrote: “The Aryans are… divided into the western (European), that is the German, Roman, Greek, Slav, Lett, Celt [and] Albanesen, and the eastern (Asiatic) Aryans, that is the Indian (Hindu) and Iranian (Persian, Afghan, Armenian, Georgian, Kurd).”

But many Nazis didn’t accept such an expansive concept of Aryan that included many non-Europeans. As explained above, they didn’t see the contemporary Iranians as belonging to the ‘master race’ with its supposed Nordic origins. Additionally, foreign governments such as Iran complained that the “Aryan paragraph” discriminated against their citizens. Even if the ‘paragraph’ seemed to include Iranians, Iranian students living in Germany were hardly protected. In one incident, the Iranian foreign ministry lodged a formal complaint when Nazi thugs attacked Iranian students on the streets of Berlin. As a result of domestic and foreign pressure, the Nazis went on to pass new racial laws. In November 1934, a meeting of various Nazi agencies debated the continued use of ‘Aryan’ as a legal category. Representatives of the Interior Ministry suggested that it could be simply replaced with “non-Jewish” which was less complicated. Haans Seel, from the ministry, discussed the issue in detail and argued that the term Aryan was “highly controversial and scientifically not clarified.” When the Nuremberg Race Laws were promulgated in 1935, they didn’t refer to “Aryan” but instead to “German or kindred blood” and “Jews and other non-kindred people”. The latter category now faced a slew of new restrictions; most importantly, they were stripped of their German citizenship, even decorated war veterans. These laws also banned marriage and sexual relations between “Jews and other non-kindred people” with “German or kindred blood”

Iranians and the ‘Aryan’ concept

The nineteenth-century circulation of Aryan as a racial concept wasn’t limited to Europe, and many in the nationalist Iranian intelligentsia also adopted a version of it. In trying to curry diplomatic favor with the Iranian state, Nazis would also opportunistically use the concept. In 1934, when a ceremony was held in Berlin to commemorate the 1000th birth anniversary of Iranian poet Ferdowsi, Nazi mayor Henrich Sahm pointed to the “surprising similarity” of Ferdowsi’s work with “German heroic sagas” and attributed this to common “Aryan” ancestry. Iranian diplomats would also often insist to their German counterparts that they were “Aryans” and should be considered “kindred” blood with Europeans

The government of Iran at the time had extensive relations with Germany, which predated the Nazi rise to power. Jennifer Jenkins, a historian at the University of Toronto and a leading authority on the history of Iranian-German relations in the interwar and World War II period, has argued that the basis of these relations was economic not racial-ideological. Motadel says: “The common belief that Nazi Germany enjoyed an outstanding reputation in Iran and kept strong relations with the Pahlavi government is hardly accurate” and points to the fact that many in the Iranian cabinet had pro-Allied tendencies. This was the case even before 1941 when the Anglo-Soviet invasion overthrew the Reza Shah’s government and replaced him as monarch with his son.

Still, in aiming their propaganda at Iran, the Nazis were careful to use ‘Aryan’ themes. Erwin Ettel, a German ambassador to Iran from 1939 to 1941, emphasized the use of such themes in his “general guidelines for propaganda to Iran” while he also insisted that “Germany’s battle against World Judaism” should also be directed “against the Jews in Iran, who want to force the Aryan Iranian people under their knout [yoke]”.

In 1936, as Nazi Germany prepared to host the Berlin Olympics, it tried hard to make sure as many nations as possible would attend the games. It also postponed prosecutions under the Nuremberg Race Laws until after the Games. Meanwhile, the German foreign ministry assured Egyptians they would not be excluded from the games on account of their race.

A mistaken media report led to further clarification.

In June 1936, a French newspaper reported that the Germans had decided to categorize Turks as “Aryans” while not including Egyptians, Iraqis, or Iranians in this category. This story led to a diplomatic crisis and protests by diplomats from these three countries. But the report turned out to be a hoax; in fact Nazis had merely included Turks as an “European people” which had no practical consequences since foreign citizens (so long as they were non-Jewish) were not targeted by the Nuremberg Race Laws anyway. As Motadel writes: “Berlin had… never classified an entire nation as ‘Aryan’ or ‘non-Aryan’, and indeed was very cautious in using the term ‘Aryan’ in official texts at all after 1934.”

Still, the Iranian government protested as did the governments of Iraq and Egypt. Tehran’s ambassador to Turkey contacted the German legation in Ankara and threatened diplomatic escalation while the Iranian ambassador complained at the Foreign Office in Berlin. In response, Walter Gross, head of the German Office of Racial Policy, declared that “The envoy can, on no account however, expect that the Iranians, lock, stock and barrel, be declared as Aryans.” He suggested for the issue to be settled in a verbal conversation with the Iranian ambassador. When they met the week after, the Iranian ambassador insisted to Gross that Iranians were not only a “kindred people” but “ancestors of the Aryan race”. But, as Motadel explains, “Gross was unimpressed” and Iranians were not to be officially classified as ‘Aryans’ by the Nazi regime. All Gross did was affirm that the Nuremberg Laws wouldn’t apply to marriages between non-Jewish Iranians and Germans; which was a moot point since these laws didn’t apply to non-Jewish foreign citizens anyways. The same guarantee was given to Egyptian and Iraqi governments.

“Aryan” propagandas

But while Nazis didn’t consider Iranians to be “Aryans” for domestic purposes, they were ready to use the “Aryan” myth to attempt to bring Iranians to their side during the Second World War. In the same vein, even though Hitler used extremely racist language about other non-white peoples such as Arabs and Indians, the Nazis occasionally attempted to collaborate with some nationalists from the Arab world or India when it was useful.

The Germans also helped fund pro-Nazi Iranian publications and radio broadcasts that utilized the ‘Aryan’ theme. Two examples help illustrate this strategy. Abdulrahman Seif Azad was an Iranian journalist who had lived in Germany for many years before the Nazis came to power and had published journals in various languages that promoted trade between Iran and Germany. In the 1930s, the Nazis had helped him publish a journal called Iran-Bastan (Ancient Iran) which utilized racist ‘Aryan’ themes. In 1941, he would go back to Iran to continue publishing this journal with its many racial themes. Davud Munshizade is another example. An Iranian political activist who moved to Germany in 1937, he was employed by the Nazis to start Persian-language radio propaganda broadcasting toward Iran in 1939, spreading pro-Nazi themes. In the post-war years, Munshizade returned to Iran and founded Sumka, the Iranian Nation-Socialist Party, in 1951. Sumka was explicitly modeled on the Nazi Party and, alongside other far-right groups such as the Pan-Iranist Party, it sponsored attacks on local Jews and leftists in Iran while boasting about the ‘Aryan’ race that the majority of Iranians supposedly belonged to.

Today, the ‘Aryan myth’, the idea that there is a ‘master race’ that connects peoples of Europe with those of Iran and India has been thoroughly discredited around the world. Inevitably, some Iranians, Indians and Europeans still hold on to versions of the myth of biological superiority. But, as the current article tries to show, the Nazis did not consider contemporary Iranians to belong to a superior race.