CHRISTCHURCH: An attack on a New Zealand mosque took the lives of 50 worshippers Friday and left dozens more wounded when a white supremacist opened fire and live-streamed the shootings. Here are the stories of some of those killed and wounded.
THE DEAD
HUSNA AHMED
Farid Ahmed refuses to turn his back on his adopted home, despite losing his 45-year-old wife, Husna Ahmed, in the Al Noor mosque attack. They had split up to go to the bathroom when it happened.
The gunman livestreamed the massacre on the Internet, and Ahmed later saw a video of his wife being shot. A police officer confirmed she died.
Despite the horror, Ahmed — originally from Bangladesh — still considers New Zealand a great country.
“I believe that some people, purposely, they are trying to break down the harmony we have in New Zealand with the diversity,” he said. “But they are not going to win. They are not going to win. We will be harmonious.”
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SYED AREEB AHMED, 26
Ahmed had recently moved from his house in Karachi, Pakistan, for a job in New Zealand to help support his family back home. On Saturday, Pakistan’s foreign ministry informed his family that Ahmed was among those killed during the mosque attack.
One of his uncles, Muhammad Muzaffar Khan, described him as deeply religious, praying five times a day. But education was always his first priority, Khan said.
Ahmed was an only son who had immigrated to New Zealand for work, his uncle said.
“Education had always remained his first priority,” Khan said. “He had gone to New Zealand recently where he got his job. He had only started his career, but the enemies took his life“
Family members, relatives, and friends have gathered at Ahmed’s house to express their condolences. His body is expected to arrive there in the coming days.
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FARHAJ AHSAN, 30
The software engineer moved to New Zealand six years ago from the city of Hyderabad in India, where his parents still live, according to the Mumbai Mirror.
“We received the disturbing news,” Ahsan’s father, Mohammed Sayeeduddin told the newspaper Saturday. Friends and family had been trying to reach Ahsan since the attack.
Ahsan was married and had a 3-year-old daughter and infant son.
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ABDULLAHI DIRIE, 4
Four of Adan Ibrahin Dirie’s five children managed to escape Friday’s attacks, but the youngest, Abdullahi, was killed, his uncle, Abdulrahman Hashi, 60, a preacher at Dar Al Hijrah Mosque in Minneapolis, told the New Zealand Herald.
Dirie also suffered gunshot wounds and was hospitalized. The family fled Somalia in the mid-1990s as refugees and resettled in New Zealand.
“You cannot imagine how I feel,” Hashi said.
He added: “He was the youngest in the family. This is a problem of extremism. Some people think the Muslims in their country are part of that, but these are innocent people.”
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ALI ELMADANI
Elmadani and his wife immigrated from the United Arab Emirates in 1998. The retired Christchurch engineer always told his children to be strong and patient, so that’s what they are trying to do after the tragedy, his daughter, Maha Elmadani, told Stuff.
“He considered New Zealand home and never thought something like this would happen here,” she said.
She said her mother “is staying as strong as possible. My younger brother isn’t doing too well with the news.”
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ATTA ELYAN
Atta Elyan, who was in his 30s, died of his wounds from the shooting, Muath Elyan, his uncle, told The Associated Press.
His father, Mohammed Elyan, a Jordanian in his 60s who co-founded one of the mosques in 1993, was among those wounded, said Muath Elyan, Mohammed’s brother, who said he spoke to Mohammed’s wife after the shooting.
Muath said his brother helped establish the mosque a year after arriving in New Zealand, where he teaches engineering at a university and runs a consultancy. He said his brother last visited Jordan two years ago.
“He used to tell us life was good in New Zealand and its people are good and welcoming. He enjoyed freedom there and never complained about anything,” Muath told the AP. “I’m sure this bloody crime doesn’t represent the New Zealanders.”
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LILIK ABDUL HAMID
The longtime aircraft maintenance engineer at Air New Zealand was killed in the Al Noor mosque when he was killed, his employer said in a statement.
“Lilik has been a valued part of our engineering team in Christchurch for 16 years, but he first got to know the team even earlier when he worked with our aircraft engineers in a previous role overseas,” Air New Zealand Chief Executive Officer Christopher Luxon said. “The friendships he made at that time led him to apply for a role in Air New Zealand and make the move to Christchurch. His loss will be deeply felt by the team.
Hamid was married and had two children, Luxon said.
“Lilik, his wife Nina and their children Zhania and Gerin are well known and loved by our close-knit team of engineers and their families, who are now doing all they can to support the family alongside our leadership team and the airline’s special assistance team,” he said.
