ITF Calls Out "Worst Case of Seafarer Abandonment Ever Seen"

Courtesy ITF

PUBLISHED MAY 6, 2024 5:49 PM BY THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE

 

The International Transport Workers' Federation has identified another Mideast vessel operator that has allegedly abandoned multiple ships and their crews, without supplies or wages. According to ITF, the parties that would ordinarily take responsibility - the owner, flag state, or the nation of ownership - have not stepped forward to help. 

According to ITF, the UAE-based shipowner Middle East Marine LLCd has had 17 abandonment cases since late 2022, in locations across South Asia. The agency says that it has responded to abandonment claims aboard 18 of the firm's ships from Bangladesh to India to Sri Lanka. The majority of the seafarers involved are from Myanmar, Indonesia and India. 

The affected crewmembers have reported non-payment of wages, lack of food, dirty water, refusal of access to health care, and withholding of passports and medication. These are abuses associated with forced labor, routinely found in corners of the fishing industry but less often encountered in commercial shipping. ITF - which handles dozens of abandonment cases every year - called it the "worst case of serial seafarer abandonment ever seen."  

Middle East Marine is an established firm based in the UAE. It says that it provides a wide diversity of commercial services, including chartering, project cargo, container repositioning, salvage & towage, bunkering, armed private security, crewing, shipmanagement, and small craft chartering. It has four locations in the UAE and India. 

"My salary hasn’t been paid for more than three months – but there are some crew members unpaid for as long as seven months," one crewmember told ITF. "The company did not supply provisions and fresh water – sometimes we were just fishing for survival. All crew members are getting depressed, and our families are getting in debt to survive."

The Maritime Labor Convention requires twice-monthly payment of wages. After non-payment for two months or deprivation of food and water, a vessel is considered abandoned. This internationally-recognized category for serious mistreatment of seafarers - who often earn no more than a few dollars an hour, even when paid - should trigger action by the flag state and the insurer, according to ITF. 

In this case, however, this system appears to have hit a dead end. ITF says that authorities in the UAE have not taken action on this crew abandonment case, though the company in question is headquartered in their jurisdiction. "It’s hard to comprehend how a company registered in the UAE can behave like this with impunity. Middle East Marine is a stain on the global maritime industry," said Steve Trowsdale, ITF's Inspectorate Coordinator. 

According to ITF, Middle East's flag registry of choice - a Greek-administered flag that markets a customer-centric digitalized service model - has not responded once to inquiries about the years-long list of human rights abuses allegedly perpetrated by its client. 

"It's been shocking to see seafarers facing such extreme exploitation, dangerous working conditions and limited rights. No pay, inadequate living conditions, lack of legal protections, and restricted freedom of movement – it's akin to modern-day indentured servitude," said Sandra Bernal, ITF's Network Coordinator Asia Pacific Region.  

The same flag state has previously been identified as a registry of choice for sanctioned North Korean operators, who need to switch flags often in order to mask sanctions evasion. "Put simply, North Korean smuggling networks know that these registries are not monitoring the vessels which sail under their flag," former UN sanctions enforcement expert Hugh Griffiths told AFP last year. The registry says that it has recently increased its sanctions-enforcement efforts, with help from a third-party contractor.

Scotland's most famous bird of prey found dead as police appeal for help over osprey Laddie

Police have appealed for information after Scotland's most famous bird of prey, the osprey known as Laddie, was found dead five days after going missing from its nest near Dunkeld, in Perthshire.

By George Mair
Published 5th May 2024

Laddie, one of the breeding pair of ospreys at the Scottish Wildlife Trust's (SWT) Loch of the Lowes reserve, had gained fans around the world after first appearing on the nest in 2012 and pairing up with the legendary osprey known as Lady.

The raptor, also known as LM12, returned on March 27 for the 13th consecutive year and reunited with his current mate, known as NC0, to the delight of staff at the reserve and thousands of enthusiasts monitoring the nest via the reserve's live webcam.

Famous osprey Laddie had delighted viewers while captured on webcam at his nest near Dunkeld. Picture: Scottish Wildlife Trust

Police Scotland said the remains of an osprey were found near Dunkeld on Friday, adding: "The protected species is believed to have been nesting at Loch of the Lowes, close to where it was found."

Inspector James Longden said: "It is illegal to kill any protected species and we are working closely alongside partner agencies to confirm what has happened here and whether there is any criminality involved. Information from the local community could prove vital and it is important we speak to anyone who saw anything suspicious in the area, or who may know something which could assist our investigation."

Laddie – or LM12, short for Lowes Male 2012 – arrived in Dunkeld in March 2012 as the fourth partner of wildlife phenomenon Lady, the oldest breeding female osprey ever recorded in the UK, and six times his age.

