23 June 2023 – Families of the dead and missing are trapped in limbo as their attempts to find out what happened to their loved ones and efforts to ensure justice, truth and reparation are being impeded in an apparent cover up by Spanish and Moroccan authorities, said Amnesty International on the eve of the first anniversary of the deadly events that took place on the border of Spain’s Melilla enclave.
At least 37 people died after around 2,000 Sub-Saharan African migrants and refugees attempted to cross from Morocco to Spain on 24 June 2022. At least 76 are still missing.
Authorities in Spain and Morocco have so far failed to conduct an effective independent investigation, leaving scores of grieving families in anguish.
MADRID, Jun 22 2023 (IPS)* – The abuse of human rights has sharply increased with the steady rise of the right and far-right parties in the wealthy industrialised countries, whose extremist ideology is now spreading faster than ever in Europe.
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Santiago Abascal, leader of Spain’s far-right Vox party. The party could soon be in government, after the 23 July 2023 general elections. Credit: Shutterstock
Indeed, most of the European Union 27 member countries are now either formally ruled by or strongly influenced and supported by extremists and populist parties, which publicly negate basic human rights, while masking their policies of suppressing public services like health, education, pensions, and protection of workers.
Geneva/Berlin/Cairo(IOM)* – Nearly 3,800 people died on migration routes within and from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region last year (January-December 2022), the highest number since 2017 when 4,255 deaths were recorded according to newly released data from the International Organization for Migration’s (IOM) Missing Migrants Project (MMP).The 3,789 deaths recorded in 2022 was 11 per cent higher than the previous year.
IOM’s Missing Migrants Project documented 441 migrant deaths in the Central Mediterranean in the first quarter of 2023. Photo: IOM 2022…
The MENA region accounted for more than half of the total 6,877 deaths recorded worldwide by the MMP, according to the new report.
On North African land routes, particularly during the perilous Sahara Desert crossing, 203 deaths were recorded, while an additional 825 deaths occurred on Middle Eastern land routes.
MADRID, Jun 19 2023 (IPS)* – Make no mistake: European States are complicit in the death of thousands and thousands of human beings on their shores, land borders and at home. The massive drowning of hundreds of migrants close to Greece shores on 14 June is just a new chapter in Europe’s long series of continued violations of all international human rights laws.
These human tragedies are playing out at Europe’s land and sea borders on a daily basis. The first quarter of this year marked the deadliest in the central Mediterranean in six years, say humanitarian organisations in a joint statement. Credit: UN News Centre
(UN News)* — Nearly three million children, the highest number on record, need humanitarian support in Haiti, where they face staggering levels of violence that have exacerbated hunger and malnutrition in a country already mired in poverty and a resurgence of deadly cholera.
“Being a child in Haiti today is harsher and more dangerous than it ever has been in living memory. The threats and hardships children face are simply unimaginable. They desperately need protection and support,” said UNICEF Haiti Representative Bruno Maes.
(UN News)* — Countries must phase out coal and other fossil fuels to avert climate “catastrophe”, UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned on Thursday [] in New York. “We are hurtling towards disaster, eyes wide open”, he said. “It’s time to wake up and step up.”
Mr. Guterres was speaking to journalists at UN Headquarters following a meeting with civil society climate leaders from across the world.
‘Catastrophe’ looms
He said limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius is still possible but will require a 45 per cent reduction in carbon emissions by 2030.
(UN News)* — The UN Secretary-General said on Wednesday [] he was horrified at the news of dozens more deaths in the Mediterranean after an overloaded boat reportedly capsized and sank off the coast of Greece.
Latest news reports said the bodies of at least 79 men, women and children had been recovered, with hundreds more potentially dead or missing. The UN migration agency (IOM) estimated that at least 400 had been on board, adding that 104 survivors had been brought to shore by the middle of the day, local time.
(UN NEWS)* — Bangladesh must “immediately suspend” a pilot repatriation project for Rohingya refugees to return to Myanmar, where they face “serious risks” to their lives and freedom, a UN-appointed independent rights expert said on Thursday [].
Tom Andrews, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, insisted that current conditions there were “anything but conducive” for the return of Rohingya refugees.
Death trap
He stressed that the very generals who had launched “genocidal” attacks against the Rohingya, causing hundreds of thousands to flee the country, were now in power and “attacking civilian populations while denying the Rohingya citizenship and other basic rights”.
MADRID, Jun 7 2023 (IPS)* – The good news: oceans cover three-quarters of the Earth’s surface, contain 97% of the world’s water, represent 99% of the living space on the Planet by volume, and are a major source of food and medicine. Much so that they are the main source of protein for more than a billion people around the world.
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Oceans produce at least 50% of the Planet’s oxygen, while absorbing about 30% of carbon dioxide produced by humans, buffering the impacts of global warming. Credit: Claudio Riquelme/IPS
More: Oceans produce at least 50% of the Planet’s oxygen, while absorbing about 30% of carbon dioxide produced by humans, buffering the impacts of global warming.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 