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MUCAAD IBRAHIM, 3
At just 3 years old, Mucaad Ibrahim is the youngest known victim of the attacks. He was separated from his older brother Abdi and their father when the shooting began at the Al Noor mosque.
After an agonizing search by the family, Abdi said police finally confirmed that the toddler had been killed.
Mucaad was born and raised in Christchurch. He was beloved by the community, known for his energetic demeanor and easy laugh. He was bright and bubbly, and loved playing with an iPad.
Ahmed Osman, a close family friend, said Mucaad used to cheer from the sidelines as Osman and Abdi played soccer on Friday evenings at a park near the mosque. The little boy had planned to watch them play soccer as usual on Friday. He never made it.
Osman said the support of the community has helped the family pull through.
“New Zealand is always behind us,” he said. “Even when we walk down the street, people stop us and say, ‘Are you guys OK?’ That’s what New Zealand is about. It’s all about coming together. One person cannot stop us.”
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This story corrects the spelling of Mucaad Ibrahim’s first name.
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MOHAMMAD IMRAN KHAN
A handwritten cardboard sign outside Mohammad Imran Khan’s restaurant, the Indian Grill in Christchurch, on Sunday said simply CLOSED. A handful of pink flowers laid nearby.
The owner of the convenience store next door, JB’s Discounter, Jaiman Patel, 31, said he helped the staff with the keys after the terrorist attack that claimed Khan’s life.
“He’s a really good guy. I tried to help him out with the setup and everything,” Patel said. “We also put the key out for them when the terrorists come, and sorted it out for him.”
Khan had a son who was 10 or 11, Patel said.
The two were business neighbors who helped each other out when needed, he said.
“We are helping each other. It’s so sad.”
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SAYYAD MILNE, 14
Milne was described as a good-natured, kind teenager. The high school student was at the Al Noor mosque for Friday prayers when the attack started, his half-sister, Brydie Henry, told the Stuff media outlet.
Sayyad was last seen “lying on the floor of the bloody mosque, bleeding from his lower body,” she said her father told her.
Sayyad’s mother, Noraini, was also in the mosque and managed to escape, Henry said. The teenager has two other siblings, 15-year-old twins Shuayb and Cahaya.
“They’re all at home just waiting. They’re just waiting and they don’t know what to do,” Henry told the news site.
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JUNAID MORTARA, 35
Javed Dadabhai is mourning for his gentle cousin, 35-year-old Junaid Mortara, believed to have died in the first mosque attack.
His cousin was the breadwinner of the family, supporting his mother, his wife and their three children, ages 1 to 5. Mortara had inherited his father’s convenience store, which was covered in flowers on Saturday.
Mortara was an avid cricket fan, and would always send a sparring text with relatives over cricket matches when Canterbury faced Auckland.
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HAJI DAOUD NABI, 71
Nabi moved his family to New Zealand in 1979 to escape the Soviet-Afghan war. Days before the shootings, his son, Omar, recalled his father speaking about the importance of unity.
“My father said how important it is to spread love and unity among each other and protect every member of the society we live in,” Omar told Al-Jazeera.
Omar told the news network his father ran an Afghan Association and helped refugees settle in to a new country.
“He used to make them feel at home,” Omar said.
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HUSNE ARA PARVIN, 42
Parvin died being struck by bullets while trying to shield her wheelchair-bound husband, Farid Uddin Ahmed, her nephew Mahfuz Chowdhury told The Daily Star , a Bangladesh newspaper.
Chowdhury said Uddin had been ill for years and Parvin took him to the mosque every other Friday. She had taken him to the mosque for men while she went to the one for women. Mahfuz said relatives in New Zealand told him when the shootings began, Parvin rushed to her husband’s mosque to protect him. He survived.
The Bangladeshi couple had moved to New Zealand sometime after 1994, Chowdhury said.
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NAEEM RASHID, 50, and TALHA RASHID, 21
As the shootings unfolded, Naeem Rashid is seen on video trying to tackle the gunman, according to Rashid’s brother, Khurshid Alam.
“He was a brave person, and I’ve heard from a few people there, there were few witnesses . they’ve said he saved a few lives there by trying to stop that guy,” Alam told the BBC .
Rashid’s son, Talha Rashid, is also among the dead. Pakistan’s Ministry of Public Affairs confirmed their deaths in a tweet .
