BEIRUT: The UN has procured tens of millions of dollars in contracts with companies linked to Syrian government-backed individuals sanctioned for human rights abuses, according to a report by two non-governmental groups.
Syria’s uprising turned civil war that started in 2011 has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced half the country’s pre-war population of 23 million. More than 80 percent of Syrians now live in poverty, leaving much of the population dependent on humanitarian assistance.
Syrian President Bashar Assad, with military support from Russia, Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has since been able to reclaim much of the country. But Syria continues to spiral from a crippling economic crisis. Recently, a cholera outbreak that has infected some 20,000 people, underscored the scope of the crisis.
A report analyzing the UN’s top 100 suppliers in Syria in 2019 and 2020 by the non-profit Observatory of Political and Economic Networks and the non-governmental organization Syrian Legal Development Program concluded that almost half of the procured contracts those two years were with suppliers that were involved in human rights abuses or may have profited from them. The report was published on Tuesday.
Almost a quarter of contracts the UN procured those two years went to companies owned or partially owned by individuals sanctioned by the United States, United Kingdom or European Union for human rights abuses, worth a total of around $68 million.
Among them is Fadi Saqr, who is close to Assad and heads the National Defense Forces in Damascus, a pro-government militia that notably executed dozens of blindfolded prisoners in 2013 and buried them in a mass grave near the Syrian capital.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Damascus, Syria, did not immediately comment on the report.
“UN agencies’ processes fall short of full due diligence,” Eyad Hamid, a senior researcher at the Syrian Legal Development Program, told The Associated Press. ”They also rely on cross checking the legal ownership of a company instead of the ultimate beneficiary ownership of the company.”
Advocacy groups have accused the Syrian government and affiliates of withholding or siphoning off aid from families in opposition-held areas or manipulating exchange rates to boost state coffers.
“We understand that aid cannot be delivered in Syria cost-free. ... The question to me is about how we can minimize that cost,” Karam Shaar, Syria program manager at the Observatory of Political and Economic Networks told the AP. “I think it’s now well-established that the cost of doing business through the UN in regime-held Syria is by far the highest compared to aid provided by other organizations in other controlled areas.”
Shaar says that while aid in some cases can only be channeled through UN agencies, donor states ought to divert funding to international NGOs that abide by unilateral sanctions, notably by the US and Britain.
“While the UN says they don’t abide by unilateral sanctions, NGOs are accountable to the countries they’re based in,” Shaar explained.
The AP last week published the results of an investigation showing that the UN World Health Organization’s Syria representative in Damascus mismanaged millions of dollars and plied government officials with gifts, including computers, gold coins and cars.
Report finds sanctioned Syrians benefit from UN contracts
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Report finds sanctioned Syrians benefit from UN contracts
Syria militants, allies shell Aleppo in shock offensive
- The violence has killed 242 people, according to a Syrian war monitor
- The fighters had on Thursday cut the highway linking Aleppo to Syria’s capital Damascus
BEIRUT: Militants and their Turkish-backed allies shelled Syria’s second city Aleppo on Friday, in a major offensive against government troops that has sparked some of the deadliest fighting the country has seen in years.
The violence has killed 242 people, according to a Syrian war monitor, most of them combatants on both sides but also including civilians, including 24 dead, most of them in Russian air strikes.
The offensive began at a sensitive time for Syria and the region, with a fragile ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel taking effect earlier this week in neighboring Lebanon.
Syria’s civil war began when President Bashar Assad’s forces cracked down in 2011 on pro-democracy protests.
Since then, it has killed more than 500,000 people, displaced millions and battered the country’s infrastructure and industry.
Over the years, the conflict has morphed into a complex war drawing in militants and foreign powers, including Assad allies Russia, Iran and Hezbollah.
While the army regained control over most of the territory that it lost earlier in the war, the area where the militants and their allies are based has been subject to a truce since 2020.
This week, militants and factions backed by Turkiye, which neighbors Syria and supported the anti-Assad rebellion, launched a major surprise offensive against government forces.