He then fledged 12 chicks over five years with Lady's successor, which quickly became known as Lassie.

When Lassie failed to return from her migration in March 2020, she was replaced by NC0, a female ringed at a nest near Loch Ness in 2016. Laddie and NC0 produced a full clutch of three eggs last month and Laddie was providing a daily supply of fish to the nest when he went missing on April 28.

SWT staff posted about the "rapidly developing situation" in a blog, saying: "He took off after a period of incubation, on what looked to be a fishing trip. Sadly, there have been no sightings of him since. For a breeding osprey to have been absent from the nest for this long is highly unusual, so it is likely that something has happened to LM12 preventing him from returning."Laddie's death is likely to have grave consequences for this year's clutch of eggs. Facing starvation after nearly six days without feeding, the female NC0 has already been forced to leave the nest unattended to hunt for fish, putting the eggs at risk.Ospreys were extinct in Britain for much of the 20th century. They began to recover in the 1960s and now an estimated 300 pairs breed in the UK each summer.

SCOTLAND

Poll hands Labour biggest lead over SNP in more than a decade

A new poll has put Labour ahead of the SNP at Holyrood and Westminster.

By David Bol
Published 5th May 2024

Scottish Labour has its biggest lead over the SNP in almost a decade and is set to overtake the party of government at both Westminster and Holyrood, a new poll has found.

The poll by Norstat, formerly Panelbase, for the Sunday Times shows the number SNP seats at Westminster is expected to be cut by around two thirds, with the vote share of Humza Yousaf’s party expected to drop to its lowest level since the 2014 independence referendum.

According to the poll, the SNP would hold onto just 15 of its 43 Westminster seats, with Labour returning 28 MPs north of the Border.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar.

 Picture Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

The poll comes after Mr Yousaf said he would resign as party leader and first minister after his power move to remove the Greens from his government backfired.

Sir John Curtice, who compiled seat projections from the poll, said the “question that now arises is whether the coronation of John Swinney will enable the SNP to turn the page”.

He said: “Even among those who said they would vote Yes in another independence referendum, only 56 per cent said they were now willing to back the SNP for Westminster, as would only two thirds who voted for the party in 2019.”

According to the poll, the SNP would attract support from 29 per cent of voters — a fall of three points in the space of a month — while Labour’s share increased by two points to 34 per cent. According to this, the SNP would return 15 MPs in what would be the party’s poorest Westminster performance since 2010.

In an additional blow to the SNP, the Scottish Conservatives, whose vote share remained at 16 per cent in the poll, would add three seats to return nine MPs. The LibDems, on 8 per cent, would increase their tally of MPs to five, according to the poll.

According to the survey, support for independence remains split, with 48 per cent in favour of Scotland leaving the UK and 52 per cent backing the Union.

Analysis of polling for Holyrood indicates Labour would be the largest party, with 40 MSPs, with 38 for the SNP, 24 for the Tories, ten Greens, nine Lib Dems and eight from Reform.

Ecocide: Israel's systematic destruction of Palestinian agriculture revealed

British-based investigation unveils targeting, destruction of land by Israeli forces in Gaza Strip since last October

Dilara Hamit |05.05.2024 -AA

Israeli attacks continue on Gaza Strip

ANKARA

A British-based investigation group has unveiled the systematic targeting and destruction of orchards and greenhouses by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip since last October, when the current conflict in Gaza began, undermining Gazan Palestinians’ ability to feed and provide for themselves.

Analysis by Forensic Architecture, a multidisciplinary research group based at Goldsmiths, University of London, identified more than 2,000 agricultural sites, including farms and greenhouses, that have been deliberately destroyed, and often replaced with Israeli military earthworks.

The destruction, particularly intense in northern Gaza, has led to the devastation of nearly one-third of the region's greenhouses and approximately 40% of agricultural land previously used for food production.

The investigation suggests that the destruction is a deliberate act of ecocide exacerbating the ongoing catastrophic famine in Gaza, part of a wider pattern of depriving Palestinians of critical resources for survival.

"Since 2014, Palestinian farmers along Gaza’s perimeter have seen their crops sprayed by airborne herbicides and regularly bulldozed, and have themselves faced sniper fire by the Israeli occupation forces. Along that engineered ‘border,’ sophisticated systems of fences and surveillance reinforce a military buffer zone," according to a statement from Forensic Architecture marking March 30, Land Day, a day when Palestinians protest and plant olive trees to reaffirm their connection to the land.

The investigation, built on collaborations with local farmers' associations and agricultural workers, highlights the ongoing Israeli destruction of vegetation in Gaza and its severe effects on Palestinian food security and livelihoods.