The elder Rashid was a teacher in Christchurch and was from Abbottabad, Pakistan. His son was 11 when his family moved to New Zealand. He had a new job and planned to get married.
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HUSSEIN AL-UMARI
An Iraqi who born in Abu Dhabi was killed in the attack on two mosques in New Zealand.
His mother wrote on social media that Hussein Al-Umari was killed.
His family and friends had been seeking information on Al-Umari, in his mid-30s, who had failed to return after going to Friday prayers at the Al Noor mosque in Christchurch.
His mother, an Iraqi calligraphy artist named Janna Ezzat, wrote on Facebook that her son had become a martyr.
Ezzat wrote: “Our son was full of life and always put the needs of others in front of his own.”
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INDIAN CITIZENS KILLED
India’s ambassador to New Zealand issued the following names of Indian citizens who were killed in the mosque attacks:
— Maheboob Khokhar
— Ramiz Vora
— Asif Vora
— Ansi Alibava
— Ozair Kadir
Indian news reports said Alibava, 25, had moved to New Zealand last year after marrying Abdul Nazar.
The Indian Express newspaper said she was studying agriculture technology at Lincoln University and her husband worked at a supermarket in Christchurch. They got married in 2017.
The Manorama Online news site said her mother, Rasia, had prayed for the safety of the two when the news broke of the attacks.
Alibava used to call her family back in India every day, but they were worried when there was no call after the shootings. They later found out from the husband what had happened.
The report said she was hoping to find a job in New Zealand to support her family back home.
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MORE PAKISTANI VICTIMS IDENTIFIED
Pakistan’s foreign ministry confirmed nine Pakistanis were killed in the Christchurch mosque attacks. They have been identified as follow:
Zeeshan Raza, his father Ghulam Hussain and mother Karam Bibi, Sohail Shahid, Syed Jahandad Ali, Syed Areeb Ahmed, Mahboob Haroon, Naeem Rashid and his son Talha Naeem.
Naeem Rashid and his son Talha Naeem, 22, died after trying to disarm the shooter.
Rashid’s brother Dr. Mohammad Khursheed, who lives in Pakistan’s garrison city of Abbottabad, received an emotional call from his sister-in-law telling him of his brother’s death. He died along with his son Talha Naeem .
Khursheed said his brother had already bought his plane ticket to Pakistan for a May family reunion. “He was very brave. He snatched the gun and I think he saved many lives,” Khursheed said.
Rashid had migrated to New Zealand in 2009. He was teacher here and same profession he had adopted there and so his wife.
Rashid’s 75-year-old mother Bedar Bibi was devastated and wanted to fly to New Zealand for a last look at her son and grandson. “I want the New Zealand government should take me there so I can have one last look of my beloved son and my grandson Talha,” she said.
The foreign ministry provided more information about other citizens who died in the attacks:
— Sohail Shahid, son of Muhammad Shabbir, age 40.
— Syed Jahanand Ali, age 34.
— Mahboob Haroon, son of Shahid Mehboob, resident of Rawalpindi, age 40.
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THE WOUNDED
ELIN DARAGHMEH
A Palestinian woman says her 4-year-old daughter is fighting for her life while her husband is in serious but stable condition after being wounded in the mosque shooting.
Asmaa Daraghmeh, 27, said the family moved to New Zealand from Jordan four years ago when her husband received a permit to work as a hair dresser.
“It was a great opportunity,” she said, crying on the phone. “The country is safe, beautiful and hospitable.”
She spoke from the Auckland hospital where their daughter, Elin, remained in intensive care. Her husband, 33, was being transported to the same hospital.
Asmaa said she is a devout Muslim who was active in the mosque.
“Our life was great in this great country until this devil appeared and turned it to hell,” she said.
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SHIHADEH NASASRAH
Shihadeh Nasasrah, 63, who was wounded in the New Zealand mosque shooting, said he spent terrifying minutes lying underneath two dying men as the gunman kept firing.
The assailant “would go out and bring more ammunition and resume shooting,” said Nasasrah, speaking by phone from a Christchurch hospital where he was recovering from two shots to the leg. “Every time he stopped, I thought he was gone. But he returned over and over again. I was afraid to leave because I didn’t know the safest way out. I died several times, not one time.”
Nasasrah had attended Friday prayers at the Al Noor Mosque with his friend, Abdel Fattah Qasim, 60, who was killed in the shooting. Both were originally from the West Bank — Nasasrah from the town of Beit Furik and Qasim from the town of Arabeh.