On Friday, they shelled a university student residence in government-held Aleppo, northern Syria’s main city, according to state media, which reported four civilian deaths in the latest attack.
By Friday, they had wrested more than 50 towns and villages in northern Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the biggest advances that anti-government factions had made in years.
The fighters had on Thursday cut the highway linking Aleppo to Syria’s capital Damascus, according to the Britain-based Observatory.
“The highway has now been put out of service, after it was reopened by regime forces years ago,” said the monitor, which has a network of sources inside Syria.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said “more than 14,000 people — nearly half are children — have been displaced” by the violence.
At a press conference earlier this week, Mohamed Bashir of the militant Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) said: “This operation aims to repel the sources of fire of the criminal enemy from the frontlines.”
HTS, led by Al-Qaeda’s former Syria branch, controls swathes of the northwest Idlib region as well as small parts of neighboring Aleppo, Hama and Latakia provinces.
The Idlib region is subject to a ceasefire, repeatedly violated but which had largely been holding, brokered by Turkiye and Russia after a Syrian government offensive in March 2020.
An AFP correspondent based in rebel-held areas said there were intense exchanges of fire in an area just seven kilometers (four miles) from the city of Aleppo.
HTS has close ties with Turkish-backed factions, and analyst Nick Heras of the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy said the fighters were “trying to preempt the possibility of a Syrian military campaign in the region of Aleppo.”
According to Heras, the Syrian government and its key backer Russia had been preparing for such a campaign.
Russia intervened in Syria’s civil war in 2015, turning the momentum of the conflict in favor of the president, whose forces at the time had lost control of most of country.
Turkiye, Heras said, may be “sending a message to both Damascus and Moscow to back down from their military efforts in northwest Syria.”
Other interests are also at stake.
As well as Russia, Assad has been propped up by Iran and allied militant groups, including Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah.
Anti-government forces are, according to Heras, “in a better position to take and seize villages than Russian-backed Syrian government forces, while the Iranians are focused on Lebanon.”
A general in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards was killed in Syria on Thursday during the fighting, an Iranian news agency reported.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said the deadly offensive was “part of a plan by the diabolical regime (Israel) and the US” and called for “firm and coordinated action to prevent the spread of terrorism in the region.”
During its war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, Israel intensified its strikes on Iran-backed groups in Syria including Hezbollah.
Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Observatory, said Assad’s forces “were totally unprepared” for the attack.
“It is strange to see regime forces being dealt such big blows despite Russian air cover and early signs that HTS was going to launch this operation,” Abdel Rahman said.
“Were they depending on Hezbollah, which is now busy in Lebanon?”
Israeli military says Lebanese prohibited from moving south to several villages
- Israel opened fire on Thursday toward what it called ‘suspects’ with vehicles arriving at several areas in the southern zone
DUBAI: Lebanese residents are prohibited from moving south to a line of villages and their surroundings until further notice, Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee said on X on Friday.
Israel said it opened fire on Thursday toward what it called “suspects” with vehicles arriving at several areas in the southern zone, saying it was a breach of the truce with Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah, which came into effect on Wednesday.
Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah in turn accused Israel of violating the deal.
“The Israeli enemy is attacking those returning to the border villages,” Fadlallah told reporters, adding “there are violations today by Israel, even in this form.”
The Israeli military also said on Thursday the air force struck a facility used by Hezbollah to store mid-range rockets in southern Lebanon, the first such attack since the ceasefire took effect on Wednesday morning.
In his recent post, Adraee called on Lebanese residents to not return to more than 60 southern villages, saying anyone who moves south of the specified line “puts themselves in danger.”
The Lebanese army earlier accused Israel of violating the ceasefire several times on Wednesday and Thursday.
The exchange of accusations highlighted the fragility of the ceasefire, which was brokered by the United States and France to end the conflict, fought in parallel with the Gaza war. The truce lasts for 60 days in the hope of reaching a permanent cessation of hostilities.
