SINGAPORE: Pope Francis made a plea for migrant workers to be paid fairly on Thursday, as he visited the affluent city-state of Singapore on the last stop of his marathon Asia-Pacific tour.
The 87-year-old pope said “special attention” should be paid to “protecting the dignity of migrant workers,” in an address to local political leaders and dignitaries.
“These workers contribute a great deal to society and should be guaranteed a fair wage,” he said.
There are an estimated 170 million migrant workers around the world — about five percent of the global workforce — according to the International Labour Organization.
Most live in the Americas, Europe and Central Asia.
But cheap labor has been instrumental in the rapid growth of gleaming metropolises such as Dubai, Doha and Singapore.
About 300,000 low-wage migrant workers are estimated to work in Singapore.
Advocates say they lack adequate protection against exploitation and sometimes endure poor living conditions, charges the government denies.
The issue shot to the fore during the Covid-19 pandemic, when tens of thousands of migrant workers were forcibly locked down in dormitories.
Many migrants in Singapore come from South Asia and from the Philippines, which has a large and notably devout Catholic majority.
“I’m so happy that the pope has chosen to speak on this topic,” a 34-year-old Filipino domestic helper told AFP, asking not to be named because she did not have permission from her employer.
“Even if they don’t raise my salary, I’m still happy to know that the pope himself is fighting and praying for us” she said.
The woman said she earned $460 a month, in a nation where the median gross income is $3,985, according to Ministry for Manpower statistics for 2023.
Another South Indian worker welcomed the pope’s comments, but said he was happy after five years in the city state.
“Yes, the work is very hard and a higher salary would be better but I’m happy.”
The pope did not refer to workers in Singapore explicitly. But his comments are likely to cause unease inside a government which is fiercely protective of its image.
Still, the Argentine pontiff was otherwise glowing about his hosts, praising the “entrepreneurial spirit” and dynamism that built a “mass of ultra-modern skyscrapers that seem to rise from the sea.”
“Singapore is a mosaic of ethnicities, cultures and religions living together in harmony,” he said, painting the population of almost six million as a shining light for the world.
“I encourage you to continue to work in favor of the unity and fraternity of humanity and the common good of all peoples and all nations,” he said.
About 30 percent of Singaporeans are Buddhist, 20 percent have no religion and the rest are a mix of Catholic, Protestant, Taoist and Hindu.
Singapore is the last stop on the pope’s 12-day, four-nation Asia-Pacific trip aimed at boosting the Catholic Church’s standing in the world’s most populous region.
Francis has defied doubts about his health during a journey that has taken him from a Jakarta grand mosque to a remote jungle of Papua New Guinea.
Despite recently undergoing hernia surgery and dealing with a string of respiratory issues, he has carried out dozens of public engagements, energized congregations and repeatedly sat for hours in the brutal tropical heat.
In East Timor, he held a mass for 600,000 faithful — almost half the nation’s population.
Although the crowds were markedly smaller in Singapore, groups of enthusiasts still lined the main roads trying to get a glimpse of the head of the Catholic Church.
Security was tight, with roads closed and police manning a string of roadblocks.
Welinda Elorde, a 56-year-old cancer survivor traveled from the Philippines for the occasion.
“I think I’m going to cry when I see him. I can feel the emotions now,” she said.
“I’m hoping for complete healing.”
Pope Francis says migrant workers need ‘a fair wage’
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Pope Francis says migrant workers need ‘a fair wage’
- There are an estimated 170 million migrant workers around the world – about five percent of the global workforce
- Cheap labor has been instrumental in the rapid growth of gleaming metropolises such as Dubai, Doha and Singapore
Russia detains suspect in general’s killing: investigators
MOSCOW: Russia has detained a suspect in the killing of the head of the army’s chemical weapons division, investigators said Wednesday, a day after the general and his aide were killed by a blast in Moscow.
“A national of Uzbekistan, born in 1995, was arrested on suspicion of having committed the attack that cost the life of the commander of Russian radiological, chemical and biological defense forces, Igor Kirillov, and his assistant, Ilya Polikarpov,” the Investigative Committee said in a statement, adding that the suspect said he had been “recruited by Ukrainian special forces.”
Malaysia foreign minister to be fined for smoking at eatery
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s foreign minister will be issued a fine for puffing a cigarette in a non-smoking area, the country’s health minister said Wednesday.
Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad earlier this week reposted a photo of Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan smoking at a street-side eatery in the Malaysian state of Negeri Sembilan.
Smoking in all eateries and restaurants was declared illegal in Malaysia in 2019 and further strict measures were introduced in October this year.
“The Foreign Minister’s office has been informed of this matter,” Dzulkefly said on social media platform X on Wednesday, adding that the foreign minister himself wanted to be issued a fine for the offense.
Under Malaysian law, people caught smoking in prohibited areas can face a fine of up to 5,000 ringgit ($1,120).
Mohamad apologized on Wednesday and said he had received a violation notice from health authorities but that the fine amount was not yet determined.
“If it has become a concern and an issue among the public, I would like to sincerely tender my apology,” he was quoted as saying in The Star newspaper.
“I will pay the fine, and I hope it will not be too high.”
The photo of Mohamad smoking at the eatery had sparked outrage online this week.
“Whether you’re a minister... or a VVIP, wrong is still wrong. No one is above the law,” said one X user.
Another said: “Lawmakers and (law) enforcement authorities who break laws should be punished more severely than the public.”
Filipino on Indonesia death row arrives home to ‘new life’
MANILA: A Filipino who spent nearly 15 years on Indonesia’s death row tearfully reunited with family members Wednesday after arriving in Manila, where she now awaits a hoped-for pardon in a women’s prison.
Mother of two Mary Jane Veloso landed at daybreak, then was immediately transferred to prison following a repatriation deal between the two countries over a decade in the making.
Technically still serving a life sentence, how long she remains behind bars is now in the hands of President Ferdinand Marcos.
The 39-year-old was arrested and sentenced to death in 2010 after the suitcase she was carrying was found to be lined with 2.6 kilograms (5.7 pounds) of heroin, in a case that sparked uproar in the Philippines.
Veloso wept as she hugged one of her sons and her parents Wednesday inside the Correctional Institution for Women in Manila, where she is being detained under the terms of a transfer agreement with Indonesia that removed the possibility of execution.
She flew home without handcuffs alongside Filipino correctional officials on an overnight commercial flight after a Jakarta ceremony marking “the end of a harrowing chapter in Veloso’s life,” the corrections bureau said in a statement.
“I hope our president (Ferdinand Marcos) will give me clemency so I can go back to my family. I had been in jail in Indonesia for 15 years over something I did not commit,” Veloso, her voice breaking, told reporters after undergoing a medical examination at the Manila prison.
“We call on our president to grant Mary Jane clemency soon. We hope he will do this as a Christmas gift to us,” her mother Celia Veloso added.
In a Wednesday statement, Marcos thanked Indonesia for turning over custody, but made no mention of a pardon or clemency.
Under the agreement, Veloso’s life sentence now falls under the Philippines’ purview, “including the authority to grant clemency, remission, amnesty and similar measures.”
“Definitely, that’s on the table,” Justice Undersecretary Raul Vasquez told reporters on Wednesday, adding Veloso’s clemency bid would be “seriously studied.”
She will serve out her life sentence if not pardoned, Vasquez added.
Indonesia’s government has said it will respect any decision made by Manila.
After her scheduled 2015 execution by firing squad was stayed at the last minute, Veloso became a poster child for her country’s 10 million-strong economic diaspora, many of whom take jobs as domestic workers abroad to escape poverty at home.
Marcos said last month that Veloso’s tale resonated in the Philippines as “a mother trapped by the grip of poverty, who made one desperate choice that altered the course of her life.”
The reprieve was granted after a woman suspected of recruiting her was arrested on human trafficking charges and Veloso was named as a prosecution witness.
The Veloso deal includes a “reciprocity” provision. “If Indonesia requests similar assistance in the future, the Philippines shall fulfill such a request,” the agreement states.
There has been intense press speculation that Jakarta would seek custody of Gregor Johann Haas, an Australian detained on drug charges in the Philippines earlier this year.
He is also being sought by Jakarta over drug smuggling, which could land him the death penalty.
Vasquez said Wednesday that Haas’ transfer was “not on the table,” but that were it requested, Indonesia’s decision to transfer Veloso would “be considered with great weight.”
Indonesia has some of the world’s toughest drug laws and has executed foreigners in the past, but new President Prabowo Subianto has agreed to fulfil some requests to hand back prisoners.