Nasasrah said about 200 to 300 worshippers were in the mosque for Friday prayers, and that he and his friend were sitting in the front, near the imam, or prayer leader. The imam was delivering the sermon when the gunman burst into the mosque, he said.
“Panic spread all over the place,” Nasasrah said. “Some started saying Allahu Akbar (God is great). We scrambled to leave toward a second door that leads to a hall and then to the street, but the bullets brought us down.”
“Two people came on top of me, and he (the gunman) approached us and opened fire. Both were killed and I felt them dying,” Nasasrah said. “I felt their blood. I myself was shoot and I thought ‘I’m dying’.”
He said he uttered the words that devout Muslims speak before their death — “there is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is his messenger.”
Nasasrah, a car dealer, said most of the worshippers were from Asia, including Indonesia, India, Singapore and Malaysia, and that Arabs made up a smaller part of the congregation.
The attack left him and other Muslims in the area worried and puzzled.
“I never heard a racist word in this country,” he said. “I don’t know what happened and why. I will not leave this country. Our lives are well established here, our homes, works, family is here and we will not leave.”
As a young man, Nasasrah studied English in the Syrian capital of Damascus, and then worked as a translator at the New Zealand embassy in Saudi Arabia for 14 years. The father of three moved to New Zealand in 1990. His three children graduated from universities in New Zealand and have established their lives in the country.
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MUHAMMAD AMIN NASIR, 67
Nasir and his son were just 200 meters (219 yards) from the Al Noor mosque on Friday when everything went wrong. They had no idea that a white supremacist had just slaughtered at least 41 people inside the mosque. A car that had been driving by suddenly stopped, and a man leaned out the window pointing a gun at them.
They ran as the bullets began to fly. But at 67, Nasir could not keep up with his 35-year-old son. He fell behind by two or three fateful steps.
The gunman drove away. A pool of blood poured from Nasir’s body.
Nasir, who lived in Pakistan, had been regularly visiting his son in New Zealand.
He was on the third week of his visit when he was shot. He remains in an induced coma with critical injuries, though his condition has stabilized.
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ADEEB SAMI, 52
As the rampage inside the mosque began, Sami was shot in the back as he dove to protect his two sons, Abdullah, 29, and Ali, 23, the Gulf News reported.
“My dad is a real hero. He got shot in the back near his spine in an attempt to shield my brothers but he didn’t let anything happen to them,” Adeeb’s daughter, Heba, 30, told the Gulf News.
Sami, described by the Gulf News as a Dubai-based New Zealander of Iraqi origin, underwent surgery to remove the bullet and his daughter said he’s recovering.
Stories of the victims of the New Zealand mosque attack
Stories of the victims of the New Zealand mosque attack
- The document provides the names of 44 men and four women, and so is missing the identities of two of the 50 victims confirmed as dead by police
- Another 34 victims remained at Christchurch Hospital, where officials said 12 were in critical condition
Related
India monsoon floods kill five in northeast
India’s annual monsoon season from June to September offers respite from intense summer heat and is crucial for replenishing water supplies, but also brings widespread death and destruction.
The deaths recorded are among the first of this season, with scores often killed over the course of the rains across India, a country of 1.4 billion people.
The monsoon is a colossal sea breeze that brings South Asia 70-80 percent of its annual rainfall.
Rivers swollen by the lashing rain — including the mighty Brahmaputra and its tributaries — broke their banks across the region.
But the intensity of rain and floods has increased in recent years, with experts saying climate change is exacerbating the problem.
Assam State Disaster Management Authority officials on Saturday confirmed five deaths in the last 24 hours.
A red alert warning had been issued for 12 districts of Assam after non-stop rains over the last three days led to flooding in many urban areas.
The situation was particularly bad in the state capital Guwahati.
City authorities have disconnected the electricity in several districts to cut the risk of electrocution.
Several low-lying areas of Guwahati were flooded, with hundreds of families forced to abandon homes to seek shelter elsewhere.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said his government had deployed rescue teams.
“We have been reviewing the impending situation for the last three days,” he said in a statement, saying that supplies of rice had been dispatched as food aid.
South Asia is getting hotter and in recent years has seen shifting weather patterns, but scientists are unclear on how exactly a warming planet is affecting the highly complex monsoon.
On Monday, lashing rains swamped India’s financial capital Mumbai, where the monsoon rains arrived some two weeks earlier than usual, the earliest for nearly a quarter century, according to weather forecasters.
Swiss glacier collapse offers global warning of wider impact
DUSHANBE, Tajikistan: The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts say.