The analysis indicates the ongoing resilience of Palestinian farmers who continue to cultivate their lands despite forced alterations to the landscape by the Israeli occupation.

Greenhouses, farmland replaced by Israeli military construction

Before 2023, Gaza boasted 170 square kilometers (65 square miles) of agricultural land, or 47% of its total area. The fields and orchards were crucial for local food security amid the siege conditions faced by Palestinians under the 15-year blockade of Gaza since 2007, followed by the even harsher blockade since last Oct. 7.

"Our analysis shows that Israel’s ground invasion has advanced over nearly 50 percent of Gazan farms and orchards," said Forensic Architecture.

“We used remote sensing to measure the scale of agricultural destruction resulting from this military activity, by comparing the region’s ‘vegetation index’ (an indicator of the health and robustness of plant life, measured by analysing satellite imagery) before and after the invasion. This comparison reveals that as of March 2024, of the agricultural areas targeted, approximately 40 percent of the land in Gaza previously used for food production has been destroyed.”

The findings show that the destruction of agriculture along Gaza's perimeter suggests a potential expansion of the Israeli army's buffer zone, further limiting livable space for Palestinians.

Additionally, vital agricultural infrastructure like greenhouses has been systematically targeted since the onset of the ground invasion.

It stressed that satellite imagery reveals extensive destruction of greenhouses, with nearly one-third of Gaza's greenhouses demolished between last October and this March. Forensic Architecture identified more than 2,000 agricultural sites, including farms and greenhouses, destroyed during that period, often replaced by Israeli military constructions.

The destruction has been particularly severe in northern Gaza, where 90% of greenhouses were demolished in the early stages of the invasion, an area which the head of the UN World Food Program (WFP) said Saturday was in “full-blown famine.”

"As the Israeli military advances south, destruction of agricultural land and infrastructure moves with it. We observe that 40% of the greenhouses in the areas around the southern city of Khan Younis, where many hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are now displaced, have been destroyed since January 2024," said Forensic Architecture.

"Military support vehicles and tractors accompany the Israeli ground invasion, routinely building earthworks to reinforce military outposts. Once those vehicles depart, they leave behind a devastated and unliveable area," it added.

Steel giant ArcelorMittal warns Gove over Kent planning verdict

ArcelorMittal has told Michael Gove it may be forced to "cease operations in Britain" unless he blocks the redevelopment of Chatham Docks in a letter obtained by Sky News.


Mark Kleinman
SKY NEWS
City editor

@MarkKleinmanSky
Sunday 5 May 2024 



The world's second-largest steel company has warned the government that a planning verdict due this week could lead to a key division quitting the UK.

Sky News has seen a letter sent by ArcelorMittal to Michael Gove, the levelling-up secretary, in which it says that a decision to allow the closure and redevelopment of part of Chatham Docks would have "seismic adverse consequences… [for] the British economy and multiple strategic industries".

In the letter from Matthew Brooks, who runs ArcelorMittal's construction solutions arm in the UK, the company urges Mr Gove to issue an urgent order to allow fuller government scrutiny of the redevelopment proposals ahead of Wednesday's decision by Medway Council.

"This is highly time-sensitive - calling in the application after next Wednesday will not be possible," Mr Brooks wrote.

He warned that if the proposals were approved, ArcelorMittal would "regrettably be left with no alternative but to leave Chatham Docks and, more than likely, cease operations in Britain, given the lack of suitable alternative sites".


"This, too, would likely be the case for the majority of businesses at the Docks," Mr Brooks wrote.

"This would have a significant impact on Britain's manufacturing and construction industries, delay countless critical national infrastructure projects, come at a significant cost to the economy, and leave Britain vulnerable and exposed to the volatility of international supply chain shocks."

The application, submitted by Peel Waters, part of the industrial conglomerate Peel Group, would see the site used to build housing and commercial facilities in place of part of the docks.

It has already been recommended for approval by local planning officers, according to reports last week.

ArcelorMittal uses the site in Kent to transport materials produced by its construction materials arm.

If the application was approved, it warned, it would "spell the end of Chatham Docks and have a significant impact on the UK reinforcement industry, leading to serious, potentially irreversible long-term harm, with immediate consequences for the resilience and carbon intensity of the sector".

ArcelorMittal, which has operations in more than 60 countries, is an integrated steel and mining company, serving the automotive, construction, household appliances and packaging industries.

The company, which is based in Luxembourg, is chaired by Lakshmi Mittal, the Indian businessman.

It is a significant supplier of steels in Britain, and has been involved in construction projects such as Wembley Stadium, Crossrail and the O2 arena in southeast London.

