BRUSSELS: The European Union’s administrative watchdog called Wednesday for a change to Europe’s search and rescue rules following an inquiry into last year’s sinking of a rusty fishing boat, the Adriana, carrying hundreds of migrants while traveling from Libya to Italy.
European Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly said current rules prevent the EU’s border and coast guard agency Frontex from fulfilling its obligations to protect the rights of migrants or act independently of national authorities when boats they use are in distress.
Up to 750 people were believed to be crammed aboard the Adriana when it sank off Greece last June. Just 104 people were rescued — mostly migrants from Syria, Pakistan and Egypt — and 82 bodies were found. Human rights groups accused Greek authorities of failing to properly investigate. Italian authorities were also involved in the incident.
“Why did reports of overcrowding, an apparent lack of life vests, children on board and possible fatalities fail to trigger timely rescue efforts that could have saved hundreds of lives?” O’Reilly asked.
Frontex provides surveillance and other support to the 27 national authorities — plus those of some EU partner countries — to help protect their maritime and land borders. In emergencies, it is obliged to follow the orders of those authorities and has no power to coordinate rescue missions.
O’Reilly said documents inspected during her inquiry showed that Frontex made four separate offers to assist Greek authorities with aerial surveillance of the Adriana but received no response. Current rules prevented Frontex from going to the ship without Greek permission.
“We must ask ourselves why a boat so obviously in need of help never received that help despite an EU agency, two member states’ authorities, civil society and private ships knowing of its existence,” O’Reilly said.
Thousands of people die or go missing in the Mediterranean each year in desperate attempts to reach Europe in barely seaworthy boats to escape poverty, war, abuse or discrimination. But the EU and member countries do not have a search and rescue mission actively patrolling.
The Italian authorities set up a search and rescue effort in 2013, but it was abandoned due to accusations that it only inspired more people to come. Italy and others have actively sought to stop charity ships from doing such work, sometimes by impounding their vessels.
“If Frontex has a duty to help save lives at sea, but the tools for it are lacking, then this is clearly a matter for EU legislators,” O’Reilly said. She said cooperation with national coast guards by Frontex when it lacks autonomy “risks making the EU complicit in actions that violate fundamental rights and cost lives.”
Reacting to the ombudsman’s findings, the agency said it “is deeply committed to saving lives and we’re always looking for ways to do our job better, especially when it comes to search and rescue missions.”
Frontex welcomed the ombudsman’s acknowledgement that the agency had followed all laws and procedures when alerting Greek and Italian authorities.
It said an assessment by Frontex’s own fundamental rights officer “confirms our adherence to international laws and the adequacy of our support to national authorities, alongside the proper conduct of search and rescue operations.”
EU member countries and lawmakers are currently negotiating a new overhaul of the bloc’s asylum and migration rules, and are trying to push it through before Europe-wide elections on June 6-9. The reforms do not include any proposals for proactive search and rescue missions.
EU watchdog wants new search and rescue rules after hundreds of migrants drown off Greece
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EU watchdog wants new search and rescue rules after hundreds of migrants drown off Greece
- European Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly said current rules prevent the EU’s border and coast guard agency Frontex from fulfilling its obligations to protect the rights of migrants
- Up to 750 people were believed to be crammed aboard the Adriana when it sank off Greece last June
Armed men in western Niger kill 34 soldiers and wound 14, authorities say
The attack was carred out around 9 a.m. Thursday in Banibangou by attackers using eight vehicles and more than 200 motorbikes, the ministry said in a statement.
The government said its forces killed dozens of attackers it called “terrorists,” adding that search operations by land and air were being conduted to find additional assailants.
Niger, along with its neighbors Burkina Faso and Mali, has for more than a decade battled an insurgency fought by jihadi groups, including some allied with Al-Qaeda and the Daesh group.
Following military coups in the three nations in recent years, the ruling juntas have expelled French forces and turned to Russia’s mercenary units for security assistance. The three countries have vowed to strengthen their cooperation by establishing a new security alliance, the Alliance of Sahel States.
But the security situation in the Sahel, a vast region on the fringes of the Sahara Desert, has significantly worsened since the juntas took power, analysts say, with a record number of attacks and civilians killed by Islamic militants and government forces.
Thai PM meets army commander in attempt to defuse political crisis
- PM Paetongtarn visited troops in northeast Thailand on Friday to patch things up with Lt. Gen. Boonsin Padklang after she was caught disparaging him as an “opponent” during the call with Hun Sen
BANGKOK: Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra held make-up talks on Friday with an army commander she criticized in a leaked phone call as she struggled to defuse a crisis threatening to topple her government.
The daughter of controversial billionaire ex-PM Thaksin Shinawatra and in office for less than a year, Paetongtarn is facing calls to quit or announce an election as anger flares over the call with former Cambodian leader Hun Sen.
Her main coalition partner, the conservative Bhumjaithai party, pulled out on Wednesday, saying she had insulted the country and the army and leaving her government on the point of collapse.
She suffered another blow on Friday as reports emerged that another coalition partner was threatening to quit unless she stepped down as prime minister.
