Lockdown at labor camp in Qatar described as coronavirus prison

Migrant workers in Qatar have described being trapped in a coronavirus prison at the country’s largest labor camp. (File/Shutterstock)
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Updated 20 March 2020
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Lockdown at labor camp in Qatar described as coronavirus prison

  • The area is guarded by police, and workers who live there, many of whom had been working on Fifa World Cup 2022 infrastructure projects, cannot leave
  • Some workers have been told to go on unpaid leave until further notice, with only food and accommodation covered

LONDON: Migrant workers in Qatar have described being trapped in a coronavirus prison at the country’s largest labor camp.
The camp was locked down after hundreds of construction workers became sick with Covid-19.
Thousands of workers are trapped in filthy, over-crowded camps within the “Industrial Area” in Doha where the virus can spread rapidly, The Guardian reported.
The area is guarded by police, and workers who live there, many of whom had been working on Fifa World Cup 2022 infrastructure projects, cannot leave.
Qatari authorities on Tuesday announced the closure of several square kilometers of the Industrial Area.
Workers are fearful and there is an atmosphere of uncertainty.
Some workers have been told to go on unpaid leave until further notice, with only food and accommodation covered, sources at the camp told The Guardian.
“The situation is getting worse each day. Workers from camp 1 to camp 32 are in lockdown. My friends who live there are in extreme panic,” a Bangladeshi worker told The Guardian.
“We are not allowed to walk in groups or eat in a tea shop. But you can still buy food and take it home. I’m worried about my family back home. There won’t be anyone to take care of them if anything happens to me,” a Nepali worker said. He added that no one is allowed to leave the area.
On Mar. 11, authorities said 238 people under quarantine in a residential compound had tested positive for coronavirus. Subsequent announcements have linked most reported cases to migrant workers without mentioning nationalities.
Terrified workers are doing everything they can to prevent the spread of the disease. “We are doing everything to keep ourselves safe. The camp was a little dirty, so we cleaned everything, changed the bed sheets, and used spray to kill the germs,” a worker told The Guardian.
Although the country is on lockdown and has shut down almost all public spaces in the face of the outbreak, some construction workers who have not tested positive for Covid-19 say they are being forced to work after having just their temperatures checked before they begin.

Amnesty International said migrant workers trapped in camps such as those in Qatar are at particular risk of exposure to the virus.

“The Qatari government must ensure that human rights remain central to all attempts at prevention and containment of the COVID-19 virus, and also that all people have access to health care, including preventive care and treatment for everyone affected, without discrimination,” said Steve Cockburn, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director of Global Issues.

Doha’s Industrial Area is made up of warehouses, factories and workers’ accommodation. It is home to hundreds of thousands of men who live in cramped and dirty conditions. Kitchens and toilets are communal, making it very easy for virus to be transmitted.
Expats make up the majority of the population in Qatar, and the government on Thursday said there were 460 cases in the country — the highest number among the six Gulf Arab states that have reported a total of more than 1,300 coronavirus cases.


Hezbollah must focus on Lebanon not wider region, senior politician Bassil says

Updated 3 min 19 sec ago
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Hezbollah must focus on Lebanon not wider region, senior politician Bassil says