"Our concern is that Peel's application to redevelop Chatham Docks is not only wrong for Britain but has proceeded with little scrutiny and a lack of public awareness," Mr Gove was told in the letter.

"Many key stakeholders are therefore unaware of the consequences if it were to proceed.

"As the largest operator in the Docks, we of course believe that the application should be rejected.

"However, our sole request today is for an Article 31 holding direction so you can secure the time to assess whether to call in this application for consideration at the national level."

According to ArcelorMittal, Chatham Docks - which it described as "a 400-year-old thriving commercial port with a proud naval heritage" - employs nearly 800 people and generates economic value equivalent to £112,000 per worker, which it argued was "considerably higher than the Medway average of £63,900".

"This is in direct contrast to proposals put forward by Peel, whose economic proposition is unclear," Mr Brooks wrote.

He added that the redevelopment plan would spell the end for £20m of new investment with the potential to create nearly 2,000 jobs.

"However, none of this can be realised while there is uncertainty about the future of our lease on Chatham Docks," Mr Brooks warned, adding that £5m of investment had "already been delayed by Peel's application".

Peel Waters could not be reached for comment on Sunday.

UK
Editorial: Labour's weaknesses are opportunities to demand better


Labour Party leader Keir Starmer (right) celebrates with newly elected Mayor of West Midlands Richard Parker at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham, May 4, 2024

SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2024

MORNING STAR

LOCAL elections underlined the extent of the Tory collapse, but also Labour’s weaknesses.

Sky News’ Professor Michael Thrasher found the results pointed to Labour being the largest party after a general election — but failing to win a majority.

The projection rests on the vote shares being replicated evenly at a general election. And it necessarily ignores areas which didn’t vote last week, including Scotland, where the Scottish National Party’s troubles are likely to benefit Labour.

Even so, this is no ringing endorsement of Keir Starmer’s Labour Party. It picked up well under half the seats the Tories lost. Everyone did well against Tories — Lib Dems, Greens, many Independents.

The clearest regional cause of poor Labour performance is the party’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza.

Heavy losses in areas with large Muslim populations — a BBC analysis found a 21 per cent fall in Labour’s vote share in such wards compared to 2021 — indicate real anger, as does the very strong third place for a pro-Palestine independent, Akhmed Yakoob, in the West Midlands mayoralty. Labour won that, but only by a few hundred votes when Yakoob took almost 70,000 and 11.7 per cent — and its actual share of the vote fell, just by less than the Tories’.

For all Wes Streeting’s claims the party is “calling for a ceasefire now,” it has not pushed ministers to punish Israel for ignoring the UN security council vote ordering one, demanded an end to arms sales, or British support for the genocide case at the International Court of Justice.

So now is the time to press demands. Election campaign co-ordinator Pat McFadden says Labour will work to rebuild trust and claims “a better future for the Palestinian people would be a really high priority for Labour” in government.

So prove it: demand an arms embargo, call out the wave of repression against Palestine solidarity activists, condemn the government bid to ban the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement. Reverse Starmer’s decision to drop Labour’s policy of recognising a sovereign Palestinian state if elected, one disgracefully taken as Palestinians are being killed in their thousands. Without these concrete steps, there is no reason to give Labour’s leaders the benefit of the doubt.

Besides Palestine, Labour’s 35 per cent share is nothing to crow about. It polled the same in 2018’s locals, a year before a heavy defeat.

Given near-universal rejection of the Conservatives, this suggests a lack of enthusiasm for the main electoral alternative.

And no wonder. People are sick of the way things are — yet Labour’s offer can be summed up as “more of the same.”

That’s not to deny the value of the few remaining left policies — rail renationalisation, or the new deal for workers, though the latter is now an active battleground. Unite’s Sharon Graham is right to threaten consequences if Labour continues to retreat on it — unions will get nothing through mute loyalty.

But on a wider range of issues, on public services, welfare, foreign policy — Labour will change nothing, and it is struggling to mobilise voters with the non-offer.

That, too, is an opportunity to make demands. Britain’s Establishment has rewritten the history of Labour’s last defeat: blanking out the appeal of socialist policies demonstrated in 2017, and ignoring the complete dominance of the 2019 election by Brexit to blame those policies.

But the polls are consistent. A majority want public ownership not just of rail, but of mail, water, energy. Most want higher taxes on the rich and corporations. Most want more investment in public services, especially the NHS.

Labour has not turned its back on all that to make itself electable, but to cosy up to the corporate crooks running Britain into the ground.

Unions have the reach, particularly if combining with the emerging anti-cuts campaigns at local level, to make who owns Britain an election issue too.

