ANKARA: Greece has decided to deport 10,000 refugees to Turkey by the end of next year in the wake of a deadly fire at an overcrowded camp on the island of Lesbos.
Following criticisms after Sunday’s blaze, which left one woman dead and 17 people injured two of them children, the Greek Cabinet held a four-hour emergency meeting when the decision was made.
The Moria refugee camp was already operating beyond its capacity and under deteriorating conditions before the fire took hold. It is considered to be Europe’s most crowded site, housing more than 13,000 refugees when designed to take just 3,000.
Lesbos has become one of the main destinations for refugees in recent years with around 10,000 new arrivals on the island over the last three months alone, according to the Greek government.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, a conservative politician, is known for his hard-line approach to his country’s migrant crisis.
An agreement signed between Turkey and the EU in 2016, allowed Athens to send back illegal immigrants to its neighbor, Turkey, which has in return received financial assistance from Brussels.
Dimitrios Triantaphyllou, director of the Center for International and European Studies (CIES) at Istanbul’s Kadir Has University, said that as opposed to 2015 and 2016, most of those now trying to reach the Greek islands were not from Syria but Afghanistan and elsewhere.
“As a result, the Greek government is stressing a distinction between refugees, those seeking asylum status, and irregular migrants. The latter category in particular consists of individuals not in need of international protection, who are not Syrian, which Greece intends to speed up efforts to return to Turkey as per the EU-Turkey refugee deal,” he told Arab News.
“Because of the inability to rapidly process all applications, only about 1,800 have been returned to Turkey from Greece since 2016.”
According to Triantaphyllou, although Greece had established structures and processes to deal with the spike in the number of refugees, asylum seekers, and illegal migrants since 2015, its problems had been compounded by the 200 percent rise in arrivals over the last five months.
“Some islands are unable to cope with the increased inflows with tremendous pressure on the ability of the local communities showing empathy,” he added.
For this reason, Triantaphyllou said, Greece was trying to internationalize the issue in order to allow for the development of a more targeted policy on the part of the EU, while Greek authorities were aware that the refugee flows were part of a larger power play between Ankara and the EU.
Athens is also planning to increase naval patrols in the Aegean Sea and build camps specifically for “illegal” immigrants and those refused asylum.
EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos is expected to visit Greece and Turkey this week, accompanied by German and French interior ministers, to discuss the refugee crisis.
Last month, the German government also called on Greece to deport migrants to Turkey.
Omar Kadkoy, a Syrian-origin researcher on refugee integration at Ankara-based think tank TEPAV, said Turkey must ensure the EU acted upon the promises made under the 2016 agreement.
“The statement clearly says that for every Syrian returned from the Greek islands, another Syrian will be resettled from Turkey to the EU. This should be the protocol governing Greece’s new announcement. It is true that the number of Syrians resettled to the EU exceeds the ones returned from Greece, but the number represents only one-third of what the statement indicates,” he told Arab News.
Kadkoy added that Turkey should also use the new announcement as a wake-up call for the so-called “coalition of the willing,” which had so far failed to establish a feasible responsibility-sharing mechanism among EU member states.
Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, said one of the reasons for an increased flow of refugees to Greece was their fear of being forced back to Syria.
“Turkey’s government shouldn’t be sending anyone back to Syria. It is not the least bit safe,” he told Arab News. “In the meantime, other European nations should accept more refugees so the responsibility for processing and housing them does not rest solely with Greece, which is just emerging from its economic crisis.”
Roth also noted that the Dublin rules, which state that responsibility for processing and housing asylum seekers rests solely with the country where they land, were wrong and should be abolished.
“Just as European governments have begun to share that responsibility for asylum seekers arriving from Libya to Italy, so they should share the responsibility for those arriving from Turkey to Greece,” he said.