Indonesia last week transferred home the five remaining members of Australia’s “Bali Nine,” a group of drug-trafficking convicts, two of whom were executed.
It is also in talks with France over the release of Serge Atlaoui, jailed in the archipelago nation since his 2005 arrest.
Before leaving Jakarta, Veloso sang the Indonesian national anthem and proclaimed her love for the country, though she is now banned from ever returning.
“This is a new life for me, and I will have a new beginning in the Philippines,” a tearful Veloso told reporters.
“I have to go home because I have a family there, I have my children waiting for me,” she said, adding she wanted to spend Christmas with them.
“I am very happy today, but to be honest I am a little sad, because Indonesia has been my second family,” Veloso added.
In her first interview since the repatriation agreement, Veloso told AFP on Friday that her release was a “miracle.”
According to Indonesia’s Ministry of Immigration and Corrections, 96 foreigners were on death row, all on drug charges, as of early November.
NATO takes over coordination of military aid to Kyiv from US, source says
- The headquarters of NATO’s new Ukraine mission, dubbed NATO Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine (NSATU), is located at Clay Barracks, a US base in the German town of Wiesbaden
BERLIN: NATO has taken over coordination of Western military aid to Ukraine from the US as planned, a source said on Tuesday, in a move widely seen as aiming to safeguard the support mechanism against NATO skeptic US President-elect Donald Trump.
The step, coming after a delay of several months, gives NATO a more direct role in the war against Russia’s invasion while stopping well short of committing its own forces.
Diplomats, however, acknowledge that the handover to NATO may have a limited effect given that the US under Trump could still deal a major setback to Ukraine by slashing its support, as it is the alliance’s dominant power and provides the majority of arms to Kyiv.
Trump, who will take office in January, has said he wants to end the war in Ukraine swiftly but not how he aims to do so. He has long criticized the scale of US financial and military aid to Ukraine.
The headquarters of NATO’s new Ukraine mission, dubbed NATO Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine (NSATU), is located at Clay Barracks, a US base in the German town of Wiesbaden.
A person familiar with the matter told Reuters it was now fully operational. No public reason has been given for the delays.
NATO’s military headquarters SHAPE said its Ukraine mission was beginning to assume responsibilities from the US and international organizations.
“The work of NSATU ... is designed to place Ukraine in a position of strength, which puts NATO in a position of strength to keep safe and prosperous its one billion people in both Europe and North America,” said US Army General Christopher G. Cavoli, the Supreme Allied Commander Europe.
“This is a good day for Ukraine and a good day for NATO.”
In the past, the US-led Ramstein group, an ad hoc coalition of some 50 nations named after a US air base in Germany where it first met, has coordinated Western military supplies to Kyiv.
Trump threatened to quit NATO during his first term as president and demanded allies must spend 3 percent of national GDP on their militaries, compared with NATO’s target of 2 percent.
Meanwhile, the outgoing Biden administration in Washington is scrambling to ship as many weapons as possible to Kyiv amid fears that Trump may cut deliveries of military hardware to Ukraine.
NSATU is set to have a total strength of about 700 personnel, including troops stationed at NATO’s military headquarters SHAPE in Belgium and at logistics hubs in Poland and Romania.
Russia has condemned increases in Western military aid to Ukraine as risking a wider war.
Cyclone Chido kills at least 34 people in Mozambique
MAPUTO: Cyclone Chido claimed at least 34 lives after sweeping across Mozambique, the National Institute of Risk and Disaster Management announced Tuesday.
The cyclone first hit the country on Sunday at the Cabo Delgado province, where 28 people were killed, the center said, releasing its latest information as of Monday evening. Three other people died in Nampula province and three in Niassa, further inland, it said.
Another 319 people were reported injured by the cyclone, which brought winds of around 260 kilometers (160 miles) an hour and heavy rainfall of around 250 millimeters (10 inches) in 24 hours, the center said.
Nearly 23,600 homes and 170 fishing boats were destroyed and 175,000 people affected by the storm, it added.
Chido struck a part of northern Mozambique that is regularly battered by cyclones and is already vulnerable because of conflict and underdevelopment.
The cyclone landed in Mozambique after hitting the Indian Ocean island of Mayotte, where it is feared to have killed hundreds of people.
It moved to Malawi on Monday and was expected to dissipate Tuesday near Zimbabwe, which had also been on alert for heavy rains caused by the storm.