UK

Head teachers’ union confirms detrimental impact of school funding cuts at annual conference

School leaders’ jobs have been “made far harder by this Conservative government. School buildings are falling apart, pay has been driven down and teachers are being driven out.”

Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead 5 May, 2024 - Let Foot Forward

Hundreds of school leaders from across the UK and leading union figures gathered in Newport this week for the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) annual conference.

Addressing the challenges affecting schools in Britain, speakers pointing to the reality of school cuts.

Paul Nowak, general secretary of the TUC, said the job of school leaders has been made “far harder” by the current government, which does not understand the “value of school leadership.”

In a speech to school leaders, Nowak said that “every child deserves a good education.”

“This takes leadership, and we are all grateful to head teachers, assistants, deputies, and school business leaders for the incredible job they have done leading schools through difficult times.

“But their job has been made far harder by this Conservative government. School buildings are falling apart, pay has been driven down and teachers are being driven out.”

The TUC general secretary reminded the conference how, since 2010, head teachers’ pay has been slashed by 20 percent, which is “pushing good leaders out of the profession.”

NAHT was founded in 1897. It currently has 49,000 members. Its annual conference enables members to share their experiences and debate about the current issues affecting schools.

The 2024 conference came as austerity and cuts to schools are becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. A recent survey by the Sutton Trust showed that 32 percent of school leaders reported having to make cuts to teaching staff. This included 69 percent to teaching assistants and 46 percent to support staff.

Rachel Young, who was introduced as NAHT’s incoming president at the conference, said that it is often the children with the highest needs that “really suffer because [you lose] the people who give those children the support they need.”

Young, who is also the NAHT’s Blackpool branch secretary, says it is vital that the challenges facing schools are raised, “because we’re trying to make things better.”

She said that being a school business leader has given her “unique insight into the impact of over a decade of austerity, the funding cuts on schools and the tough decisions they must make every single day.”

Paul Whiteman, NAHT general secretary, also spoke at the conference. He said:

“We’ve been clear in calling for a series of restorative pay rises for school leaders after more than a decade of real terms pay cuts.

“We have evidenced beyond doubt that a real recruitment and retention crisis exists. Teacher pay is too low and workload too high.”

The conference debated a series of motions about the challenges schools face. This included trade union law and the impact it will have on the education sector, and in particular school leaders. The conference said it is “appalling at the continued on the democratic right of trade union members to strike, as set out in the government’s Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023 and accompanying regulations.”

Delegates also debated a child poverty motion, noting the “stress and anxiety that insecure housing causes to families and the life chances of young people.”

The conference called on the National Executive to work with housing and homelessness organisations, to support appropriate campaigns to highlight the situation for families and young people and the impact this has on education, and to lobby government to meet its existing obligations and commitments under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

UK

George Galloway HANGS UP in feisty LBC interview after being challenged over gay relationship comments

The Rochdale MP claimed he had been 'ambushed'

By Chris Slater

Senior Reporter

MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS

 5 MAY 2024

George Galloway accused the station of playing an 'edited clip' of his comments which have sparked controversy (Image: Getty Images)

George Galloway angrily cut off a live radio interview after being challenged over comments he made about gay relationships.

The Rochdale MP and leader of the Workers Party of Britain hung up after being asked by the LBC's Lewis Goodall about the remarks he made in the interview with Novara Media, in which in which he suggested he did not think gay relationships were equal to heterosexual ones.

When the remarks were played by Mr Goodall on his Sunday show in the station, and put to him afterwards, Mr Galloway said: “This is a clip of a clip. It is an edited clip of an edited clip", a point which Mr Goodall denied.

However, Mr Galloway suggested a wider point he had made about gender identity had been lost. He also claimed that Mr Goodall had 'got this interview to talk about the election' and that the radio station was “ambushing” him, adding: “I have got a simple answer. Listen to the whole thing tonight.”

Mr Galloway then stated he was going to hang up the phone, saying: “More fool me thinking that your request that I come on and talk about the elections was genuine.”

Mr Galloway ended the interview with LBC's Lewis Goodall (Image: LBC)

In a clip from the interview with Novara Media, Mr Galloway said: “I don’t want my children prematurely sexualised at all, I don’t want them taught that some things are normal when their parents don’t believe that they’re normal.

“Now there’s lots of things not normal, doesn’t mean you have to hate something that isn’t normal. But if my children are taught that there’s – whatever the current vogue number is – 76 or 97 or whatever the number of purported genders that exist, I don’t want my children taught that.”

Mr Galloway became the MP for Rochdale in February, gaining almost 40 percent of the vote in a contest mired in chaos and controversy and dominated by the Gaza conflict.