  • Parliament meets on Jan. 9 to decide on president
  • Hezbollah weakened after war with Israel
PARIS: Iran-backed Hezbollah needs to focus on domestic issues in Lebanon and not the wider region, senior Lebanese Maronite politician Gebran Bassil said on Tuesday, adding that he was against the head of the army running for the presidency.
A year of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel, which culminated in a tentative ceasefire brokered by the United States and France in November, saw more than 4,000 killed, thousands displaced and the powerful Shiite group considerably weakened militarily with many of its leaders dead.
“It’s a process whereby Hezbollah accepts that they are part of the Lebanese state and are not parallel to the state,” Bassil, a Maronite Christian, who is one of Lebanon’s most influential politicians, told Reuters in an interview in Paris.
“We don’t want their end. We want them to be partners in the Lebanese nation, equal to us in abiding by the rules and preserving the sovereignty of Lebanon. We agree with them on defending Lebanon and supporting the Palestinian cause, but politically and diplomatically, not militarily.”
Bassil, who said the group should distance itself from the Iran-aligned “Axis of Resistance,” is head of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), a Christian party founded by former President Michel Aoun, his father-in-law, that has been aligned with Hezbollah.
He was sanctioned by the United States in 2020 for alleged corruption and material support to Hezbollah. He denies the accusations.
He was in Paris meeting French officials. He declined to say whether he met Donald Trump’s regional envoy and fellow Maronite Massad Boulos, who accompanied the US president-elect to France last weekend.
Since the truce, Paris has increased efforts to discuss with the myriad key actors in Lebanon over how to break a political impasse after two years without a president or permanent government.
The presidential post is reserved for Christians, but part of the standoff reflects rivalries among the community as well as crucial political and religious balances in the country.
Authorities finally announced that the parliament would meet on Jan. 9 to elect a new president.
Bassil, who has enough lawmakers to block a Maronite candidate, said he was against the candidacy of Joseph Aoun, the head of the army, who diplomats say both the United States and France consider as a serious candidate.
He said Aoun’s appointment would be against the constitution and that he did not have consensus among all the Lebanese factions.
“We are against him because we don’t see him as being fit for the presidency,” Bassil said. “We need candidates who can bring the Lebanese together,” he said declining to name one.

South Sudan president fires army and police chiefs, central bank governor

Updated 10 December 2024
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South Sudan president fires army and police chiefs, central bank governor

  • Security sources with knowledge of the goings-on in the military said the changes could have stemmed from disquiet within the army ranks

NAIROBI: South Sudan's President Salva Kiir has fired the head of the country's military, the police chief and the central bank governor, an announcement made on the state-owned broadcaster SSBC said.
Kiir's announcement late on Monday gave no reasons for the dismissals. It said Kiir had appointed Paul Nang Majok as the army's chief of defence forces, replacing General Santino Wol.
Security sources with knowledge of the goings-on in the military said the changes could have stemmed from disquiet within the army ranks, adding that some soldiers had not been paid wages for about a year.
Army spokesperson Major General Lul Ruai Koang did not immediately respond when contacted for comment.
Michael Makuei, the information minister and government spokesperson, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the reasons for the changes.
In late November, an attempt to arrest the former head of the intelligence service led to an eruption of heavy gunfire in the capital Juba.
In early October, Kiir had dismissed Akol Koor Kuc, who had led the National Security Service since the country's independence from Sudan in 2011, and appointed a close ally to replace him.
In the latest shake-up, Kiir also replaced James Alic Garang as the central bank governor, returning Johnny Ohisa Damian to the post after firing him in October 2023.
He named Abraham Peter Manyuat as the new Inspector General of Police, replacing Atem Marol Biar.
Abrupt changes to government leadership, especially in the finance ministry and the central bank, have been frequent in recent years and in 2020 alone the central bank governor was replaced twice.
South Sudan's economy has been depressed since a civil war that erupted in 2013, forcing about a quarter of its population to flee to neighbouring countries.
South Sudan has been formally at peace since a 2018 deal ended the five-year conflict responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths, but violence between rival communities flares frequently.
It postponed a long-delayed national election until December 2026, reflecting the challenges facing the country's fragile peace process.


Air strike on North Darfur market kills more than 100: Sudan lawyers’ group

Updated 10 December 2024
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Air strike on North Darfur market kills more than 100: Sudan lawyers’ group

  • The air strike hit the town of Kabkabiya, about 180 kilometers west of state capital El-Fasher, which has been under RSF siege since May

Port Sudan: A Sudanese military air strike on a market in a town in North Darfur killed more than 100 people and wounded hundreds on Monday, a pro-democracy lawyers’ group said Tuesday.
“The air strike took place on the town’s weekly market day, where residents from various nearby villages had gathered to shop, resulting in the death of more than 100 people and injury of hundreds, including women and children,” said the Emergency Lawyers, who have been documenting human rights abuses during the 20-month war between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
The air strike hit the town of Kabkabiya, about 180 kilometers west of state capital El-Fasher, which has been under RSF siege since May.
The lawyers said they “condemn in the strongest terms the horrendous massacres committed by army air strikes” in Kabkabiya.
In a separate incident, a drone that had crashed in central Sudan’s North Kordofan on November 26 exploded on Monday evening, killing six people, including children, and leaving three others seriously injured, the lawyers said.
In Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, a series of “indiscriminate airstrikes” also targeted three neighborhoods with barrel bombs, they added.
The attacks are part of “an ongoing escalation campaign, contradicting claims that the air strikes target only military objectives as the raids are deliberately concentrated on densely populated residential areas,” the lawyers said in a statement.
Both the army and the RSF have been accused of targeting civilians and deliberately bombing residential areas.
Tens of thousands have been killed in the war and over 11 million displaced, creating what the United Nations describes as the world’s largest displacement crisis.