The crisis has sent the Thai stock market plunging to a five-year low and comes as the kingdom struggles to fire up its sluggish economy, with US President Donald Trump’s threatened trade tariffs looming.
Paetongtarn, 38, visited troops in northeast Thailand on Friday to patch things up with Lt. Gen. Boonsin Padklang after she was caught disparaging him as an “opponent” during the call with Hun Sen.
Boonsin commands Thai forces along the border with Cambodia, where a long-running dispute flared into deadly clashes last month, and Paetongtarn’s criticism of him drew accusations of disloyalty from right-wing nationalist critics.
Paetongtarn said after their meeting that the matter was settled.
“It went very well. I’ve spoken to the commander and there’s no longer any issue,” she told reporters.
For his part, Boonsin said “everything is normal.”
The meeting with Boonsin followed a public apology from Paetongtarn — at a news conference flanked by military and police chiefs — on Thursday as pressure on her mounted.
Paetongtarn was criticized as being weak and deferential in the call with Hun Sen, a veteran politician known as a wily operator, but her comments about the army commander were potentially the most damaging to her.
Thailand’s armed forces have long played a powerful role in the kingdom’s politics and politicians are usually careful not to antagonize them.
The apology and apparent reconciliation with the army commander may not be enough to save Paetongtarn’s premiership.
The departure of Bhumjaithai has left the government’s coalition with a razor-thin majority in parliament and losing another partner would likely see it collapse.
There was a glimmer of good news for Paetongtarn on Friday morning as the conservative Democrat Party pledged to stay in the coalition.
However, Public broadcaster ThaiPBS reported that the United Thai Nation (UTN) party, which has 36 seats and is now the biggest party in the coalition after Pheu Thai, is considering quitting.
The broadcaster said UTN was going to issue an ultimatum to Paetongtarn: either she quits as premier or they withdraw, bringing down the government.
There are also suggestions of a split within UTN, but the government’s majority is now so small that it could be fatal even if only half the party’s MPs leave.
Paetongtarn may also be facing the prospect of street protests, as political activists involved in huge demonstrations that helped sink previous leaders linked to her family called for her to go.
The activists have called for a rally in central Bangkok on Saturday and another on June 28, although it remains to be seen whether Paetongtarn will survive that long.
She took office in August last year at the head of an uneasy alliance between Pheu Thai and a group of conservative, pro-military parties whose members have spent much of the past 20 years battling against her father.
Thaksin, twice elected PM, was thrown out in a military coup in 2006 and the bitter tussle between the conservative, royalist establishment and the political movement he founded has dominated Thai politics throughout that time.
Hun Sen, Cambodia’s longtime ruler who stepped down in 2023 and had close ties with Thaksin, said on Friday that the row over the leaked call had “shattered” more than “30 years of heartfelt bonds between our two families.”
Malaysian court drops money laundering charges against jailed former leader Najib Razak
- Najib was previously convicted in a graft case tied to the 1Malaysia Development Berhad state fund
- The scandal upended Najib’s government and he was defeated in the 2018 election
KUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysian court dropped three money laundering charges against jailed former Prime Minister Najib Razak on Friday, in a case linked to the multibillion-dollar looting of a state fund.
Najib was previously convicted in a graft case tied to the 1Malaysia Development Berhad state fund, or 1MBD, and began serving time in 2022, after losing his final appeal. He also faces other graft trials.
The High Court’s decision to drop the charges alleging Najib received 27 million ringgit ($6.3 million) in illegal proceeds to his bank accounts came after procedural delays by the prosecution, which saw the case dragging on for six years, Najib’s lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah said. Prosecutors could not give the court a timeline for when they will be ready for the trial, he added.
Prosecutors reserve the right to revive charges against Najib and a discharge does not mean an acquittal, Shafee said. But Najib was happy and can now focus on the main 1MDB trial, he added.
Najib set up 1MDB shortly after taking power in 2009. Investigators allege that more than $4.5 billion was stolen from the fund and laundered by his associates to finance Hollywood films and extravagant purchases. The scandal upended Najib’s government and he was defeated in the 2018 election.
Last November, the High Court also discharged Najib and the former treasury chief in another 1MDB-linked corruption case after repeated delays by the prosecution. The pair can still be charged for the same offense in the future. In 2023, Najib was acquitted on separate charges of tampering with a government audit into 1MDB.
Najib was sentenced to 12 years in jail in his first graft trial but the sentence was halved by the Pardon Boards in 2024. Najib alleged the board had issued a home arrest order for him to complete his sentence at home, but the case is still being heard in court.
Najib awaits his verdict in another key case that ties him directly to the 1MDB scandal, which has prompted investigations in the US and several other countries.
The defense in May closed their case on four charges of abuse of power to obtain over $700 million from 1MDB that went into Najib’s bank accounts, and 21 counts of money laundering involving the same amount. Closing arguments are scheduled in October, after which the court will set a date for verdict.