Greece to deport 10,000 refugees to Turkey in wake of fatal camp blaze
Greece to deport 10,000 refugees to Turkey in wake of fatal camp blaze
- The Moria refugee camp was already operating beyond its capacity and under deteriorating conditions before the fire took hold
- It is considered to be Europe’s most crowded site, housing more than 13,000 refugees when designed to take just 3,000
Judge who blocked release of Trump report was ‘plainly’ wrong, special counsel tells appeals court
- The department is hoping to release in the coming days one part of its two-volume report focused on Trump’s efforts to undo the 2020 presidential election that he lost to Democrat Joe Biden
WASHINGTON: The Justice Department has asked a federal appeals court to move swiftly in reversing a judge’s order that had blocked the agency from releasing any part of special counsel Jack Smith’s investigative report on President-elect Donald Trump.
The emergency motion late Friday is the latest back and forth in a court dispute over whether any portion of Smith’s report can be made public before Trump takes office Jan. 20. The push to release it before Trump’s inauguration reflects concerns that the Justice Department under the Trump administration, which will include members of his personal legal team in key leadership roles, would be in position to prevent the report from coming to light.
The Justice Department revealed in a separate filing on Saturday that Smith resigned from the department on Friday after having submitted his Trump report to the attorney general. The move had been expected.
The department is hoping to release in the coming days one part of its two-volume report focused on Trump’s efforts to undo the 2020 presidential election that he lost to Democrat Joe Biden. The department has said it will not publicly disclose a separate volume — about Trump’s hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida after he left the White House in January 2021 — as long as criminal proceedings against two of Trump’s co-defendants remain pending.
Both investigations resulted in indictments of Trump, though Smith’s team abandoned both cases in November after Trump’s election win. Smith cited Justice Department policy that bars the federal prosecution of a sitting president.
The Atlanta-based 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals denied an emergency defense bid Thursday to block the release of the election interference report, which covers Trump’s efforts before Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, to undo the results of the 2020 election. The appeals court left in place an injunction from a Trump-appointed lower court judge, Aileen Cannon, that said none of the findings could be released until three days after the matter was resolved by the appeals court.
Lawyers for Trump’s co-defendants in the classified documents case, Trump valet Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira, then asked Cannon to extend her injunction and to hold a hearing on the merits of their request to halt the release of the report.
The Justice Department responded late Friday by asking the appeals court to immediately lift Cannon’s injunction altogether. The filing noted that in addition to temporarily blocking the release of the election interference report, Cannon’s action also prevents officials from sharing the classified documents report privately with the leaders of the House and Senate Judiciary committees.
Cannon’s order is “plainly erroneous,” according to the department’s motion.
“The Attorney General is the Senate-confirmed head of the Department of Justice and is vested with the authority to supervise all officers and employees of the Department,” the Justice Department said. “The Attorney General thus has authority to decide whether to release an investigative report prepared by his subordinates.”
Justice Department regulations call for special counsels to produce reports at the conclusion of their work, and it’s customary for such documents to be made public no matter the subject.
William Barr, attorney general during Trump’s first term, released a special counsel report examining Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election and potential ties to the Trump campaign.
Biden’s attorney general, Merrick Garland, has also released special counsel reports, including about Biden’s handling of classified information before Biden became president.
French far-right firebrand Le Pen buried in private ceremony
- The funeral was attended by his daughter Marine Le Pen, who took over her father’s political mantle, and other family members, political allies and close friends
LA TRINITÉ-SUR-MER, France: Jean-Marie Le Pen, co-founder of France’s main postwar far-right movement, was buried Saturday in a private ceremony in his native Brittany amid tight security.
His funeral followed a mass in his hometown of La Trinite-sur-Mer in the western region.
The funeral was attended by his daughter Marine Le Pen, who took over her father’s political mantle, and other family members, political allies and close friends.
Authorities beefed up security ahead of the ceremony, with barriers erected around the cemetery and dozens of police mobilized.
Security was tightened and protests banned after hundreds took to the streets in Paris and other cities to pop champagne corks and celebrate 96-year-old Le Pen’s death on Tuesday.
Marine Le Pen and one of her two sisters, Marie-Caroline, walked the few hundred meters between the family home and the small church of Saint-Joseph under blue skies in front of a small crowd of onlookers and several dozen journalists.