Footage of the May 28 collapse showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside, into the hamlet of Blatten.
Ali Neumann, disaster risk reduction adviser to the Swiss Development Cooperation, noted that while the role of climate change in the specific case of Blatten “still needs to be investigated,” the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere — the part of the world covered by frozen water.
“Climate change and its impact on the cryosphere will have growing repercussions on human societies that live near glaciers, near the cryosphere, and depend on glaciers somehow and live with them,” he said.
The barrage largely destroyed Blatten, but the evacuation of its 300 residents last week averted mass casualties, although one person remains missing.
“It also showed that with the right skills and observation and management of an emergency, you can significantly reduce the magnitude of this type of disaster,” Neumann said at an international UN-backed glacier conference in Tajikistan.
Stefan Uhlenbrook, Director for Hydrology, Water and Cryosphere at the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), said it showed the need for vulnerable regions like the Himalayas and other parts of Asia to prepare.
“From monitoring, to data sharing, to numerical simulation models, to hazard assessment and to communicating that, the whole chain needs to be strengthened,” Uhlenbrook said.
“But in many Asian countries, this is weak, the data is not sufficiently connected.”
Swiss geologists use various methods, including sensors and satellite images, to monitor their glaciers.
Asia was the world’s most disaster-hit region from climate and weather hazards in 2023, the United Nations said last year, with floods and storms the chief cause of casualties and economic losses.
But many Asian nations, particularly in the Himalayas, lack the resources to monitor their vast glaciers to the same degree as the Swiss.
According to a 2024 UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction report, two-thirds of countries in the Asia and Pacific region have early warning systems.
But the least developed countries, many of whom are in the frontlines of climate change, have the worst coverage.
“Monitoring is not absent, but it is not enough,” said geologist Sudan Bikash Maharjan of the Nepal-based International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).
“Our terrains and climatic conditions are challenging, but also we lack that level of resources for intensive data generation.”
That gap is reflected in the number of disaster-related fatalities for each event.
While the average number of fatalities per disaster was 189 globally, in Asia and the Pacific it was much higher at 338, according to the Belgium-based Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters’ Emergency Events Database.
Geoscientist Jakob Steiner, who works in climate adaptation in Nepal and Bhutan, said it is not as simple as just exporting the Swiss technological solutions.
“These are complex disasters, working together with the communities is actually just as, if not much more, important,” he said.
Himalayan glaciers, providing critical water to nearly two billion people, are melting faster than ever before due to climate change, exposing communities to unpredictable and costly disasters, scientists warn.
Hundreds of lakes formed from glacial meltwater have appeared in recent decades. They can be deadly when they burst and rush down the valley.
The softening of permafrost increases the chances of landslides.
Declan Magee, from the Asian Development Bank’s Climate Change and Sustainable Development Department, said that monitoring and early warnings alone are not enough.
“We have to think... about where we build, where people build infrastructure and homes, and how we can decrease their vulnerability if it is exposed,” he said.
Nepali climate activist and filmmaker Tashi Lhazom described how the village of Til, near to her home, was devastated by a landslide earlier in May.
The 21 families escaped — but only just.
“In Switzerland they were evacuated days before, here we did not even get seconds,” said Lhazom.
“The disparity makes me sad but also angry. This has to change.”
Russian attacks kill two in Ukraine
- Diplomatic efforts to end the war have accelerated in recent weeks, with both sides meeting earlier this month for their first round of direct talks in more than three years
KYIV: Russian shelling and air strikes on southern Ukraine overnight killed a man and a nine-year-old girl in separate attacks, Ukrainian officials said on Saturday.
In the Zaporizhzhia region, “Russians hit a residential area with guided aerial bombs,” killing the girl and wounding a 16-year-old boy, Ivan Fedorov, head of the regional military administration, said on the Telegram platform.
One house was destroyed and several others damaged by the blast, he added.
In a separate assault on the city of Kherson, a “66-year-old man sustained fatal injuries” from Russian shelling, Oleksandr Prokudin, Kherson region’s governor, wrote on Telegram.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, tens of thousands of people have been killed, swaths of eastern and southern Ukraine destroyed, and millions forced to flee their homes.
One person was wounded in a Russian drone strike in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, its mayor said.
In Russia, Ukrainian drone attacks wounded 10 people in the Kursk region overnight, acting governor Alexander Khinshtein said.
Diplomatic efforts to end the war have accelerated in recent weeks, with both sides meeting earlier this month for their first round of direct talks in more than three years.