Israeli forces kill at least 19 people in Gaza, rescue workers say

Updated 10 December 2024
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Israeli forces kill at least 19 people in Gaza, rescue workers say

CAIRO: Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip killed at least 19 Palestinians overnight and on Tuesday, medics said, as Israeli tanks pushed into areas in central and southern parts of the enclave.
Overnight, an Israeli airstrike killed at least 10 people in Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza, where Israeli forces have operated since October, and injured dozens of others in a multi-floored building, medics said.
Another airstrike on a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip killed at least seven people. It wounded several others, medics and the Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said, while another killed two people in Rafah south of the enclave.
In Deir Al-Balah city in central Gaza, Israeli naval forces detained six Palestinian fishermen who tried to sail into the Mediterranean Sea earlier on Tuesday, according to residents.
More than 44,700 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive on Gaza that followed, Gaza health authorities say.


Netanyahu to take the stand in his corruption trial for the first time

Updated 10 December 2024
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Netanyahu to take the stand in his corruption trial for the first time

  • Bribery, fraud and breach of trust charges date to 2019
  • He remains PM unless convicted and appeals fail

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu takes the stand on Tuesday for the first time in his long-running corruption trial. Here is what you need to know about the charges that have divided the Israeli public at a time of Middle East turmoil.

What are the charges?
Netanyahu was indicted in 2019 on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust — all of which Netanyahu denies. The trial began in 2020 and involves three criminal cases. He denies the charges and has pleaded not guilty.

Case 4000
Prosecutors allege Netanyahu granted regulatory favors worth around 1.8 billion shekels (about $500 million) to Bezeq Telecom Israel (BEZQ.TA). In return, prosecutors say, he sought positive coverage of himself and his wife Sara on a news website controlled by the company’s former chairman, Shaul Elovitch. In this case, Netanyahu has been charged with bribery, fraud and breach of trust.

Case 1000
Netanyahu has been charged with fraud and breach of trust over allegations that he and his wife wrongfully received almost 700,000 shekels ($210,000) in gifts from Arnon Milchan, a Hollywood producer and an Israeli citizen, and Australian billionaire businessman James Packer. Prosecutors said gifts included champagne and cigars and that Netanyahu helped Milchan with his business interests. Packer and Milchan face no charges.

Case 2000
Netanyahu allegedly negotiated a deal with Arnon Mozes, owner of Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, for better coverage in return for legislation to slow the growth of a rival newspaper. Netanyahu has been charged with fraud and breach of trust.

Will a verdict come soon?
Unlikely. Unless Netanyahu seeks a plea deal, it could be many more months before the judges rule.

How can he be on trial and remian Prime Minister?
Under Israeli law, a prime minister is under no obligation to stand down unless convicted. If he or she appeals their conviction, they can keep their office throughout the appeals process.

Could he go to jail?
Bribery charges carry a prison sentence of up to 10 years and/or a fine. Fraud and breach of trust are punishable by up to three years in jail.

What has the impact been?
The shock attack by Hamas on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and the ensuing Gaza war, swept Netanyahu’s trial off the agenda, as Israelis came together in grief and trauma. Before the war, Netanyahu’s legal troubles bitterly divided Israelis and shook Israeli politics through five rounds of elections.
After Netanyahu’s decisive 2022 victory at the ballot box, his far-right government launched a judicial campaign to curb the powers of the court. It sparked mass protests in Israel and fears among Western allies for the country’s democratic health. Netanyahu denied any link between the judicial overhaul and his trial. He largely abandoned the plan after war broke out, but has revived some anti-judiciary rhetoric in recent weeks.