Pakistan opens three new border crossings as expulsion order impacts 1.7 million people

Pakistan on Monday opened three new border crossings to accelerate the repatriation of undocumented Afghan nationals who have been ordered to leave the country or face expulsion, officials said. The new crossings were set up at the Afghan border in southwestern Balochistan province in addition to the main crossing in Chaman district, said Jan Achakzai, information minister for the provincial caretaker government. The main crossing had been overwhelmed with Afghan refugees seeking to return home voluntarily, he said. More than 280,000 Afghan nationals have left Pakistan since the new policy...

Sunak to introduce emergency legislation as Supreme court reject Rwanda Plan

Five judges at the supreme court unanimously upheld an appeal court ruling that found there was a real risk of deported refugees having their claims in the east African country wrongly assessed or being returned to their country of origin to face persecution. In the summary provided by the president of the court, Lord Reed, extensive reference was made to the other legal obligations that would prevent the UK from removing asylum seekers to a third country where there was a real risk that they could be returned to their country of origin without their application being properly addressed. This...

Ex-ICC Chief Prosecutor decries Israel’s blockage of Gaza as genocide

Luis Moreno Ocampo has called Isarel's blockade of Gaza as a "crime against humanity and a genocide. Speaking to BBC Newsday the former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court condemned the attacks by Hamas and Israel's blockade of Gaza. He said, “Hamas’s attack on October 7 is clearly a crime against humanity… Because killings with the intention to strike a group is a genocide, and Hamas’s official intention is to strike Israelis,” he told the BBC's Newsday programme. “It's a war crime, because taking hostages is a war crime,” he added. Mr Moreno-Ocampo also referred to Israel’s...

UN Experts call for the prevention of Genocide in Gaza as hospitals and schools are bombed

A panel of UN experts have called the bombings of schools and hospitals in Gaza as crimes against humanity and highlighted the "risk of genocide against the Palestinian people". The experts raised serious humanitarian and legal concerns over Israel tightening its 16-year siege of the enclave and its population and long-standing occupation, depriving 2.2 million people of essential food, fuel, water, electricity and medicine. An estimated 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza, are in desperate need of prenatal and postnatal care. The number of internally displaced people across the Gaza Strip is...

'Ethnic Cleansing committed in Darfur' - UK Minister for Africa

The escalation in fatalities and severe human rights violations against innocent civilians in Darfur, including refugees and internally displaced people, is worsening six months into the deadly conflict in Sudan. According to UNHCR’s newly released protection brief , nearly 4,000 civilians have been killed and 8,400 injured in Darfur, between 15 April and the end of August, with the majority believed to have been targeted mainly due to their ethnicity, particularly in West Darfur. Tragically, displaced children, including refugees, have been caught in the crossfire, killed or maimed as their...

'Meta should immediately pay reparations to the Rohingya' - Amnesty International

Meta should immediately pay reparations to the Rohingya for the role that Facebook played in the ethnic cleansing of the persecuted minority group, Amnesty International said today, on the sixth anniversary of the Myanmar military’s brutal operation during which they raped Rohingya women and girls, burned down entire villages, and killed thousands. “Six years have gone by since Meta contributed to the terrible atrocities perpetrated against the Rohingya people. Yet although this stands out as one of the most egregious examples of a social media company’s involvement in a human rights crisis,...

Australia rejects proposal to recognise Aboriginal people in constitution

Australians have rejected a proposal to recognise Aboriginal people in the country’s constitution and establish a body to advise parliament on Indigenous issues. Saturday’s voice to parliament referendum failed, with the defeat clear shortly after polls closed. To succeed, the yes campaign – advocating for the voice – needed to secure a double majority, meaning it needed both a majority of the national vote, as well as majorities in four of Australia’s six states. The defeat will be seen by Indigenous advocates as a blow to what has been a hard fought struggle to progress reconciliation and...

International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia releases final report

The International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia (ICHREE) released its final report today detailing human rights violations committed during the two-year war in Tigray, Amhara, Afar and ongoing conflict in the Oromia region before its mandate was terminated. The draft motion to extend the ICHREE was not renewed and passed its deadline on October 4th, despite repeated appeals from leading human rights organisations worldwide calling for its extension. In the weeks prior to this deadline, members of the Commission sounded alarms over the high risk of continued atrocities absent...

Myanmar Junta accused of bombing Kachin state refugee camp

Dozens of people have been killed by an artillery strike on a refugee camp in the Kachin state. 30 people, including women and children, were killed in Myanmar in an artillery strike on a camp for displaced people in Kachin State near the border with China The attack took place at Mung Lai Hkyet IDP camp, a few kilometres from a military base run by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), the military wing of the KIO and one of many groups fighting against Myanmar’s military junta , which seized power in 2021. Col. Naw Bu, a spokesperson for the KIA, told The Associated Press that 29 people,...

Israel uses white phosphorous in Gaza and Lebanon as Palestinian death toll rises above 1500

Israel's use of white phosphorous "violates international humanitarian law", Human Rights Watch reports following attacks on Gaza and Lebanon. Israel’s use of white phosphorus in military operations in Gaza and Lebanon puts civilians at risk of serious and long-term injuries, Human Rights Watch said today in releasing a question and answer document on white phosphorus. Human Rights Watch verified videos taken in Lebanon and Gaza on October 10 and 11, 2023, respectively, showing multiple airbursts of artillery-fired white phosphorus over the Gaza City port and two rural locations along the...

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