But the negotiations in Istanbul yielded only a prisoner exchange and promises to stay in touch.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday that his government did not expect results from further talks with Russia unless Moscow provided its peace terms in advance, accusing the Kremlin of doing “everything” it could to sabotage a potential meeting.
“There must be a ceasefire to continue moving toward peace. We need to stop the killing of people,” Zelensky added in a statement on Telegram.
The Ukrainian leader also said he had discussed with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan “a possible next meeting in Istanbul and under what conditions Ukraine is ready to participate,” with both agreeing that the next round of talks with Moscow “cannot and should not be a waste of time.”
Russia has said it will send a team of negotiators to Istanbul for a second round of talks on Monday, but Kyiv has yet to confirm if it will attend.
Australia’s defense minister urges greater military openness from China
- Richard Marles says that while China remains an important strategic partner to Australia, more open communication between the two nations is key for a "productive" relationship
SINGAPORE: Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles on Saturday urged greater transparency from China over its military modernization and deployments as Pacific nations brace for a more assertive Chinese presence.
Speaking to Reuters on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue defense meeting in Singapore, Marles said that while China remains an important strategic partner to Australia, more open communication between the two nations is key for a “productive” relationship.
“When you look at the growth in the Chinese military that has happened without a strategic reassurance, or a strategic transparency....we would like to have a greater transparency in what China is seeking to do in not only its build up, but in the exercises that it undertakes,” said Marles.
“We want to have the most productive relationship with China that we can have ... we hope that in the context of that productive relationship, we can see greater transparency and greater communication between our two countries in respect of our defense.”
Both Australia and New Zealand raised concerns in February after three Chinese warships conducted unprecedented live-fire drills in the Tasman Sea.
Both nations complained of late notice over the drills by China, which led to the diversion of 49 commercial flights.
Marles said that while the drills were in accordance with international law, China should have been less disruptive.
He also said Australia was able to closely scrutinize the Chinese task-force.
“It’s fair to say that this was done in a bigger way than they have done before, but equally, that was meant from our point of view, by a much greater degree of surveillance than we’ve ever done,” he said.
“From the moment that Chinese warships came within the vicinity of Australia, they were being tailed and tracked by Australian assets ... we were very clear about what exercises China was undertaking and what capability they were seeking to exercise and to build.”
Chinese officials have signalled that more such exercises could be expected as it was routine naval activity in international waters. Defense analysts say the exercises underscore Beijing’s ambition to develop a global navy that will be able to project power into the region more frequently.
Australia has in recent times pledged to boost its missile defense capability amid China’s nuclear weapons buildup and its blue-water naval expansion, as the country targets to increase its defense spending from roughly 2 percent of GDP currently to 2.4 percent by the early 2030s.
The nation is scheduled to pay the United States $2 billion by the end of 2025 to assist its submarine shipyards, in order to buy three Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines starting in 2032 — its biggest ever defense project.
Germany hopes for EU deal on sending failed asylum seekers to third countries, minister says
- The EU’s executive Commission proposed a scheme that would let member states reject asylum applications from migrants who passed through a “safe” third country on their way to the bloc
BERLIN: Germany’s interior minister is hoping the European Union can reach a bloc-wide agreement on sending failed asylum seekers who cannot go home to safe countries near their original homelands.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservatives won February’s national election on a promise to bring down immigration levels, which opinion polls showed many voters regarded as being out of control, although numbers have been falling for over a year.
In an interview with the Welt am Sonntag newspaper published on Saturday, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said the approach of using third countries could work only if there was a Europe-wide consensus.
“We need third countries that are prepared to take migrants who are objectively unable to return to their home countries,” he told the newspaper.
Earlier this month, the EU’s executive Commission proposed a scheme that would let member states reject asylum applications from migrants who passed through a “safe” third country on their way to the bloc. The proposals, criticized by rights groups, have yet to be adopted by national governments or the European Parliament.
“No individual EU member state can create this model on its own: it will have to happen on an EU level,” Dobrindt said. “We are preparing the foundations for that right now.”
Dobrindt’s initial promises to tighten border controls on taking office angered neighbors who protested at plans to return to their territory those migrants found not to have a right to enter Germany.
An Italian plan to process asylum seekers picked up at sea in Albania has stalled amid Italian court challenges.
A scheme by Britain, which is not an EU member, under its previous Conservative government to send asylum seekers who arrived in Britain without permission to Rwanda was scrapped by Prime Minister Keir Starmer when he took office last year.