Iraq tries to stem influx of illegal foreign workers from Pakistan, other nations
- The Iraqi labor ministry says the influx is mainly from Pakistan, Syria and Bangladesh, also citing 40,000 registered immigrant workers
- Authorities are trying to regulate the number of foreign workers as Iraq seeks to diversify from the currently dominant hydrocarbons sector
KARBALA: Rami, a Syrian worker in Iraq, spends his 16-hour shifts at a restaurant fearing arrest as authorities crack down on undocumented migrants in the country better known for its own exodus.
He is one of hundreds of thousands of foreigners working without permits in Iraq, which after emerging from decades of conflict has become an unexpected destination for many seeking opportunities.
“I’ve been able to avoid the security forces and checkpoints,” said the 27-year-old, who has lived in Iraq for seven years and asked that AFP use a pseudonym to protect his identity.
Between 10 in the morning and 2:00 am the next day, he toils at a shawarma shop in the holy city of Karbala, where millions of Shiite pilgrims congregate every year.
“My greatest fear is to be expelled back to Syria where I’d have to do military service,” he said.
The labor ministry says the influx is mainly from Syria, Pakistan and Bangladesh, also citing 40,000 registered immigrant workers.
Now the authorities are trying to regulate the number of foreign workers, as the country seeks to diversify from the currently dominant hydrocarbons sector.
Many like Rami work in the service industry in Iraq.
One Baghdad restaurant owner admitted to AFP that he has to play cat and mouse with the authorities during inspections, asking some employees to make themselves scarce.
Not all those who work for him are registered, he said, because of the costly fees involved.
Some of the undocumented workers in Iraq first came as pilgrims. In July, Labour Minister Ahmed Assadi said his services were investigating information that “50,000 Pakistani visitors” stayed on “to work illegally.”
Despite threats of expulsion because of the scale of issue, the authorities at the end of November launched a scheme for “Syrian, Bangladeshi and Pakistani workers” to regularise their employment by applying online before December 25.
The ministry says it will take legal action against anyone who brings in or employs undocumented foreign workers.
Rami has decided to play safe, even though “I really want” to acquire legal employment status.
“But I’m afraid,” he said. “I’m waiting to see what my friends do, and then I’ll do the same.”
Current Iraqi law caps the number of foreign workers a company can employ at 50 percent, but the authorities now want to lower this to 30 percent.
“Today we allow in only qualified workers for jobs requiring skills” that are not currently available, labor ministry spokesman Nijm Al-Aqabi told AFP.
It’s a sensitive issue — for the past two decades, even the powerful oil sector has been dominated by a foreign workforce. But now the authorities are seeking to favor Iraqis.
“There are large companies contracted to the government” which have been asked to limit “foreign worker numbers to 30 percent,” said Aqabi.
“This is in the interests of the domestic labor market,” he said, as 1.6 million Iraqis are unemployed.
He recognized that each household has the right to employ a foreign domestic worker, claiming this was work Iraqis did not want to do.
One agency launched in 2021 that brings in domestic workers from Niger, Ghana and Ethiopia confirms the high demand.
“Before we used to bring in 40 women, but now it’s around 100” a year, said an employee at the agency, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity.
It was a trend picked up from rich countries in the Gulf, the employee said.
“The situation in Iraq is getting better, and with salaries now higher, Iraqi home owners are looking for comfort.”
A domestic worker earns about $230 a month, but the authorities have quintupled the registration fee, with a work permit now costing more than $800.
In the summer, Human Rights Watch denounced what it called a campaign of arbitrary arrests and expulsions targeting Syrians, even those with the necessary paperwork.
HRW said that both homes and work places had been targeted by raids.
Ahmed — another pseudonym — is a 31-year-old Syrian who has been undocumented in Iraq for the past year and a half.
He began as a cook in Baghdad and later moved to Karbala.
“Life is hard here — we don’t have any rights,” he told AFP. “We come in illegally, and the security forces are after us.”
His wife did not accompany him. She stayed in Syria.