George Galloway MP with Shabaz Sarwar who unseated Manchester City Council's Deputy Leader Luthfur Rahman at Thursday's local elections (Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)

Mr Galloway said he did not want children to be taught “that gay relationships are exactly the same and as normal as a mum, a dad and kids”.

He added: “I want my children to be taught that the normal thing in Britain, in society across the world, is a mother, a father and a family.

“I want them to be taught that there are gay people in the world and that they must be treated with respect and affection, as I treat my own gay friends and colleagues with respect and affection but I don’t want my children to be taught that these things are equal because I don’t believe them to be equal.”

Mr Galloway has previously represented seats in Glasgow, east London and Bradford in the Commons, for Labour and later the Respect Party.

He has said he hopes to act as a challenger to Labour at the general election, and has claimed his party will field candidates to stand against the opposition’s key figures.

They caused an upset at the Manchester City Council local elections, where the council's Deputy Leader Luthfur Rahman was ousted from his seat in Longsight by the Workers Party's Shahbaz Sarwar in a contest said to have been dominated by the war in Gaza and Labour's position on the conflict.

They also won two seats from Labour in Rochdale. Speaking afterwards, he said: "We have two new councillors in two target wards, both by thumping victories," he said.

Adding: "You could say I'm a happy man, I'm as happy as inside Keir Starmer is unhappy because he's lost a very key part of the demographic make-up."

Man arrested over death threats made to NI councillor who vows not to be deterred




SDLP Councillor Lilian Seenoi-Barr

SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC LABOUR PARTY

Allison Morris

Sun 5 May 2024 

Police investigating online threats against SDLP councillor Lilian Seenoi-Barr have arrested a 30-year-old man.

Ms Seenoi-Barr has received death threats since it was announced she will become Northern Ireland’s first black mayor.

She was chosen last week by the SDLP as the next mayor of Derry City and Strabane. She said she was “proud to be a Maasai woman and a Derry girl”.

The PSNI said yesterday evening that a man was in custody after he attended Strand Road police station in Londonderry and was detained on suspicion of harassment, threats to kill and improper use of a public electronic communications network. Police are treating the alleged offences as a racially motivated hate crime.

The 42-year-old Kenyan has said racism will not deflect her but is “disappointed” two councillors from her party resigned after her selection. Current deputy mayor Jason Barr and Shauna Cusack, who both put themselves forward for the post, resigned over the “undemocratic” manner of the selection.

Read more

• SDLP leader slams far right over death threats against NI’s first black mayor Lilian Barr
• Second SDLP councillor announces resignation over Mayor ‘debacle’
• Who is Alex Jones? The conspiracy theorist who targeted Londonderry’s first black mayor

Speaking on BBC’s Sunday Politics programme, Ms Seenoi-Barr said despite the abuse and death threats, the majority of people in Derry stood with her.

Play

Unmute

“It is an honour to be considered mayor and be selected, it is a lifetime opportunity,” she said.

“It was obviously a disappointment that two of my colleagues who I have worked with the last three years decided to resign, but I’m focused on the way forward.

“I was elected by the people of Derry who have really taken me into their hearts and been kind to me and I want to be able to serve them properly.

“It’s not about making history, but it is about delivering for the people and representing the people that elected me.”

She said her selection was an “open process... a robust interview, very competitive”.

She added: “I was very prepared for the interview, I work very hard for my community.”

The SDLP conceded communication with its representatives was poor and said is will change how it appoints civil leadership positions in the future.

The party is expected to propose an amendment at its next annual general meeting to “regularise the process”.

Councillor Lilian Barr will soon be appointed Mayor of Derry City and Strabane.

Ms Seenoi-Barr has received hundreds of messages of congratulations, including from party leader Colum Eastwood and First Minister Michelle O’Neill.

Her selection was also widely reported in Kenya.

Senator Ledama Olekina posted on X: “Please join me in congratulating my baby sister Councillor Lilian Seenoi for being elected as the first black Maasai Mayor of the City of Derry.”

In response to the abuse she has received, Ms Seenoi-Barr said: “Since I put myself forward to represent my community, since I came to this country, I’ve been experiencing racism.

“But obviously it’s beyond what I had been experiencing.

“The death threats have been extremely hurtful to my family and to myself too.

“But I’m more focused on the positives, I have had enormous support across the island.”

She joined the SDLP team on Derry City and Strabane District Council in June 2021 after being co-opted in the Foyleside ward.

She retained her seat in last year’s council local elections.

Condemning the racist abuse, Mr Eastwood said: “We will not be led into the gutter by far-right activists, whether they are coming from America, Dublin or Derry online.”