Among others attending the ceremony was Jordan Bardella, the leader of the party Le Pen co-founded, now called the National Rally, according to several sources.
Around 200 people were expected at the church service, after which Le Pen was buried in the vault where his parents rest.
“It’s moving for me to pay my last respects to him here and to pray for the salvation of his soul,” said one of the guests, Bruno Gollnisch, Jean-Marie Le Pen’s one-time right-hand man.
“He was a joyful comrade!“
Some locals praised Le Pen’s devotion to France.
“I came to pay tribute to a man who served France and loved France,” one mourner said.
“We’ve come to pay tribute to a great man who had the courage to say things,” said another. “He was a visionary. He loved France and its people and they had values that are being lost, like love of the nation.”
On Friday, regional authorities issued an order banning demonstrations to avoid “the risk of disruption and counter-demonstrations likely to provoke clashes.”
Separately, a ceremony will take place on January 16 at the Notre Dame du Val-de-Grace church in Paris that will be open to the public.
Opponents on the left said they could not mourn the death of a “fascist.”
But the government condemned rallies celebrating Le Pen’s passing. Prime Minister Francois Bayrou described him as a “fighter” and “figure of French political life,” comments that caused consternation on the left.
Le Pen’s staunchly anti-immigration National Front (FN), founded in 1972, won its first seats in the National Assembly in 1984.
Then, in 2002, Le Pen burst onto the frontline of French politics by edging Socialist Lionel Jospin in presidential elections to make the run-off against right-winger Jacques Chirac.
Nicknamed “the devil of the Republic” by opponents, he was often openly racist, made no secret of anti-Semitic views — for which he received criminal convictions — and boasted of torturing prisoners during France’s war against Algeria.
His politician daughter Marine Le Pen rapidly took steps toward making the far right an electable force, renaming it the National Rally (RN) and embarking on a policy known as “dediabolization” (de-demonization).
She threw her father out of the party for his anti-Semitism but the pair had reconciled in recent years.
President Emmanuel Macron did not make any personal comment on Le Pen’s death. His office issued a terse written statement saying history would judge Le Pen and adding that the president sent his condolences to the family.
But Le Pen’s death marked a sign of his political rehabilitation among senior RN figures who rushed to hail his contribution.
“He always served France and defended its identity and sovereignty,” RN party chief Bardella, 29, said in a tribute mentioning none of the controversies that surrounded his life.
Australia state premier calls synagogue attack an escalation in anti-Semitic crime
- Australia has seen a series of anti-Semitic incidents in the last year, including graffiti on buildings and cars in Sydney
SYDNEY: The premier of Australia’s New South Wales state Chris Minns said on Sunday that an attack on a Sydney synagogue on Saturday marked an escalation in anti-Semitic crime in the state, after police said the attack was attempted arson.
Australia has seen a series of anti-Semitic incidents in the last year, including graffiti on buildings and cars in Sydney, as well as an arson attack on a synagogue in Melbourne that police ruled as terrorism.
In the latest incident, police were notified of anti-Semitic graffiti on a synagogue in the inner suburb of Newtown early on Saturday. An arson attempt was also made on the synagogue, police later said.
“This is an escalation in anti-Semitic crime in New South Wales. Police and the government remain very concerned that an accelerant may have been used,” Minns, the leader of Australia’s most populous state, said on Sunday in a televised media conference alongside state police commissioner Karen Webb.
“In the last 24 hours, these matters have now been taken over by counter-terrorism command,” Webb said.
A house in Sydney’s east, a hub of the city’s Jewish community, was also daubed with anti-Semitic graffiti, police said on Saturday, adding they were also probing offensive comments on a street poster in the suburb of Marrickville.
On Friday, a special police task force was set up to investigate an attack on the Southern Sydney Synagogue in the suburb of Allawah in the early hours of Friday morning.
David Ossip, president of the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies, said on Sunday he welcomed extra resources promised by the government to probe the recent incidents.
“The New South Wales government has also provided us with additional funding to enhance Jewish communal security,” Ossip added in a statement.