Food rations are halved in one of Africa’s largest refugee camps after US aid cuts
- Funding for the UN World Food Program has dropped after the Trump administration paused support in March
- Monthly cash transfers that refugees used to buy proteins and vegetables to supplement the rice, lentils and cooking oil distributed by WFP have ended this month
KAKUMA: Martin Komol sighs as he inspects his cracked, mud-walled house that is one rain away from fully collapsing. Nothing seems to last for him and 300,000 other refugees in this remote Kakuma camp in Kenya — now, not even food rations.
Funding for the UN World Food Program has dropped after the Trump administration paused support in March, part of the widespread dismantling of foreign aid by the United States, once the world’s biggest donor.
That means Komol, a widowed father of five from Uganda, has been living on handouts from neighbors since his latest monthly ration ran out two weeks ago. He said he survives on one meal a day, sometimes a meal every two days.
“When we can’t find anyone to help us, we become sick, but when we go to the hospital, they say it’s just hunger and tell us to go back home,” the 59-year-old said. His wife is buried here. He is reluctant to return to Uganda, one of the more than 20 home countries of Kakuma’s refugees.
Food rations have been halved. Previous ration cuts led to protests in March. Monthly cash transfers that refugees used to buy proteins and vegetables to supplement the rice, lentils and cooking oil distributed by WFP have ended this month.
Each refugee now receives 3 kilograms (6 pounds) of rice per month, far below the 9 kilograms recommended by the UN for optimal nutrition. WFP hopes to receive the next donation of rice by August. That’s along with 1 kilogram of lentils and 500 milliliters of cooking oil per person.
“Come August, we are likely to see a more difficult scenario. If WFP doesn’t receive any funding between now and then, it means only a fraction of the refugees will be able to get assistance. It means only the most extremely vulnerable will be targeted,” said Colin Buleti, WFP’s head in Kakuma. WFP is seeking help from other donors.
As dust swirls along paths between the camp’s makeshift houses, the youngest children run and play, largely unaware of their parents’ fears.
But they can’t escape hunger. Komol’s 10-year-old daughter immerses herself in schoolbooks when there’s nothing to eat.
“When she was younger she used to cry, but now she tries to ask for food from the neighbors, and when she can’t get any she just sleeps hungry,” Komol said. In recent weeks, they have drunk water to try to feel full.
The shrinking rations have led to rising cases of malnutrition among children under 5 and pregnant and breastfeeding mothers.
At Kakuma’s largest hospital, run by the International Rescue Committee, children with malnutrition are given fortified formula milk.
Nutrition officer Sammy Nyang’a said some children are brought in too late and die within the first few hours of admission. The 30-bed stabilization ward admitted 58 children in March, 146 in April and 106 in May. Fifteen children died in April, up from the monthly average of five. He worries they will see more this month.
“Now with the cash transfers gone, we expect more women and children to be unable to afford a balanced diet,” Nyang’a said.
The hospital had been providing nutrient-dense porridge for children and mothers, but the flour has run out after stocks, mostly from the US, were depleted in March. A fortified peanut paste given to children who have been discharged is also running out, with current supplies available until August.
In the ward of whimpering children, Susan Martine from South Sudan cares for her 2-year-old daughter, who has sores after swelling caused by severe malnutrition.
The mother of three said her family often sleeps hungry, but her older children still receive hot lunches from a WFP school feeding program. For some children in the camp, it’s their only meal. The program also faces pressure from the aid cuts.
“I don’t know how we will survive with the little food we have received this month,” Martine said.
The funding cuts are felt beyond Kakuma’s refugee community. Businessman Chol Jook recorded monthly sales of 700,000 Kenyan shillings ($5,400) from the WFP cash transfer program and now faces losses.
Those who are hungry could slip into debt as they buy on credit, he said.
Russia sentences activist who helped Ukrainians flee war to 22 years in prison
- Nadezhda Rossinskaya was arrested in 2024 on charges of treason and aiding terrorist activities
LONDON: Russian activist who helped collect humanitarian aid for Ukraine and evacuate Ukrainians from the war zone was sentenced on Friday to 22 years in prison by a Moscow military court, the RIA state news agency reported.
Nadezhda Rossinskaya, also known as Nadin Geisler, ran a group called “Army of Beauties,” which said it had assisted some 25,000 people in Russian-controlled parts of Ukraine in 2022-23, according to a report last year in The Moscow Times.
Authorities arrested Geisler in February 2024 and later charged her with treason and aiding terrorist activities over a post they said she made on Instagram calling for donations to Ukraine’s Azov Battalion.
Geisler denied any wrongdoing, and her lawyer said she was not the author of the post, according to a trial transcript compiled by Mediazona, an independent Russian outlet.
Prosecutors had requested 27 years for Geisler, who is in her late 20s. Mediazona reported that she had asked the court to imprison her for 27 years and one day, so that her prison term could surpass that of Darya Trepova, a Russian woman jailed for delivering a bomb that killed a pro-war blogger in 2023.
Trepova’s sentence, handed down last year, was the longest given to any woman in modern Russian history.
Prosecutions for terrorism, espionage and cooperation with a foreign state have risen sharply in Russia since the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine over three years ago. Pervy Otdel, a Russian lawyers’ association, says 359 people were convicted of such crimes in 2024.