RESISTING RWANDA
Defiance in the face of immorality

Source: Sul Nowroz

TUESDAY, MAY 7, 2024
Real Media – The View From Below

Ruptures and Splinters

On Monday April 29th a new fracture line appeared across parts of the UK. A country already divided was about to splinter again. On one side – the Home Office, the Bibby Stockholm and the Safety of Rwanda Act 2024. On the other, a loose coalition including volunteers from Anti Raids Network, Black Lives Matter UK, Right to Remain, Solidarity Knows No Borders, SOAS Detainee Support and These Walls Must Fall. While the former represents the top-down authoritarian and violent reach of the current British government, the latter is a grassroots movement of defiance and solidarity.

The Act

The infamous Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Act 2024 received Royal Assent and became law on Friday April 26th. The Act has been widely criticised for undermining human rights, and is nonsensical and hugely costly.

Under the Act the UK Home Office pays into a fund misleadingly named the Economic Transformation and Integration Fund (ETIF). The fund is a smokescreen, an attempt to legitimise payments to the Rwandan government to traffic asylum seekers from the UK to Rwanda. The Home Office has paid some £200 million into ETIF since 2022, and further instalments of £50 million will be made each year for the next three years. Using the Home Office’s ‘five-year processing and integration package’ assumptions, it will cost the UK £150,874 for each person forcibly relocated to Rwanda.

The twisted nature of the Bill isn’t limited to its economics. More disturbingly, it casts asylum seekers as tradable chattel, cargo that can be shipped over the horizon without care or concern about what happens to them next. The commodification of this population is particularly distressing as they come from high-risk environments, often displaced by war and brutal conflicts, forcibly separated from friends and family. It is traumatic to leave your home unplanned and motivated only by fear, taking with you only what you can carry.



Rwanda

Source: Yvonne Deeney/BristolLive

There is a peculiar perversion to it all. A white nation state (ranked the sixth largest economy in the world), whose government and parts of its population fetishize on othering, commandeers a black nation state (ranked the 140th largest economy in the world) and unashamedly uses it as a type of purification filter; a place where the unwanted are discharged.

Rwanda has been violated. The territory has been raped and ruled, first by Germany, then by Belgium. It has been plagued with mass killing sprees, even genocide. Abusive colonial rule has left the country in a semi psychotic state, unstable and prone to violence. It is a country conditioned to normalise abuse, and preferences self-preservation over collective humanity. So, when the colonial carriages rode into town, with bags of silver and crooked smiles, a broken country responded in the only way it knew how: servitude.

A Landless Nation

Refugee Nation Flag: Yara Said

There are around 110 million forcibly displaced people world-wide, of which sixty million are internally displaced, thirty-five million have refugee status, and about six million are asylum seekers, or in the process of becoming refugees. Approximately forty million are below the age of eighteen. It’s enough to populate a nation.

The 2016 Olympics were memorable. Held in the iconic city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, several records were broken including the men’s 400 metres, the women’s 5,000 metres, the women’s hammer throw, and the men’s pole vault. It was also the first-year refugees were allowed to participate. A squad of ten athletes competed under the officially recognised black and orange flag of the Refugee Nation.

Syrian Yara Said later shared that she designed the flag using inspiration from the life vests worn by many “brothers and sisters who were searching for a safer land to live on.” The expanse of orange represents the vast horizons that so often surrounded them as they moved across land and water.

Said continued: “The design is meant to evoke a sense of hope and solidarity, and to show that refugees are not just victims but also survivors and fighters.” With the introduction of the flag, Said was reclaiming the status of displaced people, who for too long have been marginalised and denied the most basic rights. On Monday, several hundred campaigners assembled at immigration centres across the UK to act in solidarity with asylum seekers, whose rights are once again under threat.

Small Boats

It is a singularly English phenomenon: Small Boats. Large parts of the English psyche are obsessed with separation. Integration is a nauseating word, a concept that repels and repulses in equal measure. The channel, a god-given gift, is designed solely to keep ‘them’ over ‘there.’ Why have equality when you can have exceptionalism?

The government feed the media – unchecked – who embellish and entertain the public, who get frenzied and kick the government, who obsess and blame the foreigner, and the easiest foreigner to blame is the one with the fewest rights. It’s a loop: small boats, dark faces, tricksters, undeserving, stigmatized. Sadly, the lie goes largely unchallenged, and soon it becomes the truth.