On Friday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, referring to the Southern Sydney Synagogue incident, said that there was “no place in Australia, our tolerant multicultural community, for this sort of criminal activity.”
The number of anti-Semitic and Islamophobic incidents have increased in Australia since Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023 and Israel launched its war on Gaza. Some Jewish organizations have said the government has not taken sufficient action in response.
Biden honors Pope Francis with the Presidential Medal of Freedom
- Biden is preparing to leave office Jan. 20 and has doled out honors to prominent individuals, including supporters and allies, in recent weeks
WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden on Saturday honored Pope Francis with the Presidential Medal of Freedom with distinction, the highest civilian award given by the president, saying the pontiff was “a light of faith, hope, and love that shines brightly across the world.”
Biden had been scheduled to present the medal to the pope in person on Saturday in Rome on what was to be the final overseas trip of his presidency, but Biden canceled his travel plans so he could monitor the wildfires in California.
The White House said Biden bestowed the award to the pope during a phone call in which they also discussed efforts to promote peace and alleviate suffering around the world.
It’s the only time Biden has presented the honor with distinction during his presidency. Biden himself is a recipient of the award with distinction, recognized when he was vice president by then-President Barack Obama in a surprise ceremony eight years ago. That was the only time in Obama’s two terms when he awarded that version of the medal.
The citation for the pope says “his mission of serving the poor has never ceased. A loving pastor, he joyfully answers children’s questions about God. A challenging teacher, he commands us to fight for peace and protect the planet. A welcoming leader, he reaches out to different faiths.”
Biden is preparing to leave office Jan. 20 and has doled out honors to prominent individuals, including supporters and allies, in recent weeks.
Somalia and Ethiopia agree to restore diplomatic ties
- Somalia's President Hassan and Ethiopia's PM Abiy Ahmed announced the agreement after a visit by Hassan to Addis Ababa
- The two leaders also discussed deepening trade, and security cooperation against “extremist militant groups”
ADDIS ABABA/MOGADISHU: Somalia and Ethiopia announced Saturday they would restore full diplomatic relations following a visit by Somalia’s president to Addis Ababa to heal a year-long rift that threatened further instability in the Horn of Africa.
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed “agreed to restore and enhance their bilateral relations through full diplomatic relations in their respective capitals,” they said in a joint statement.
Land-locked Ethiopia’s desire for access to the sea had deepened long-standing grievances between the two neighbors.
Somalia was outraged when Ethiopia signed a deal one year ago with its breakaway region of Somaliland, reportedly to recognize its independence in exchange for a port and military base on the Red Sea.
Ethiopia’s ambassador in Mogadishu was expelled last April and the countries broke off their diplomatic ties.
The row was defused by a peace deal last month, mediated by Turkiye and signed by both leaders.
During Mohamud’s visit to the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Saturday they reiterated their commitment to the deal and its “spirit of friendship and solidarity,” in a joint statement.
They also discussed deepening trade, and security cooperation against “extremist militant groups.”
Many questions remain unresolved, however.
Although Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said last month’s deal would eventually give Ethiopia some form of sea access, it is not clear what form this would take.
The fate of Ethiopia’s deal with Somaliland is also uncertain.
Just hours before Saturday’s presidential visit, the continued tensions in the region were on display in Cairo when Somalia’s Foreign Minister Ahmed Moalim Fiqi met his Egyptian and Eritrean counterparts.
The three countries have lately found common ground in opposing Ethiopia’s ambitions and made a veiled reference to their rival.
“The Red Sea and its security is subject only to the will of the countries on its coast, and it is absolutely unacceptable for any country not bordering the Red Sea to have a presence, whether military, naval or otherwise,” said Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty.
Egypt, Eritrea and Somalia forged a new regional alliance in October at a summit in the Eritrean capital Asmara, and the foreign ministers said Saturday that more would follow.
Shared concerns about Ethiopia have also pushed Egypt and Somalia into closer military ties.
Egyptian troops joined the African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM), the updated international coalition to fight Somali Islamist insurgents that launched this month.