“I’d go back if I could,” said Ahmed. “But life there is very difficult. There’s no work.”
Gaza journalists win video award for ‘powerful’ war coverage
- Belal Alsabbagh and Youssef assouna were presented the “News” award for their work on the devastating conflict set off by last year’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel
- The prize has been awarded since 1995 in memory of video journalist Rory Peck, who was killed in Moscow in 1993, to highlight the work of freelance video journalists
LONDON: Gaza video correspondents Belal Alsabbagh and Youssef Hassouna on Thursday won a Rory Peck award for their “powerful” coverage of the brutal war in the Palestinian territory for Agence France-Presse.
The prize has been awarded since 1995 in memory of video journalist Rory Peck, who was killed in Moscow in 1993, to highlight the work of freelance video journalists.
Alsabbagh, 33, and Hassouna, 47, were presented the “News” award for their work on the devastating conflict set off by last year’s October 7 attack on Israel.
“Belal and Youssef’s work is remarkable for its range of emotions, we understood the dreadful scale of destruction in their drone shots and in the relentless attack,” the jury said in a tribute.
“This is visual reporting of the highest order. It’s not just a checklist of breaking news events, but powerful storytelling with empathy, courage and talent,” it added.
Among the heart-wrenching images entered in the contest were sequences of a man desperately searching for a relative in the debris after a strike, a woman howling in grief over a body in a hospital and Gaza residents queuing for food.
Alsabbagh, who left Gaza in April with his wife and daughter, was in London for the ceremony. In September, he was also awarded a prestigious Bayeux-Calvados prize for war correspondents.
“Despite my overflowing joy tonight, I have a heavy heart because members of my family and friends are still in Gaza, facing hunger, fear and still facing bombs,” said Alsabbagh, who has worked for AFP since 2017.
Hassouna, who has contributed to AFP since 2014 and is still in Gaza, has had to move home 10 times since the start of the war.
He has been one of the key independent video journalists working for AFP during the conflict.
“Everybody at AFP is tremendously proud of Belal and the work of his colleagues in Gaza. This award is a deserved recompense for his excellent journalism under seemingly impossible conditions,” said AFP global news director Phil Chetwynd.
“This prize rewards the courage of Belal and Youssef whose images for AFP showed television stations around the world the reality of the conflict in Gaza and the consequences for its civilian population,” said Guillaume Meyer, deputy news director for video and audio.
“I am very happy that their commitment and the quality of their work in incredibly difficult conditions has been recognized,” Meyer added.
“The Rory Peck award gives a precious support to freelance journalists without whom we could not work in numerous countries,” he said.
This is the sixth time since 2014 that an AFP correspondent has won a Rory Peck prize.
Among this year’s three finalists was Luckenson Jean, a freelancer for AFP covering the crisis in Haiti, where armed gangs have run amok.
44,330 Gazans killed in more than 13 months of war
- Medics said Israeli military strikes killed at least 17 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Thursday
GAZA CITY: The Health Ministry in Gaza said on Thursday that at least 44,330 people have been killed in more than 13 months of war between Israel and Palestinian militants.
The toll includes 48 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry, which said 104,933 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Medics said Israeli military strikes killed at least 17 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Thursday as forces stepped up bombardments on central areas and pushed tanks deeper in the north and south of the enclave.
Six people were killed in two separate airstrikes on a house and near the hospital of Kamal Adwan in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip, while four others were killed when an Israeli strike hit a motorcycle in Khan Younis in the south.
In Nuseirat, one of the Gaza Strip’s eight historic refugee camps, Israeli planes carried out several airstrikes, destroying a multi-floor building and hitting roads outside mosques.
At least seven people were killed in some of those strikes, health officials said.
Medics said at least two people, a woman and a child, were killed in tank shelling that hit western areas of Nuseirat, while an air strike killed five others in a house nearby. In Rafah, near the border with Egypt, tanks pushed deeper into the northern-west area of the city, residents said.
Months of attempts to negotiate a ceasefire have yielded scant progress, and negotiations are now on hold.