Monday Morning Raids

Source – Sul Nowroz

On Monday the Home Office swung into action emboldened by the depraved Rwanda act. Raids followed, some were filmed and pushed through government channels: The Sun and The Daily Mail. By Thursday, immigration offices, where asylum seekers are asked to periodically sign-in, were being targeted. Instead of their regular check-in meetings, asylum seekers were being challenged to see if they met the Rwandan criteria: an asylum claim on or after 1st January 2022, a journey to the UK that could be described as having been dangerous (the small boat clause), and no family members under the age of 18. If the criteria were met individuals were escorted onto vans and coaches to be transported to a holding pen, the controversial Bibby Stockholm. Asylum seekers were not allowed to collect their personal belongings or say goodbye to friends and neighbours. The process was callous, mentally and emotionally harmful and designed to humiliate and degrade. It was painful to watch.

But by the time the first vans were ready to depart there was a problem. Anti-raid campaigners blocked immigration vehicles, immobilising them through sheer strength of numbers. The Rwanda roundup, much touted by Home Office Minister James Cleverly, came to a standstill as acts of solidarity and resistance blocked roads in Croydon and Peckham and Hounslow and Loughborough and Solihull and Birmingham and Perth and Glasgow. Police were called, force was used, and vehicles were freed. State thuggery can be effective.

More immigration swoops followed on Friday; most were met with resistance. A coach hired by immigration services in Peckham was rendered useless after Lime bikes were wedged underneath it. Others resisted by staffing pop-up information centres advising asylum seekers of their rights.

By Friday evening some forty-five campaigners had been arrested. The Home Office didn’t disclose how many asylum seekers had been detained but did confirm that the initial list for relocation to Rwanda consisted of some 5,700 individuals.

Solidarity is Resistance

When the powerful deliberately attempt to purge humanity, solidarity becomes a daring act, a subversive act that will get you arrested. Over the last few days, we witnessed a natural coming together, a self-forming, self-governing community that rose to challenge a law that is morally wrong, and a government that is ethically bankrupt. The campaigners applied nothing more than their bodies against a menacing state apparatus that traffics people who have been forcibly displaced and still carry the scars of war and conflict.

While watching last week’s acts of solidarity, of citizen-against-state, I am reminded of a quote: “When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.“

©2024 Sul Nowroz – Real Media staff writer

   

Rwandan government ‘cannot say’ how many migrants it will take from UK

Ross Hunter
Sun, 5 May 2024 

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak welcomes the President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, to 10 Downing Street (Image: Stefan Rousseau)


THE Rwandan government cannot guarantee how many migrants it will take from the UK under Rishi Sunak’s flagship deportation scheme.

But Yolande Makolo, a spokeswoman for the east African state, did say Rwanda would be able to welcome more than 200 migrants initially.

The Prime Minister’s plan to deal with asylum seekers arriving in the UK via irregular routes including the English Channel crossing is to place them on a one-way flight to Kigali.


He hopes this will deter other small boats attempting the journey from France.

Rwanda has entered into a five-year deal to take in migrants from the UK.

Asked by the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg if Rwanda would be able to process tens of thousands of migrants as part of the deal, Makolo said: “We will be able to welcome the migrants that the UK sends over the lifetime of this partnership.

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“What I cannot tell you is how many thousands we are taking in the first year or the second year. This will depend on very many factors that are being worked out right now.”

She had earlier claimed there was a “misconception” that Rwanda was only prepared to take 200 initial migrants, telling the BBC: “Journalists have been visiting the initial accommodation that we have secured since the beginning of the partnership. This is Hope Hostel.

“That particular facility is able to take up to 200 people.

“However, we have already started initial discussions with other facilities around Kigali and further afield and these will be firmed up and signed once we know how many migrants are coming and when they are coming.

“So it has never been the case that we can only take 200 initially, that has been a misconception.”

The National:

Keir Starmer has said Labour will not keep the Rwanda policy if it wins the next election, but this has prompted questions about what the party would do instead.

Makolo urged critics of the plan not to attack Rwanda “unjustly”, and to present a solution to the migrant crisis which was “not just deterrence and enforcement”.

“People are suffering here so we need good solutions and we need to rethink the migration crisis,” she said.

The spokeswoman later added: “Living in Rwanda is not a punishment. It is a beautiful country, including the weather.”

Labour’s national campaign co-ordinator Pat McFadden said if the party was in power it would spend the cash set aside for the Rwanda scheme on “a proper operation to crack down on the criminal gangs”.

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A PA news agency fact check found payments to the Rwandan government as part of the deal would add up to £490 million by the end of the 2026/27 financial year, should a milestone of 300 migrants sent to Rwanda be reached.

PA found Labour’s claim that the scheme would cost £2 million per migrant to be mostly true, with the price tag decreasing substantially if many more were deported to Rwanda.

McFadden said Labour believed the Government “will get flights off” but did not believe the scheme would provide “value for money for the taxpayer”.

He also said he doubted Labour would work to return migrants to the UK from Rwanda should they form the next government.